Attaching a behavior

Attaching a behavior

You can attach behaviors to the entire document, or to links, images, form elements, layers, or almost any HTML element.

You can specify more than one event to trigger a behavior, and more than one action for each event. Actions occur in the order listed in the Action pane of the Behavior inspector. See Changing a behavior for information on changing the order of actions.

Note: Many useful events such as onMouseDown, onMouseOver, and onMouseOut are only available for links (items with an <A> tag). Dreamweaver can automatically add the <A> tag when you choose one of these events for an image. For example, if you selected an image and attach a behavior triggered by onMouseOver, the resulting code would look something like this:

<a href="#" onmouseover="MM_playSound('MM_playSound1')"><img src="/Picture.gif"></a>.

To attach a behavior:

1 Select an object. To attach a behavior to the entire page, click the <BODY> tag in the tag selector at the bottom left of the Document window.

2 Choose Window > Behaviors to open the Behavior inspector, or click the Behavior button on the Launcher.

The tag of the selected object appears in the status bar at the top of the inspector.

3 Choose the browsers in which you want the behavior to work from the pop-up menu to the right of Events.

Different browsers recognize different events. Dreamweaver eliminates events that aren't recognized by the browsers you choose from this menu.

4 Click the Events pop-up menu and choose an event to trigger the Behavior.

Different events appear depending on the selected object. If the expected events don't appear, make sure that the correct object is selected.

If you're attaching a behavior to an image, several events such as onMouseOver and onMouseDown appear in parentheses. These events are only available for links. When you choose one of them, Dreamweaver adds an <A> tag to the image to define a link. Do not delete the pound sign (#) that subsequently appears in the Link box in the Property inspector, or you will remove the behavior. You can replace the pound sign with a new link value.

5 Choose an action from the Actions pop-up menu.

Actions that don't work in the current document are not available on the menu. For example, the Play Timeline action is not available if the document has no timeline.

Depending on the chosen action, a dialog box appears to display parameters and instructions for the action.

6 Enter parameters for the action and click OK.

All included actions work in 4.0 or later browsers. Some actions do not work on older browsers. See Browser compatibility for actions.

1	Select an object. To attach a behavior to the entire page, click the `<BODY>` tag in the tag selector at the bottom left of the Document window.
2	Choose Window > Behaviors to open the Behavior inspector, or click the Behavior button on the Launcher.
	The tag of the selected object appears in the status bar at the top of the inspector.
3	Choose the browsers in which you want the behavior to work from the pop-up menu to the right of Events.
	Different browsers recognize different events. Dreamweaver eliminates events that aren't recognized by the browsers you choose from this menu.
4	Click the Events pop-up menu and choose an event to trigger the Behavior.
	Different events appear depending on the selected object. If the expected events don't appear, make sure that the correct object is selected.
	If you're attaching a behavior to an image, several events such as `onMouseOver` and `onMouseDown` appear in parentheses. These events are only available for links. When you choose one of them, Dreamweaver adds an `<A>` tag to the image to define a link. Do not delete the pound sign (#) that subsequently appears in the Link box in the Property inspector, or you will remove the behavior. You can replace the pound sign with a new link value.
5	Choose an action from the Actions pop-up menu.
	Actions that don't work in the current document are not available on the menu. For example, the Play Timeline action is not available if the document has no timeline.
	Depending on the chosen action, a dialog box appears to display parameters and instructions for the action.
6	Enter parameters for the action and click OK.
	All included actions work in 4.0 or later browsers. Some actions do not work on older browsers. See Browser compatibility for actions.