Preview is not the same as my layout?!

[ShinyB]

Hi

I am new to the forums and relatively new to Dreamweaver. I am using MX to create a new site using tables.

When I go to Preview my page my layout changes. Does anyone else experience this? It seems to change the width of the boxes as it pleases!!

Thanks for any advice
ShinyB

[pauland]

Depending on what you're doing Dreamweaver will try and give you an approximation to the final layout. In many cases it won't get anywhere close, as you've found out.

Preview often and try and understand the html - Dreamweaver isn't exactly WYSIWYG and certainly doesn't render it's pages in design mode as a browser might. You'll also find (again depending on what you're doing) that different browsers will display your page differently.

Welcome to the world of web design!

Paul

[Availor]

Hello ShinyB, welcome to the forums.

I am aware of the problem of the preview. There is not much you can do about it as far as I know. The problem is due to the browser compatibility. In Internet Explorer 6, 7 and firefox you will get different cell sizes and different layouts. I.e. if you choose a dotted border for your table it will look differently on different browsers.

My suggestion is not to use the preview mode, but only to preview it in browser (F12). Use two or three browsers at the same time and then when you make a change go and refresh the page (F5) in each browser. The layout will never be the same but it will be close enough to give you a satisfactory result.

Hope that answers your question.

Availor.