The new features in Dreamweaver 3 enhance HTML editing; improve site management; let you add elements such as special characters, navigation bars, and image maps; streamline your workflow; and allow you to customize and extend Dreamweaver.
The Quick Tag Editor Lets you quickly modify, add, or remove an HTML tag without leaving the Document window. See Editing an HTML tag in the Document window.
HTML styles Allow you to define styles using cross-browser standard HTML character markup (such as the B and FONT tags) rather than Cascading Style Sheets. (The Dreamweaver 2.0 Styles palette is now called the CSS Styles palette.) See Formatting text using HTML styles.
The improved HTML Source inspector Lets you display line numbers, select entire lines of code from the margin, and drag and drop HTML selections. You can also dock the HTML Source inspector with other floating palettes. See HTML Source inspector.
Enhanced third-party tag model Lets you specify that Dreamweaver should ignore the contents of certain types of third-party tags, such as Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) and ColdFusion tags. You can easily add support for other third-party tags. Also, new HTML rewriting options let you control whether Dreamweaver encodes certain characters in certain contexts. See HTML Rewriting preferences and Avoiding rewriting third-party tags.
Add/Remove Netscape Resize Fix Allows you to automatically add JavaScript to fix problems with CSS layers when resizing a browser window. See Layer preferences.
Synchronize Files Allows you to quickly synchronize your local copy of a site with the version on the server, ensuring that the latest version of each file is in both the local and remote sites. You can also set this feature to delete extraneous files. See Synchronizing the files on your local and remote sites.
Easy access to the check in/check out system Allows you to get, put, check in, and check out files directly from the Document window. See Using the check in/check out system.
Save Files Before Putting Prompts you to save an unsaved file before transferring it to your remote server. See Site FTP preferences.
URLs in Flash movie files Are now editable in Dreamweaver; the site map displays all the links in Flash files, and the link checker can check those links.
Creating and editing objects and page elements
Character objects Provide a collection of commonly used special characters and symbols (such as ©, ®, and ) that are easily accessible from the Object palette. See Object palette.
Frame objects Let you create predefined framesets quickly and easily. See Inserting a predefined frameset.
Other objects Allow you to easily add navigation bars, jump menus, e-mail links, dates, and new media objects (such as Flash 4 movies, and Shockwave 7 movies, and Generator objects) to your documents. See Object palette.
Inline image maps Allow you to add and resize hotspots, change links and targets, and apply behaviors, all without leaving the Document window. See Creating image maps.
Streamlining your workflow: Integration and communication
Design Notes Allow you to attach notes to a file so you can track file changes and communicate about development issues with other team members. You can even add Design Notes to images in Fireworks and then read and edit those notes in Dreamweaver. See About Design Notes.
Import and Clean Up Word HTML Allow you to import HTML files generated by Microsoft Word; the Clean Up feature strips out irrelevant XML code and styles, removes proprietary tags, fixes invalid HTML, and formats the code according to your preferences. See Cleaning up Microsoft Word HTML.
The History palette Keeps track of every action you perform. It lets you undo steps, repeat steps, and copy steps to the Clipboard and paste them to repeat actions in other documents. You can even save steps as a command that automatically appears in the Commands menu. See About the History palette.
Repeat Provides a quick way to do simple repetitive tasks. See Repeating steps.
Import Table Data Allows you to automatically create tables out of data that you've exported into delimited files from applications like Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access. See Importing table data.
Insert Fireworks HTML Imports the HTML source code and images that result from slicing an image using Fireworks. You can launch Macromedia Fireworks from within Dreamweaver and edit a source PNG image. See Working with Fireworks HTML files.
Launch and edit media By double-clicking any image or media file in the Site window; each file type is opened in an appropriate external editor. See Using an external image editor.
Enhanced Macintosh compatibility Provides a better user experience on the Macintosh. Dreamweaver now supports Navigation Services, renders images using QuickTime, and offers a host of other enhancements.
Customizing and extending Dreamweaver
Customizable menus and shortcuts Enable you to edit, customize, and expand Dreamweaver menus and keyboard shortcuts. See Customizing Dreamweaver menus.
Dreamweaver extensibility Provides 300 new API functions to allow you to create your own JavaScript extensions to Dreamweaver, including custom floating palettes and attribute translators. See the Extending Dreamweaver manual.