Previewing dynamic pages in a browser

Web application developers often debug their pages by checking them often in a web browser. Dreamweaver accommodates this work style with the Preview in Browser command (F12). The command lets you quickly view dynamic pages in a browser without manually uploading them to a server first.

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You can also use Design view to quickly check your pages while working on them. Design view displays a fully editable, visual representation of your page, including live data. For more information, see Viewing live data in Design view.

You can specify that Dreamweaver use temporary files instead of the original files. With this option, Dreamweaver runs a temporary copy of the page on a web server before displaying it in your browser. (Dreamweaver then deletes the temporary file from the server.) To set this option, select Edit > Preferences > Preview in Browser.

To preview dynamic pages, you must complete the Testing Server category of the Site Definition dialog box. For more information, see Specifying where dynamic pages can be processed.

Preview in Browser does not upload related pages such as a results or a detail page, dependent files such as image files, or server-side includes. To upload a missing file, select Window > Site to open the Site panel, select the file under Local Folder, and click the blue up arrow in the toolbar to copy the file to the web server folder.