Preview your page in a browser

The Design view gives you a rough idea of what your page will look like on the web, but you must preview the page in a browser to see the definitive end result. Though browsers in general produce the same results, each browser version can display HTML pages somewhat differently. Dreamweaver attempts to produce HTML that will look as similar as possible from one browser to another; but sometimes differences can't be avoided. Thus, previewing your work in a browser is the only way for you to see what your site visitors will see after you publish your pages.

You now have a web page full of content. The next step is to format some of the content to make it more appealing. In the next tutorial, you'll learn how to use CSS to format the text that you added.

Comments

1Charles said on Sep 26, 2005 at 5:45 PM :

On the final page the banner does not appear and the links on the left side appear centered rather than on top.

jonmichael said on Sep 27, 2005 at 12:34 PM :

Check to make sure that the path to the banner graphic is correct. You can do this by clicking inside the first table row and selecting whatever appears there. The path to the banner graphic should be images/banner_graphic.jpg in the SRC text box of the Property inspector.

As for your links being centered, make sure that your table column is not aligned center. Click inside the table column and look in the Property inspector. The Horz menu should say Default, and the Vert menu should say Top.

atgraphics said on Sep 29, 2005 at 12:22 PM :

all works fine :) very nice tutorial - so far.
only thing is it asks to install the newest flash player (v8) - with v7 doesn't show-play swf video (and skin). and if installed - close and restart IExplorer. netscape works fine w/o reloading.

No screen name said on Oct 5, 2005 at 8:23 PM :

My banner is shorter than the one you guys show and I also had it ask me about the latest Macromedia update

No screen name said on Oct 7, 2005 at 12:32 PM :

The background colors for the third row showed up black when I previewed the document. Turns out I had omitted the '#' in the background color text field thinking Dreamweaver would add it for me.

No screen name said on Oct 9, 2005 at 5:48 AM :

The Flash Video does not appear in IE 6.0 - nor does the skin.
It does appear in Netscape, however. Any suggestions?

chucknado said on Oct 25, 2005 at 2:14 PM :

You might have different versions of the Flash Player plug-in in each browser. For more info, see http://livedocs.macromedia.com/dreamweaver/8/using/18_med23.htm

slayer310 said on Nov 3, 2005 at 7:46 PM :

Thanks to a college Dreameaver I class that I'm half-way thru, and countless DW tutorials, I was able to do each and every one of these steps, and my website looks terrific! Now...for the REAL stuff....how do you make the banner, set up the photo, determine the format for the video and download it, etc....so I know where the stuff goes and how to set up the table to accept it, and link it up....but how do I create the stuff I put in here? Thanks very much for a great tutorial..

chucknado said on Nov 4, 2005 at 10:25 AM :

To create the graphics for the Cafe Townsend sample site, see the following Fireworks tutorials at http://livedocs.macromedia.com/fireworks/8/fwhelp/part1_ge.htm. To create the Flash elements, see the Flash tutorials at http://livedocs.macromedia.com/flash/8/main/Part1_Getting_Started.html.

No screen name said on Nov 4, 2005 at 11:40 AM :

I have a couple of problems. I used to be able to use the F12 function to preview my pages and now when I do that it brings up my internet explore and give me a message saying it can not bring it up. How do I change that? Also I am trying to use a western theme font on my web pages and when I use the dreamweaver program the font I want shows up and as soon as I uploaded it to the internet it defaults back to a different font. How do I change it to were it stays the western theme font.
Thank you so much for your help,
Tabitha

No screen name said on Nov 8, 2005 at 7:04 AM :

Completed the tutorial with little problems. When viewing website in browser I do not see the flash files, even though I downloaded flash 8. I also uploaded website to my new web server and only get the text and no images. Any suggestions?

Thanx

Mark

chucknado said on Nov 9, 2005 at 10:05 AM :

Did you download Flash 8 or Flash *Player* 8? To get the latest version of the Player, go to http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer8.

chucknado said on Nov 15, 2005 at 4:03 PM :

On the Mac, the new Preview in Browser shortcut is Option-F12. See http://livedocs.macromedia.com/dreamweaver/8/using/13_pag28.htm.

No screen name said on Dec 24, 2005 at 1:35 PM :

When I go to preview the document in Explorer 6.0 I get a message "To help protect your security, Internet Explorer has restricted this file from showing active content that could access your computer, click here for more options..." Is there a way to prevent this? Will it happen to others when the come to view my site?

chucknado said on Jan 2, 2006 at 12:13 PM :

Yes, see http://livedocs.macromedia.com/dreamweaver/8/using/13_pag30.htm.

No screen name said on Jan 12, 2006 at 10:48 AM :

I've been following the tutorial, and all has been fine, except when I preview the page, at this point, in any other browser except IE, the page background overruns all the specified table-cell backgrounds, so everything is black. In IE the background display is fine, but in Netscape and Firefox, the black background overruns everything - is there a layering option that needs to be selected?

No screen name said on Feb 13, 2006 at 1:42 PM :

No problems so far... except for viewing in Explorer. I'm on a Mac
OSX 10.3.9...in Explorer, the first column of the table expands to fill up
about 60% of the page; the last two shrink. I've gone back to my
layout, and made sure that the widths of each column are specified....

No screen name said on Mar 26, 2006 at 9:52 AM :

Thanks for the great tutorial..so far. I have no salad graphics under my banner..all the text is there and it scrolls to the next thing, but I have no photos in this sections. Any ideas?

jonmichael said on Mar 27, 2006 at 9:59 AM :

Could be a browser issue, or an issue with your version of FlashPlayer. See above comments and make sure you have the most recent version of FlashPlayer.

No screen name said on Aug 14, 2006 at 8:34 AM :

When viewing the site as seen by a browser, It doesn't fit my screen.
It is too high (i have to scroll down to see the full page). And it does not fill the width (approx. left half) and the right half is the black background. When I klick on the links, the menu page is also only half of the screen, however here it is centered.
I am an absolute beginner and have already hit a wall.... is there an easy answer i am missing. Otherwise everything about the program and tutorial is fantastic!

jonmichael said on Aug 16, 2006 at 2:03 PM :

Sounds like it could be a browser rendering issue, or could have something to do with your table widths.

Try testing the page in different browsers to see if that corrects the problem. Also make sure that your table widths are all set correctly as specified in the earlier tutorials.

MFKeeley0923 said on May 23, 2007 at 3:25 PM :

When I preview pages made with CSS, they look fine. However, if, while in Preview, I test a link...the new page comes up WITHOUT the CSS.

No screen name said on May 28, 2007 at 4:14 PM :

my index.html is a swf file which has text in it. When i open it up on my
mac in safari it's perfect, but when I open it up on my pc in Internet
Explorer (version 7,FlashP-8) everythings fine accept the font. Most of
the letters are completely different apart from 2 which are the the same
as original font. Beginner with CS3 Dreamweaver & Flash.

chucknado said on May 30, 2007 at 9:57 AM :

My guess is that the fonts are not installed on your pc, but I could be wrong.