Using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004

Document Elements

The main parts of any web page/HTML document are the paragraphs, the headings, and any horizontal lines.

To start a new paragraph, you simply click your cursor where you want the paragraph to be, and press Enter or Return on your keyboard. Check to be sure Properties panel says 'Paragraph' shows the Format as 'Paragraph' (otherwise, click on it and select Paragraph) and go on typing. (Paragraphs include an empty line above and below them.)

To put a line break in a paragraph (put in a return with no empty line),
hold down the Shift key, and press 'Enter' or 'Return'.

Headings in web pages are 6 levels of 'section headings', with Heading 1 the most important (usually used for the title as it appears on the page) and Heading 6 the least. They are meant to be used for descending orders of importance. This table shows the different headings, but in a regular document they would have an empty line before and after each. Of course, Stylesheets can be used to change the look and formatting of a heading also.

Heading 1	Heading 4
Heading 2	Heading 5
Heading 3	Heading 6

To make a paragraph into a heading, select it or click in it and choose 'Heading 1' (or whichever heading number you wish) from the Format box in the Properties window.

The whole paragraph is turned into a heading-- you can't have part of the paragraph be a heading and part not.

Horizontal lines are often used in web pages to separate sections. To add a horizontal line, click your cursor where you want the line and from the Insert menu, choose HTML Elements, then Horizontal Rule. (You can also change the Insert panel to HTML, , then choose the Horizontal Rule icon

To change the properties of the line (make it shorter, fatter, etc.), click on the line and change properties in the Properties window:

The number in W is how wide across the page the line is; the H number is how tall the line is (in pixels). By default, lines have shading; if you turn it off you get the dark line effect you see above. (By default, lines are like the one below.)

Jennifer Heise, Last updated May 28, 2003