Macromedia Dreamweaver support for Navigation Bars

Dreamweaver is a popular program for web site design. Now you can create navigation bars
in Xara LX and link them into Dreamweaver. Then, if you need to make further edits, Dreamweaver can tell Xara LX which source file to load - easy.

A separate page covers Dreamweaver support for single bitmaps. Navigation bars are more complicated than single bitmaps because they also require some HTML code - this is also imported into Dreamweaver.

Exporting a file

See this page for details of creating a navigation bar.

1. Before exporting the navigation bar as bitmaps you must save the Xara LX document to disk - see Saving a document. You only need to do this once so Xara LX knows where to find the document on your computer.

2. Select the Button & NavBar Tool.

3. If necessary, select the entire navigation bar - see Selecting navigation bar objects.

4. Click Export on the Button & NavBar Tool Infobar.

5. Enter a name of the file where you want to save the HTML code. Important: save the file in the same folder as the Dreamweaver document. (See Note.)

6. Select the file type for the button bitmaps. Usually you would use either GIF or JPEG.

7. Click Save to move to the second dialog box. For full information on this dialog box, click its Help button.

8. Select options in the regular way for number of colors etc.

9. On the Image map tab select Add design note.

10. Click Export. This exports the HTML code, the bitmaps and sets up the links required for Dreamweaver.

Note:

If the HTML file you selected in step 5 already exists, you have two choices:

Overwrite (Replace) all the existing contents.

Insert the navigation bar into the existing page. This overwrites any existing Xara LX navigation bar but does not affect other parts of the page. A new navigation bar appears at the top of the page and you may need to move it.

Moving the navigation bar in Dreamweaver

Xara LX inserts the navigation bar at the top of the web page. If you want it in a different position, just cut the entire navigation bar and paste it in the required position. Check the Dreamweaver help for more information.

Editing the navigation bar from within Dreamweaver

These instructions refer to Dreamweaver 3. Macromedia may introduce new versions for which these instructions do not apply.

Before editing the navigation bar, you need to make Xara LX the default editor (the 'primary external editor') for Dreamweaver - full details.

1. Close Xara LX if it is running.

2. In Dreamweaver, select the navigation bar.

3. In Dreamweaver, click Edit on the Properties palette. The opens the original XAR file in Xara LX ready for editing.

4. In Xara LX: after making your changes, just click Export on the Button & NavBar Tool Infobar and export the file using the same file name. When you get the warning about the HTML file already existing, click Insert. The navigation bar in Dreamweaver automatically updates.

Note:

In Dreamweaver - to select the navigation bar you can also right-click on it then choose Edit.

Movie—click below (not working in this version)

Dreamweaver integration

Dreamweaver is a registered trademark of Macromedia Inc.

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