Adding and Formatting Text - New Perspectives on Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, Comprehensive - page 165

The format properties are a list of standardized HTML tags used for text formatting.
These include the paragraph tag and a variety of heading tags that are located in the
Format list in the HTML pane of the Property inspector.
The font attributes are a list of the fonts available for use. The Default Font option
displays the text in the default font of the end user's browser. To maintain greater control
of the aesthetic look of a page, you can choose a font group from the list. When a font
group is selected, Dreamweaver places a font tag containing all of the choices in the font
group around the specifi ed text. You can also add fonts to the list, but it is recommended
that you use caution when doing this because a font must be installed on the end user's
computer to display the text in that font. If the font is not installed on the end user's com-
puter, the text will be displayed in the browser's default font.
The font-size properties are a list of available font sizes. Unlike word processing pro-
grams, HTML has no fi xed font size. Instead, when you choose a font size from the list,
you are choosing from a scalable range of sizes relative to a base font size . The default
base font size is 3; however, you can set the base font size for the Web page to a differ-
ent value by inserting a base font tag designating a different base font size into the head
portion of a Web page. If you do not choose a value from the font size list, text will be
displayed at the base font size you selected for that page. If you have not added a base
font tag, the text will be a 3. If you have added a base font tag, the text will be displayed
at the designated size.
When you choose a value from the font size list, Dreamweaver inserts a font size tag
into the HTML of your page. The fi rst seven choices in the font size list are absolute font
sizes (1 to 7). Absolute font sizes are based on the standard default base size of 3. Sizes
1 and 2 are smaller than 3, while sizes 4 through 7 appear progressively larger than 3. If
you choose an absolute font size, the font size tag will override the base font tag, and the
text you select will be displayed at the designated size regardless of the base font size.
The remaining choices in the font size list are relative font sizes (-7 to +7). Relative font
sizes add or subtract from the base font size. For example, a +2 value increases the base
font size by two sizes, and a -2 value reduces the base font size by two sizes. Relative
font sizes are the best choice because they ensure that text will be proportionately scaled
in the browser window. For example, if you change the base font size for the page to the
absolute size 4, a +2 value adds 2 sizes to size 4. If you later change the base font size
for the page to the absolute size 3, the +2 value adds 2 sizes to size 3.
In addition to the font sizes that you create for a Web page, users can change the
overall size of text that appears in their browser—essentially scaling the size that text
appears in their browser. For example, a visually impaired user might set the browser text
to Larger to increase the readability of text on Web pages.
The font color properties enable you to change the color of selected text. The default
font color for a page is the color you selected in the Page Properties dialog box. To
change the color of a selected block of text, you can type the hexadecimal color code
into the color box or select a color with the color picker.
The buttons in the Property inspector enable you to change the emphasis of selected
text with boldface and italic; turn paragraphs into items in an unordered (bulleted) or
ordered (numbered) list; and apply or remove indents from paragraphs.
Updating a Web Site on a Live Server
As a fi nal review of your work, you'll post the updated fi les for the NextBest Fest site
to your remote server. Because you have already uploaded the entire site, you need to
upload only the fi les that you have changed to update the remote site—the home page
and the external style sheet.