18.16 Status Bar Preferences

The Preferences dialog box's Status Bar category configures the Document window's status bar. (Select Edit Sizes from the Window Size Selector pop-up menu in the status bar to quickly access these preferences.)

Window Sizes

A list of available window sizes, useful for checking your page's appearance at various screen resolutions. Add to this list by using the Tab and Enter keys to create additional lines. The list appears in the Window Size Selector pop-up menu in the status bar, as discussed in Chapter 1.

Connection Speed

Specifies the connection speed used to calculate the estimated download time for a page, visible in the Document window's status bar. The options range from 14.4 Kbps (very slow) to 1500 Kbps (very fast DSL or T1 speeds). The default is 28.8 Kbps, but most users have at least 56 Kbps connections. The 64 and 128 Kbps settings represent single-channel and dual-channel ISDN connections, respectively.

Bear in mind that 56 Kbps (kilobits per second) is equivalent to 7 KB/sec (kilobytes per second) and the effective throughput is often half the theoretical speed. Therefore, set the Connection Speed to 28.8 or 33.6 Kbps to approximate the realistic download time for 56 Kbps modems.

Show Launcher in Status Bar

If enabled, the icons for the panels shown in the Launcher are also shown in the Mini-launcher at the right of the status bar. Contents of the Mini-launcher can be set under Edit Preferences Panels Show in Launcher.

The next chapter shows how to modify the Objects panels, Dreamweaver menus, and keyboard shortcuts.