DREAMWEAVER CS3
User Guide
102
Storing file information in Design Notes
About Design Notes
Design Notes are notes that you create for a file. Design Notes are associated with the file they describe, but stored
in a separate file. You can see which files have Design Notes attached in the expanded Files panel: A Design Notes
icon appears in the Notes column.
You can use Design Notes to keep track of extra file information associated with your documents, such as image
source-filenames and comments on file status. For example, if you copy a document from one site to another, you
can add Design Notes for that document, with the comment that the original document is in the other site folder.
You can also use Design Notes to keep track of sensitive information that you can’t put inside a document for security
reasons, such as notes on how a particular price or configuration was chosen, or what marketing factors influenced
a design decision.
If you open a file in Adobe® Fireworks® or Flash, and export it to another format, Fireworks and Flash automatically
save the name of the original source file in a Design Notes file. For example, if you open myhouse.png in Fireworks
and export it to myhouse.gif, Fireworks creates a Design Notes file called myhouse.gif.mno. This Design Notes file
contains the name of the original file, as an absolute
file:
URL. So, the Design Notes for myhouse.gif might contain
the following line:
fw_source="file:///Mydisk/sites/assets/orig/myhouse.png"
A similar Flash Design Note might contain the following line:
fl_source="file:///Mydisk/sites/assets/orig/myhouse.fla"
Note:
To share Design Notes, users should define the same site-root path (for example, sites/assets/orig).
When you import the graphic into Dreamweaver, the Design Notes file is automatically copied into your site along
with the graphic. When you select the image in Dreamweaver and choose to edit it using Fireworks, Fireworks opens
the original file for editing.
See also
“Start an external editor for media files” on page 271
Enable and disable Design Notes for a site
Design Notes are notes associated with a file, but stored in a separate file. Use Design Notes to keep track of extra file
information associated with your documents, such as image source-filenames and comments on file status.
You enable and disable Design Notes for a site in the Design Notes category of the Site Definition dialog box. When
you enable Design Notes, you can also choose to share them with others, if you want.
1
Select Site > Manage Sites.
2
In the Manage Sites dialog box, select a site, then click Edit.
3
In the Advanced tab of the Site Definition dialog box, select Design Notes from the Category list on the left.
4
Select Maintain Design Notes to enable Design Notes (deselect to disable them).
5
If you want to delete all local Design Notes files for your site, click Clean Up, and then click Yes. (If you want to
delete remote Design Notes files, you’ll need to delete them manually).
September 4, 2007
