How to Insert Animated GIFs in Dreamweaver

By C. Taylor

Although Flash dominates website animation, animated GIFs are still a viable solution for short animations. An advantage that GIFs have over Flash animation is GIFs do not require a specialized plug-in to view in your customer's browser. Furthermore, GIFs are playable even in outdated browsers. Animated GIFs can be easily added to your website using Adobe Dreamweaver's design mode, which frees you from manually writing code.

Open your HTML page in Adobe Dreamweaver and click the location where you want the animated GIF to appear.

Click "Insert" in the top menu and select "Image." Alternatively, hold the "Ctrl" and "Alt" keys down and press "I".

Double-click the animated GIF from the "Select Image Source" window. If your animated GIF resides online, enter its full address in the "URL" field instead and click "OK."

Click "OK" if you see a warning that your document needs to be saved.

Enter the "Alternate Text" and "Long Description" and click "OK." These items simply describe the image in case a user has images turned off or there's a delay in loading the image.

Hold the "Ctrl" key and press "S" to save the page.

Upload both the updated page and the animated GIF to your server. If the GIF already resides online, then you do not need to upload it.

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