Another control you'll find useful is the ability to enable and disable any CSS property from the control panel. Simply select an element, and then hover your cursor over a property in the CSS panel. Click the "disable" symbol that appears (or right click and choose that option from a drop down menu) and Dreamweaver will comment out that property in the code, allowing you to test your CSS elements in real time; however, let's say you chose to leave a property disabled, but were afraid you'd forget to delete all the unused, commented out code from your files. Not to worry, simply right click on the CSS panel and choose 'Delete all disabled in selected rule' and Dreamweaver will remove all the unused, commented-out code for you.
In addition to better CSS controls, Dreamweaver CS5 comes with improved code hinting. This is especially true as it applies to PHP-based sites. If you need help remembering the syntax for a certain object or function, just activate the code hinting and a lengthy list of options will help guide you. This by itself is a great feature and one that was included, albeit to a lesser extent, in CS4. But in CS5 when you click on a code hint in the drop-down menu you'll see detailed documentation containing links to further reading if any is available. This is helpful to the beginner in the learning stages or the seasoned pro just looking to verify some syntax.
Finally, Adobe has integrated their online BrowserLab service into the Dreamweaver workspace (it was available to use with CS4, but required a plug-in). Anyone who's developed a site meant to display across multiple browsers knows what a time consuming and aggravating a process it can be. For instance, say you've just completed development for a customized Wordpress site. You'd love to think it would work perfectly in all browsers. After all, you made it standards' compliant, using CSS, and following all the agreed upon "rules" of great web design. Regardless, you know that there's always going to be a glitch somewhere along the way. In the past, you'd spend countless hours testing your site in multiple browsers (and multiple versions of browsers), not-so-blissfully ignorant of which browsers your site's viewers would be using.
Well, with CS5 that all changes.
Bring up the page you want to test, freeze the JavaScript, and choose to "Preview" your page using the Adobe BrowserLab panel located in your workspace. Dreamweaver will connect with BrowserLab (well, maybe—more on this in the next section), displaying a screenshot of your page in the browser. Now, the fun starts. You can choose from a list of browsers, including different versions across different platforms. Want to know what your page looks like in IE 6, 7, or 8? What about Safari versus the latest version of Mozilla Firefox? This is where BrowserLab really shines, allowing you to quickly and easily compare your site's layout so that any differences are immediately noticeable.
