Formatting in Dreamweaver is similar to using a standard word processor. Use the Text > Format menu or the Format pop-up menu in the Property inspector to set the default style (Paragraph, Preformatted, Heading 1, Heading 2, and so on) for a block of text.
To change the font, size, color, and alignment of selected text, use the Text menu or the Property inspector, or use styles to define the appearance of all text that belongs to a particular category.
The Text menu commands and the Property inspector apply formatting using standard HTML tags (such as B, FONT, and CODE) that are supported by all popular web browsers. Custom styles use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to define the formatting for all text in a particular class or redefine the formatting for a particular tag (such as H1, H2, P, or LI), and are supported by Netscape Navigator 4.0 and later and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 and later. You can use both styles and HTML formatting within the same page, but as with word processors, formatting applied using the Text menu or Property inspector overrides style sheet formatting for the selected text.
To see an animated introduction to using styles in Dreamweaver, see Formatting text with style sheets.