Editing the HTML source formatting profile

The HTML source formatting profile determines how Dreamweaver formats the HTML source code for a document. The profile includes formatting preferences for individual tags and groups of tags, along with the HTML Format preferences (set with the Preferences command). You can edit SourceFormat.profile in a text editor for precise control over how Dreamweaver writes HTML. The profile is a text file saved in the Configuration folder within the Dreamweaver application folder.

HTML Format preferences set with the Preferences command are saved in SourceFormat.profile when you quit Dreamweaver, and changes made to the profile do not take effect until you restart Dreamweaver. Thus, to ensure access to the new preference settings, you should quit the program before editing the profile.

The HTML source formatting profile follows a specific format, which is outlined in the file. Note the following conventions:

	Each section of the profile begins with a `<?KEYWORD>` (for example, `<?OPTIONS>, <?ELEMENTS>, <?ATTRIBUTES>`).
	The parameters for each section are defined within HTML comments (`<!-- -->`) directly above the section.
	The `OMIT` line in the `<?OPTIONS>` section is reserved for future use (it currently does not affect HTML source formatting).
	Individual tags can be marked as belonging to indention groups (`IGROUP`s) in the `<?ELEMENTS>` section. By default, `IGROUP 1` contains table rows and columns, and `IGROUP 2` contains framesets and frames. These groupings correspond to the Indent Table Rows and Columns and Indent Framesets and Frames options in the HTML Format Preferences dialog box. Indention can be turned off for the entire group by removing its number from the `ACTIVE` attribute in the `<?OPTIONS>` section. You can also add other tags to `IGROUP 1` or `2` so you can control them with the options in the HTML Format Preferences.

For example, the default settings for the P tag in SourceFormat.profile are <P BREAK="1,0,0,1" INDENT>, which produces the following:

<p> A paragraph of text that is indented from the left margin, and that has a break 
    before the opening P tag and after the closing P tag, but not after the opening P and
    not before the closing P.</p>
<p>Next paragraph.</p>

If you change the settings to <P BREAK="1,1,1,2">, you will get:

<p>
A paragraph of text that is not indented from the left margin, and that has one break 
before and after the opening P tag, one break before the closing P tag, and two breaks 
after the closing P tag.
</p>

<p>
Next paragraph.
</p>