prevent you from drawing a new table under the existing one. When you finish drawing all your tables, press Ctrl+Shift+I again to redisplay the visual aids. 7. Switch back to Layout mode to continue the editing process for the new table. NOTE If you draw a layout table in the middle of an empty document, Dreamweaver creates it as a table nested inside a larger table. If this isn't what you intended to happen, undo, and try redrawing.   With the new table drawn and firmly in place, manipulating properties such as width and height in Layout mode are effortless and much more straightforward than they are in Standard mode. For instance, to change the width or height, simply click, hold, and drag the table's selection handles until we reach the desired width or height. Although this is certainly simple enough, it's even more precise when you use the features in the Properties Inspector. As you can see from Figure 6.39, these properties are slightly different from those exposed when the table is in Standard mode. Figure 6.39. The Properties Inspector supports basic table formatting options while in Layout mode. [View full size image]   The following list details the properties shown in callouts for Figure 6.39: Fixed Width and Height: Sets a width and height in pixels for your table. The table is considered a fixed width and remains the specific width and height even if the user expands the page in the browser. Autostretch: Autostretch is the term given to tables in Layout mode that are set to percentage values. Our Header table (the layout table we created first) for instance, could be considered an autostretch table since it stretches the width of the browser window regardless of browser width. Again, we'll autostretch this table soon. Background Color: Sets the background color of the table. Cell Padding and Cell Spacing: Sets the table's cell padding or cell spacing based on a pixel value entered in these text boxes. To make our table consistent with the Content table we inserted in the index.htm page, select the second layout table and enter values of 3 for cell padding and 5 for cell spacing. Clear Row Heights: Allows you to quickly remove the height of the table. This option is also available from the Table Widths Visual Aid menu. Make All Widths Consistent: If you have fixed-width cells in your layout, choosing this option makes the cell widths match their apparent width on the screen. When you enable the Make All Widths Consistent option, Dreamweaver resets the width specified in the HTML for each cell in the table to match the width of the content within that cell. Remove All Spacer Images: Choosing this option removes spacer images from your layout table. Used specifically with autostreched tables, spacer images are transparent images used to control the spacing in your layout. Remove Nesting: Removes a nested table without losing its contents. When the nested table is removed, the layout cells (mentioned in the next section) that it contained become part of the outer table. Class: You can apply CSS styles to your tables by selecting a created class from this menu. CSS is covered in more detail in the next chapter. Now that you have an idea about how tables are inserted into the page, let's move on to adding cells.