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Inspiring
October 30, 2021
Question

Dreamweaver Code Editor Drag and Drop

  • October 30, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 856 views

The code editor in DW 21.2 has messed up drag and drop to the point where you can no longer see where the drag is going to be dropped. Up to now, a ghost edit-point cursor has shown exactly where it was going (although it was sometimes hard to see). Now it appears if there is some sort of weird icon near the mouse arrow, but NO indication of where the paste is occurring.

 

This will force me to use an external text editor, which is just another painful step in doing my work. Don't get me wrong, external text editors are great but taking the time to force the external editor every time I want to edit a file is ridiculous.

 

Alternately, I will have to cut/paste each move, now that drag and drop is not controllable any more. Please, undo this "improvement"!

    2 replies

    Participant
    March 20, 2026

    This has bothered me for years, but just now searching for a solution. It’s actually the fault of OS X - the globe icon is a system-level drag-n-drop placeholder. It’d be Wonderful if Adobe would modify Dreamweaver to override the icon and implement the edit-point cursor again.

    #FEATURE_REQUEST!!

    Not that any bug/feature request or “wish form” I’ve ever found a link for actually works… i.e. https://www.adobe.com/go/dw_wishform

    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 21, 2026

    This is unique to Mac OS which Windows users don’t experience. That said, Drag & Drop is an expected workflow for Photoshop & Illustrator. But it’s impractical for working with code.

     

    Most coders prefer the efficiency of keyboard shortcuts. Less wasted motion reaching for the mouse = greater productivity. 

     

    Add these time-saving shortcuts to a Post-It™️ note:

    Shift + Arrow Keys = Select 
    Ctrl/Cmd + A = Select All 
    Ctrl/Cmd + C | V | X =  Copy, Paste, Cut
    Ctrl/Cmd + Tab = Switch to next open tab
    Ctrl/Cmd + F = Find in current document
    Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + F = Find & Replace
    Ctrl/Cmd + G = Go to code line #
    Ctrl/Cmd + N = Open new document
    Ctrl/Cmd + Q = Quit application
    Ctrl/Cmd + S = Save
    Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + S = SaveAs (new filename)
    Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + F11 = Toggle Live/Design view
    Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + U = Upload to server
    Ctrl/Cmd + W = Close current document

    Ctrl/Cmd + Y = Redo last action 
    Ctrl/Cmd + Z = Undo last action

     
    Win🪟Key Shortcuts:
    ==========

    Win + E (File Explorer), Win + D (show/hide desktop), Alt + Tab (switch apps), Win + I (Settings), Ctrl + Shift + Esc (Task Manager), Win + L (lock PC), Win + Shift + S (screenshot), Win + Arrow Keys (snap windows), and Win + V (clipboard history), Win + + [plus] (magnifier), Win + . [dot] (insert emoji). 

     

    Mac Shortcuts:

    ==========

    Cmd + Spacebar (Spotlight search), Cmd + Shift + 3 | 4 | 5 (screenshot, selected area, screen recorder), Ctrl + Cmd + Q (lock screen), Cmd + H (hide windows in current app), Option + Cmd + Esc (force quit app), Ctrl + Cmd + Spacebar (insert emoji).

     

    Hope that helps.

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    Participant
    March 23, 2026

    Not that I don’t appreciate the effort of your reply, but no, this does not help.

    (Was that an AI-generated answer?)

    It’s condescending to falsely claim drag-and-drop is “impractical for working with code” and then copy/paste a laundry list of basic keyboard shortcuts that have nothing to do with the problem. A few simple keyboard shortcuts for copy/paste (cmd+C / cmd+V) are all that’re required to work around the drag-and-drop feature. And not only do “most coders” already know and practice this, but couldn’t care less about the “wasted motion reaching for the mouse” since we’re already using it to scroll.

    What *would be helpful would be for Adobe to simply acknowledge this is a problem for some of its users and offer to address it. But the fact they can’t even manage to maintain a functional feature request form gives me little hope that hey will.

    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 30, 2021

    Dreamweaver is not a drag & drop app.  So not sure what you're attempting to do.

    Which operating system?

    Please elaborate more about your workflow.  Provide a screenshot.

     

     

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    Inspiring
    November 6, 2021

    I am using macOS Monterey (12.0.1).

    As screenshot shows, I am doing code editing directly in the file's code view window. I am editing my local copy of the file, though this new editor problem also appears if I try to directly edit the remote copy of the file. Usually I am editing php code, but for sake of example I have highlighted an HTML5 cell I might want to drag and drop to a different location, say, to be above the cell above, right after the <tr> tag.

    Unfortunately I cannot get a screen capture of what I am seeing, because it is during the time the mouse button is down. Even a time-delay screen capture doesn't grab it for me.

    I am using a right-click and hold to do the dragging. What I had been seeing previously was the editor cursor at the point where the drop was going to go. This moved with the mouse as I did the drag so I would know exactly where the selected code snippet would land when I let go of the mouse.

    Now that cursor has been replaced with some weird kind of "globe" icon which travels with the mouse cursor, yes, but in a specific relative displacement from the mouse, to the right and above. It does not travel to where the code snippet will land, and it does not show me any cursor where it will land.

    This is new behavior with this release of DreamWeaver 21.2, and it is a great hinderance to my editing work.

    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    November 6, 2021

    Monterey was released a very short time ago.  And there are known problems with it including memory leaks and security issues.  I've been advising users to stick with Big Sur for 2-3 months until all the bugs are worked out.  See links below.

    https://www.macrumors.com/2021/11/01/macos-monterey-memory-leak-user-reports/

    https://www.macobserver.com/news/macos-12-0-1-monterey-patches-various-security-problems/

     

    If you continue to experience problems, you may wish to revert to a previous software version.

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert