Setting Code Preferences: Code Hints

Code Hints menus appear while you're typing code to help keep typos out of your document. Code Hints also close tags when you're typing them in the Code inspector or Code view.

The Quick Tag editor (Figure 27) is a handy tool that lets you edit tags one at a time or wrap tags around selections. The Quick Tag editor is described in Chapter 4.

In either the Quick Tag editor or in Code view, when you pause while typing or if you type part of the name of a tag, a tiny menu appears listing all available options. Thus, Code Hints.

You can change turn off these menus, set the delay time, and decide which menus you want to use. By default, all menus are turned on with a zero-second delay.

To change Quick Tag Editor preferences:

1. From the Document window menu bar, select Edit > Preferences. The Preferences dialog box will appear.

2. In the Category list, select Quick Tag editor. That panel of the dialog box will become visible (Figure 28).

3. When you're typing code in the Code inspector or Code view, tags are closed immediately. To turn off this option, deselect the Enable auto tag completion checkbox (Figure 29).
   
4. You can adjust the menus (Figure 30) that appear while you type.
   
   • To turn off the Tag Hints menu, deselect the Enable Tag Hints checkbox (Figure 31).
   • To change the time delay for the Tag Hints menu, move the slide bar to the left to decrease the delay or to the right to increase it. The default is 2.5 seconds.

4. When you're finished, click on OK to save your changes, close the dialog box, and return to the Document window.

 
Fig. 27  The Quick Tag editor lets you edit small chunks of code while you're working in the Document window.

 
Fig. 28  The Quick Tag Editor panel of Dreamweaver's Preferences dialog box.

 
Fig. 29 If you type an opening tag in Code view, Dreamweaver will immediately close it for you -- as soon as I close the opening bracket on the first line, the tag will be closed, as on the second line. This might be annoying if you're in the habit of applying tags to enities that already exist.

 
Fig. 30 The Tag Hints menu will appear when you're editing code in the Quick Tag editor or Code view or the Code inspector.

 
Fig. 31 You can turn off the Tag Hints menu, or change the amount of time it takes the menu to appear.

 
Fig. 32 These are the available menus that may appear while you're coding