DW CC 2017 how to get back old F12 functionality

[keithleyson]

Currently the F12 function opens the Live Preview which is good for some specific workflow. However for me I would much prefer the old testing server view.

The new F12 function:

Back to the old F12 function:

[MadanBN]

Right click on the document tab brings up a contextual menu. The entry "Open in Browser" would provide the behavior as to how F12(Preview in Browser) worked in previous versions of Dreamweaver. The same option is also available when you right click on an file in the files panel and chose "Open in Browser".

[keithleyson]

Thanks for your reply.
I actually am using right-click open in browser currently. What I was looking for was getting the original F12 functionality back since that is faster for me, rather than having to look for the file in the Files Panel where there are thousands of files currently.

How can I set the old functionality of F12 back?

[MadanBN · Accepted solution]

We do not have an UI option to turn this back to DW CC 2015 behavior. However this can be done by making a small edit in one of the JS file. Please be warned that by making this change you are going back to older Preview in Browser functionality when invoked from all menus within Dw.

Please copy this file "PIB_Dynamic.js" onto a separate folder on the desktop or some place as a backup to be able to restore it back just in case something goes wrong.

If you are on windows and have installed at the standard location, then Dw would be installed into the folder "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Dreamweaver CC 2017". On Mac it should be "/Applications/Adobe Dreamweaver CC 2017". Under this folder browse to configuration\Menus\MM and open the file PIB_Dynamic.js. Search for the text "dw.browseDocument" and change the last argument to true to make the final code look like  dw.browseDocument(dw.getDocumentPath('document'),theBrowser, "-1"/*help argument*/, false /*use temp doc*/, true);

With this, though the menu would read as Real time preview, it would be mapped back to the older preview in browser and the keyboard shortcut F12 would work as in earlier releases.

[keithleyson]

Thank you!

For my use-case this is what I need. I hope that the next version of DW will incorporate the missing features found in the older versions too. There are a lot of stuff that was removed.

[MadanBN]

Keith could you please highlight the missing features that are of interest to you, so that we can consider adding them back?

[suzane95672743]

Hello,  I was able to restore the old F12 functionality according to your instructions; however, I was recently issued a new laptop with Windows 10 and the change in the js file described above doesn't restore the old F12 functionality.  Could you suggest another fix?  Thank you!

[Jon Fritz]

The same instructions worked on both W7 and W10 in DW CC2017 and CC2018 for me.

Though I did have to save a new copy of the file to my desktop, then drag it into the correct location prompting Admin rights to copy over the old one.

[suzane95672743]

Thank you so much!  The old F12 functionality has been restored! I did exactly as you suggested, saved on desktop and copied over the old one.  THANK YOU!!

[diannadoran]

THANK YOU! So far I am not enjoying the "Real Time Preview" feature at all and much prefer the old "Preview in Browser" feature. One issue that I found is if you try and drag your window in between monitors it "loses" the file.

[keithleyson]

Will review the software this weekend and will come up with a list. Do you have a proper forum where I can post it?

[Abdussalam_K_T]

mkumarbn​

Thanks for solution. it works for me