ITEC 745 - Extending Dreamweaver

While Dreamweaver seems to THE killer web authoring application that fact is you don't have to settle on the application they've given you. Dreamweaver has the capacity for extending many of the built-in features by allowing you to add your own Code Snippets and use the Extensions Manager to download expanded Commands and additional Behavior-like features. Across the web you can find a wide range of 3rd party downloads are available that extends the power of Dreamweaver itself and also gives you easy access to code.

OBJECTS (snippets)

DW FAQ's Snippets Exchange: Download snippets (formerly called Objects) uploaded by other users. (you'll need to setup an account to gain access). Go in and see what you want --- custom footer, US States drop down for forms....
http://www.dwfaq.com/Snippets/default.asp

Using Dreamweaver MX Snippets: A short tutorial on how to use Snippets.
http://www.mxzone.com/showDetail.asp?TypeId=2&NewsId=3752

Create Your Own....

Example Snippets (Objects)

US State Drop Down for Forms		Link to Snippet
Embed QT to Play MP3 (overriding Windows Media Player)		Link to Snippet
Embed Window Media Player		(see below)

EXTENSIONS

Extensions are by far the most popular way to extend DW. Extensions are software clips that can be downloaded and merged into Dreamweaver using the Extensions Manager. Extensions can come in many forms including HTML code (objects), Javascript that can be added to the Behavior Panel or Commands that can be added to the Command menu.

Sites with Extensions: Exhaustive list of sites where you can download extensions.
http://www.dwfaq.com/Resources/Extensions/default.asp

http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?view=sn120

http://www.flevooware.nl/dreamweaver/

http://ftp.pu.edu.tw/cpatch/webedit/dreamweaver/extension/

BEHAVIOR EXTENSIONS

Translate Page: This allows you to select an event to trigger the sending of the page to the Babelfish website for it to be translated to the selected lanuage. You select the language to convert to and whether to have it pop up in a new window. Try seeing this page in German.
Find it on the DWTeam website.
http://www.dwteam.com/Extensions/

COMMAND EXTENSIONS

Meta Tag Manager: Add in a Command to better control six Meta Tags (keywords, description, copyright, expires, robot, pragma) either for individual pages or for the entire site. Imagine, adding in keywords for the entire site in one fell swoop.
http://www.massimocorner.com/dw/commands/meta_manager.mxp

508 Accessibilty Suite: A suite of added commands which actually adds-in a new menu item ("Accessiblity") to DW allowing you to evaluate your pages for Section 508 compabitility.
Download at usablenet.com, but you'll need to fill out form and fetch link from email.
http://www.usablenet.com/frontend/508as_entry.jsp

Windows Media Embed Code Snippet