Intermediate Dreamweaver

Asset Management

Dreamweaver includes a function for asset management for the site which helps you keep track of the images, URLs, colors, movies, scripts and Templates you use in the site.

As you use these things, they are automatically entered in the correct category of the Asset window, so that you can find them again if you need them. If you are going to use an item regularly, you can put in your 'Favorites' in your Asset window, and give it a meaningful label.

The Assets Window

To view the asset window for your site, choose 'Asset' from the Window Menu, or click on the Assets tab in the File panel

The menu down the side of the window displays the different kinds of assets you can list, such as Images , Colors , URLs/Links , Flash Objects, Shockwave Objects, Movies, Scripts, Templates and Library Items . Click on the icon for the type of asset you want to display.

Site vs. Favorites: At the top, you can see a choice between listing all the assets in the Site, or only listing those you want to put in your Favorites list:

When you click on an item in the lower part of the asset window, it (or its properties) will be displayed in the upper part of the window.

Refreshing Assets

If you are not seeing assets for the site listed in your asset window, even though you have Site Selected, click on the Reload/refresh button in the lower left hand corner:

Favorites

To add an asset to the Favorites listing, click on it, then click the Add to Favorites icon in the lower left corner: , or right click on it and choose Add to Favorites from the drop down menu on the top right side of the Asset window:
.
A dialog box will come up to say that the item has been added to Favorites-- click 'OK'.

Editing favorites

When you have Favorites selected, you will see the list of favorites-- if you widen the window, you can see the size, type and path (or other attributes, depending on the item) as well as the Nickname
:

To change the Nickname (this doesn't change the file name), right-click on the name and choose 'Edit Nickname':

When the edit box is displayed on the Nickname, change the nickname.

Using an asset

To use an asset, click on it and click the Insert button in the lower left side of the window: .

URLs in the Asset window

URLs work a little bit differently in the Asset window.

First of all, if you want to use a URL, you have two choices. If you simply click where you want the link and click the Insert button, a link with the URL as the text (as well as the link URL) will be inserted: http://www.lehigh.edu/images/lehighu.gif. If you want to add a URL to specific text, highlight the text. The Insert button becomes an Apply button and when you click it, the URL is added to the properties of the text: Lehigh Mark .

When you have placed a URL in favorites and edited the Nickname, if you choose that asset from Favorites and click Insert, the text of the link will be the Nickname instead of the URL.

Lehigh's Mark

Additionally, you can add URLs/Links to the Favorite assets without having to already have used them in the site. Right click in the list and choose New URL, then fill in the nickname and URL:

and click OK.

February 5, 2004