Working in Design view without live data

If Live Data is turned off or if you’re temporarily disconnected from your application server, you can still work on your dynamic pages in Design view. Dreamweaver uses placeholders to visually represent dynamic content on the page. For example, the placeholder for dynamic text extracted from a database uses the syntax {RecordsetName.ColumnName}, where Recordset is the name of the recordset and ColumnName is the name of the column you chose from the recordset.

Sometimes, the length of the placeholders for dynamic text distorts the page’s layout in Design view. You can solve the problem by using empty curly braces as placeholders.

To use empty curly braces as placeholders for dynamic text:

1. Select Edit > Preferences > Invisible Elements or Dreamweaver > Preferences > Invisible Elements (Mac OS X).
2. In the Show Dynamic Text As pop-up menu, select {}.
3. Click OK.

Related topics

• Viewing live data in Design view
• Requirements for displaying live data