Datasheet

A look at the Welcome Screen
29Lesson 1, Dreamweaver CS4 Jumpstart
1
Dreamweaver generally does a great job of keeping tags properly nested, or contained within
each other. When you choose to manipulate the code by hand, you should always keep good
coding techniques in mind.
XHTML 1.0 Transitional
The latest recommended version of HTML is XHTML 1.0, a stricter version of HTML
that makes the language more compatible with newer platforms, such as mobile phones and
handheld devices, which require code to be perfectly formed. XHTML combines elements of
HTML and XML, a language used to describe data. XML, or Extensible Markup Language, has
become a popular method of exchanging information among seemingly unrelated applications,
platforms, and systems. By default, Dreamweaver creates new web pages using the XHTML 1.0
Transitional standard.
What’s the di erence?
Although tags and attributes remain the same, the structure of the language changes with
XHTML, becoming stricter. Whereas HTML was very forgiving of sloppy coding practices
such as overlapping or unclosed tags, XHTML requires all tags to be closed and properly nested.
HTML doesn’t care which case you use when constructing tags, but in XHTML, all tags must
be lowercase.
For example, a <br> (break) tag, which normally doesn’t require a closing tag, now must be
closed. You can write tags to self-close by using a forward slash—making sure there is a space
between the (br) and the forward slash—and then closing the bracket like so:
<br />
The result is a well-formed language that takes advantage of newer browsers and device
platforms, while remaining compatible with older browsers. Working with XHTML in
Dreamweaver requires nothing more than selecting XHTML 1.0 Transitional as the Document
Type (DocType) when creating a new page.
Explorations in code
Although this book occasionally refers to the code for examples, hand-coding is not a primary
goal of the included lessons. The best way to learn how code represents the layouts you are
building visually is to switch to the Code view and explore what’s happening behind the scenes.
It’s important to remember that every button, panel, and menu in Dreamweaver represents some
type of HTML tag, attribute, or value; very rarely will you learn something that is unrelated or
proprietary to Dreamweaver alone. Think of the Dreamweaver workspace as a pretty face on
the HTML language.
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