13 Replies Latest reply: May 6, 2009 3:15 PM by Nancy O. RSS

    CS4 no Background Image for cells

    Cindy- Community Member
      In CS3 there was a way to insert background images in a cell using the Property Inspector. Now in CS4 it isn't there!! What gives?
        • 1. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
          Newsgroup_User Community Member
          Are you aware that the CS4 PI now has two separate states or modes
          (HTML/CSS) switchable via toggle buttons?
          http://www.ehow.com/how_4529494_dreamweaver-cs-htmlcss-properties-toggle.html

          I suspect you're in CSS mode and you need HTML mode.

          I think this will confuse many people and I'm not in favour of this change.
          I'd prefer that HTML and CSS were side-by-side and always visible in the PI
          on my widescreen monitor.

          --
          Regards

          John Waller

          • 2. CS4 no Background Image for cells
            Cindy- Community Member
            Actually, I was in html mode. I did figure out how to make it happen using CSS but I am not real happy with the absence of the html option. I think it should have been left alone.
            • 3. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
              Newsgroup_User Community Member
              Yes, my mistake.

              It's not there any more because I believe that Adobe is guiding users to use
              CSS for background images for cells.

              --
              Regards

              John Waller

              • 4. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
                Cindy- Community Member
                quote:

                Originally posted by: Newsgroup User

                It's not there any more because I believe that Adobe is guiding users to use
                CSS for background images for cells.



                I believe you are right...but that annoys me because maybe I don't want to be guided into using CSS. SHouldn't it be up to us how we want to use html/CSS?

                • 5. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
                  poirot Community Member
                  How about right clicking in the cell > select "edit tag td, choose browser specific and there you should see background image.

                  Frenchy ASP
                  • 6. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
                    Newsgroup_User Community Member
                    CSS formatting is best practice these days and Dreamweaver needs to serve
                    the web design community who have pushed long and hard for DW to encourage
                    CSS formatting rather than outdated HTML formatting, esp via the tools in
                    the DW UI.

                    Once you become familiar with DW's CSS tools, you may find better yourself
                    better able to leverage the power of CSS and never want to go back to HTML
                    formatting.

                    --
                    Regards

                    John Waller

                    • 7. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
                      Newsgroup_User Community Member
                      On 17 Oct 2008 in macromedia.dreamweaver, John Waller wrote:

                      > I think this will confuse many people and I'm not in favour of this
                      > change. I'd prefer that HTML and CSS were side-by-side and always
                      > visible in the PI on my widescreen monitor.

                      Has the production version changed so that either a) you can set which
                      one comes up by default, or b) the last one you used is sticky? In the
                      public beta, CSS always came up, and that drove me nuts, because I rarely
                      use the CSS property inspector, whereas I use HTML all the time.

                      --
                      Joe Makowiec
                      http://makowiec.net/
                      Email: http://makowiec.net/contact.php
                      • 8. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
                        Cindy- Community Member
                        quote:

                        How about right clicking in the cell > select "edit tag td, choose browser specific and there you should see background image.


                        That works, thanks.

                        I think whether I like it or not I am going to have to do more CSS although in some respects I find html cleaner. I have been using CSS fonts for years but I have not built my tables and rollovers that way.
                        • 9. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
                          Newsgroup_User Community Member
                          cindy1074 wrote:
                          > I think whether I like it or not I am going to have to do more CSS although in
                          > some respects I find html cleaner.

                          CSS takes a lot of getting used to, but once you overcome the mental
                          barrier of defining your styles in a different place, you'll wonder why
                          you didn't make the switch sooner. And you'll certainly change your mind
                          about what's "cleaner".

                          --
                          David Powers, Adobe Community Expert
                          Author, "The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3" (friends of ED)
                          Author, "PHP Solutions" (friends of ED)
                          http://foundationphp.com/
                          • 10. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
                            Cadillacula Community Member

                            CSS formatting is best practice these days and Dreamweaver needs to serve
                            the web design community who have pushed long and hard for DW to encourage
                            CSS formatting rather than outdated HTML formatting, esp via the tools in
                            the DW UI.

                             

                             

                            Respectfully disagree wholeheartedly…

                             

                            Actually Dreamweaver needs to serve “me”… not the web design community.

                             

                            Standards are great, and while I won’t get into a Tables vs. Div Tags type of “eye of the beholder” debate… (because trust me with today’s average data transfer speeds I weigh on the side of art and control over efficiency, especially as measured in nanoseconds)… I would say that if DW offers me the ability to insert a background image, which it does via Frenchy ASP’s helpful post (Thank you as well), then as a WYSIWYG application, Dreamweaver should not make me hunt/dig and click that frequently and that deep into a menu tree to get me what I want. The functionality is there… html, css, I don’t really care, give it to me in a click (like I’m used to from DW).

                            • 11. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
                              Nancy O. CommunityMVP

                              Some business owners actually insist up web standards compliant sites now.  Adobe didn't improve CS4 to punish product users.  They built CS4 to keep pace with the modern web practice of separating style from content so product users could look smarter.  If you don't see any clear advantage to this, then don't use DW CS4. Keep using your old 1-click version of DW until browsers quit supporting it.

                               

                               

                              Nancy O.
                              Alt-Web Design & Publishing
                              Web | Graphics |  Print | Media Specialists
                              www.alt-web.com/
                              www.twitter.com/altweb

                              • 12. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
                                Cadillacula Community Member

                                Yawn...

                                 

                                While I respect your individual experience, opinion, intimate knowledge of Adobe business product development decisions and insight on what "some" business owners insist upon... what you describe here never-the-less has fallen no where near my personal professional plate in 13 years. As my post stated, Adobe can choose whatever standards it wishes, they can even support 8-Tracks and Betamax if they wish, as long as they continue to uphold their standards of excellence in making the implementation of said functionality "friendly".

                                 

                                As I hope I clearly described, I just feel they have made some slight oversights to their WYSIWYG GUI with their apparent new direction - and as a user since version 1.0, I will always feel very comfortable expressing my opinions on the forums, and too Adobe directly, as many others have done on this specific subject.

                                 

                                Now... as far as your warm suggestion that I go back to my "old" one click method (CS3 from less than a year ago), no thank you I'm fine. I'll just wait for patches, updates and CS5 for continued improvements to my beloved software. I can clearly recall industry standard and CSS style functionality that used to take a great deal of convoluted digging and clicking to make happen in previous versions that have now made it to the forefront and are now but a mere click away... so I remain calm and confident.

                                 

                                Lastly, while I have never encountered someone in my field who felt bitter towards the idea of "one click" efficiency in a design orientated editor - I will still return the favor by suggesting that if you are so vehemently opposed to doing things in less clicks (and see those who wish to do so as inferior) that you quickly return to your roots and start *hand coding* pages to whatever compliance "some" of "your" business owners are insisting upon.

                                • 13. Re: CS4 no Background Image for cells
                                  Nancy O. CommunityMVP

                                  Cadillacula wrote:

                                   

                                  Yawn...

                                   

                                  Ok. Whatever... 

                                  Adobe can choose whatever standards it wishes, they can even support 8-Tracks and Betamax if they wish, as long as they continue to uphold their standards of excellence in making the implementation of said functionality "friendly".

                                   

                                  Adobe products have never claimed to be "friendly" except perhaps Elements which is a dumbed down version of Photoshop.   Adobe makes awesome pro-level tools.  But "friendly" isn't exactly a word I'd pick to describe them because the learning curve can be quite steep; especially for new users.

                                   

                                  I just feel they have made some slight oversights to their WYSIWYG GUI with their apparent new direction..

                                   

                                  Submit your suggestions to the Feature Request/Bug Report Form where Adobe Techs will see it.  http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

                                   

                                  Lastly, while I have never encountered someone in my field who felt bitter towards the idea of "one click" efficiency in a design orientated editor - I will still return the favor by suggesting that if you are so vehemently opposed to doing things in less clicks (and see those who wish to do so as inferior) that you quickly return to your roots and start *hand coding* pages to whatever compliance "some" of "your" business owners are insisting upon.

                                   

                                  You still haven't.  I am none of those things and I certainly did not mean to imply anyone here is inferior.  All I said was "use the tool that fits your workflow." That's not a negative criticism of you or anyone else. 

                                   

                                  FWIW I work in code view about 60% of the time so I don't rely on Design View as much as some people do.  That said, my version of 1-click styling: Use a pre-built or hand-coded stylesheet linked to the HTML document.  Apply CSS styles to HTML via the properties pane.  Voila!  Done!   You don't need a new *patch* or update to work efficiently.

                                   

                                   

                                  Nancy O.
                                  Alt-Web Design & Publishing
                                  Web | Graphics |  Print | Media Specialists
                                  www.alt-web.com/
                                  www.twitter.com/altweb