The HTML Setup dialog box allows you to define how Fireworks exports HTML. These settings can be document-specific or can be used as your default setting for all HTML exports. Changes made in the Document Specific tab affect the current document only, but you can use these settings as defaults for new documents if you click the Set Defaults button before closing the HTML Setup dialog box. General and Table settings are global preferences and affect all new documents.

To define how Fireworks exports HTML:

  1. Select File > HTML Setup or click the Options button in the Export dialog box.
  2. In the General tab, select from the following options:
    • Select an HTML Style to set the style for exported HTML.

      Generic HTML works in any HTML editor. However, if your document contains behaviors or other interactive content, select your specific editor if it appears in the list. Interactive elements export differently from Fireworks depending on the selected HTML style.

      To export your document using the XHTML standard, select the appropriate XHTML style from the pop-up menu. For more information about XHTML, see Exporting XHTML.

    • Select a file extension from the Extension pop-up menu or enter a new one.
    • Select Include HTML Comments to include comments regarding where to copy and paste in the HTML. This option is recommended if your document contains interactive elements such as buttons, behaviors, or rollover images. HTML comments help you determine which parts of the code to copy and paste.
    • Select Lowercase File Name to make the name of the HTML file and the associated image files lowercase on export.

    NOTE

    This will not lowercase the HTML file's extension if an uppercase extension was selected in the Extension pop-up menu.

    • Select Use CSS for Popup Menus if you want to use CSS rather than JavaScript for your pop-up menu code. This will make it easier to understand and maintain the code. Also, you'll be able to index the menus, as well as update the links within the code using Dreamweaver.
    • Select Write CSS to an External File if you want to have the CSS code written to an external .css file that is exported to the same location as the HTML file. The name of the .css file matches the name of the HTML file (except for the file extension). Choosing this option also exports a file named mm_css_menu.js to the same location as the HTML file.

    NOTE

    The Write CSS to an external file option is only available if you have chosen the Use CSS for Popup Menus option.

    • Select an associated application from the File Creator pop-up menu (Macintosh). When you double-click the exported HTML file on your hard disk, it automatically opens in the application you specified.
  3. In the Table tab, select settings for your HTML tables. For information on defining properties for exported Fireworks HTML tables, see Defining how HTML tables are exported.
  4. In the Document Specific tab, select from the following options:
    • Select a formula for auto-naming slices in the Slice Auto-Naming pop-up menus. You can use the default settings, or choose your own options.

    NOTE

    Use caution when selecting None as a menu option for slice auto-naming. If you select None as the option for any of the first three menus, Fireworks exports slice files that overwrite one another, resulting in a single exported graphic and a table that displays this graphic in every cell.

    • Enter text in the Alternate Image Description text box. This alt text appears in place of all images while they are downloading from the web and in place of any images that fail to download. In some browsers it may also appear as a tooltip when the pointer passes over the image. This is also an aid for vision-impaired web users.
    • Select Multiple Nav Bar HTML Pages when exporting a navigation bar that links several pages together. When this option is chosen, Fireworks exports additional pages for each button in the navigation bar.
    • UTF-8 Encoding is turned on by default in Fireworks, which allows your exported document to display characters from multiple character sets. If you want to turn off this option, clear the UTF-8 Encoding box. For more information about UTF-8 encoding, see Exporting files with and without UTF-8 encoding.
  5. Click Set Defaults to save these settings as your global default settings.
  6. Click OK.