When working on your web pages in Adobe Dreamweaver, you constantly need to check them in a web browser. To make this process smoother, Dreamweaver allows you to configure several browsers for previewing your pages. You can specify which browser is your primary, or main, browser; you can then elect a secondary browser and as many further browsers as you want.



Naturally, the first step is to make sure that the browser software is installed on your computer. Next, to specify your preferred browser, go to the Edit menu and choose Preferences. (This is the Windows location of Dreamweaver Preferences: on a Macintosh, go to the Dreamweaver menu and choose Preferences.)

A series of categories is displayed on the left of the Preferences window. Click on the Preview in Browser category. You may already have a browser configured as your primary browser and even, perhaps, another as your secondary. If you wish to change these settings, simply click on the appropriate checkboxes to specify which is which.

If you would like to add an additional browser, just click on the plus sign (+), locate the browser software and double-click to open it. You can carry out this procedure as many times as you like.

To preview a page using one of your configured browsers, click on the preview icon (the globe) located on the Document toolbar which is normally displayed at the top of the document window. From the drop-down menu, choose the browser that you'd like to use. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts: to preview using your primary browser press Shift-F12 on Windows or option-F12 on a Macintosh; to preview in the secondary browser press Control-F12 on Windows or Command-F12 on a Macintosh. Alternatively, simply choose the name of any other browser.

Once you've had a good look at the preview, to return to Dreamweaver, just close the browser window.

There may be times when you'd like to preview pages without saving the changes you've made to your document. Dreamweaver offers you this possibility but, first, let's examine what normally happens when you preview a file that has been modified.

Dreamweaver displays a dialogue box asking us if we'd like to save the changes. If we click "No", it gives us a preview of the last version that we saved rather than the version that we're currently working on and, naturally, if we click "Yes", Dreamweaver will save our changes before previewing the file. This can sometimes be inconvenient, since you may not be ready to save your changes.

If you'd like to be able to preview a file at any time without saving your changes, return to your Browser Preview category of Dreamweaver's Preferences and activate the option "Preview Using Temporary File". When this option is activated, Dreamweaver will create a temporary file containing the latest version of your document and then opens it in the browser. When the browser window opens, you will notice that the file name does not correspond to the name of your document it a temporary file name generated by Dreamweaver.