Integrating other apps with Dreamweaver

Photoshop, Fireworks, and Flash are powerful web-development tools for creating and managing graphics and SWF files. You can tightly integrate Dreamweaver with these tools to simplify your web design workflow.

You can easily insert images and content created with Adobe Flash (SWF and FLV files) in a Dreamweaver document. You can also edit an image or SWF file in its original editor after you insert it in a Dreamweaver document.

For Fireworks and Flash, product integration is achieved through roundtrip editing. Roundtrip editing ensures that code updates are transferred correctly between Dreamweaver and these other applications (for example, to preserve rollover behaviors or links to other files).

Dreamweaver also relies on Design Notes for product integration. Design Notes are small files that allow Dreamweaver to locate the source document for an exported image or SWF file. When you export files from Fireworks, Flash, or Photoshop directly to a Dreamweaver defined site, Design Notes containing references to the original PSD, PNG, or Flash authoring file (FLA) are automatically exported to the site along with the web-ready file (GIF, JPEG, PNG, or SWF).

In addition to location information, Design Notes contain other pertinent information about exported files. For example, when you export a Fireworks table, Fireworks writes a Design Note for each exported image file in the table. If the exported file contains hotspots or rollovers, the Design Notes include information about the scripts for them.

As part of the export operation, Dreamweaver creates a folder named _notes in the same folder as the exported asset. This folder contains the Design Notes that Dreamweaver needs to integrate with Photoshop, Flash, or Fireworks.