In Dreamweaver, you can change your interface color preferences using Edit > Preferences > Interface.

You can choose between four different color themes, and select a light or dark code theme.

After you set your color and code theme, you can further personalize your code colors in Dreamweaver by editing the selectors in the in-built main.less file.

The main.less file opens in Dreamweaver, and you can now edit the selectors in the theme to customize your code colors.

The Code view refreshes with the new colors when you save the main.less file.

Before you jump into editing the selectors in the main.less file, take a few minutes to read through the comments and instructions within the theme file. If you are still not sure which selector to edit, refer the following resources:

  • Understanding selectors - Reference tables providing information on the code elements that are impacted by a particular selector
  • Use the Token Inspector - Use the Token Inspector to "inspect" a particular file and highlight the code elements impacted by a particular selector.
  • If you want to edit the code colors for comments, or adjust the highlighting color of paired tags, see the example code snippets listed in Code customization examples .
  • Now that you know the selectors that you need to edit, make the changes to the main.less file.

    Type in the selectors for the code elements whose colors you want to edit. Use syntax similar to the following example:

    .cm-tag {color: #00D0D0; }

    Group multiple selectors if you want to assign the same color for multiple elements. In the following example, multiple selectors separated by commas, are assigned a single color.

    .cm-atom, .cm-string, .cm-string-2, .cm-hr {color: #cf681d;}

    Open package.json in a text editor.

    On Windows: %appdata%\Adobe\Dreamweaver CC 2017\en_US\Configuration\Brackets\extensions\user\\

    On Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Dreamweaver CC 2017/en_US/Configuration/Brackets/extensions/user//

    Add the following line in theme{}:

    .CodeMirror-matchingbracket, .CodeMirror-matchingtag {
        /* Ensure visibility against gray inline editor background */
        background-color: #B53A3A;
        color: #fff!important;

    To change the colors of your code elements, edit the properties of the selectors in the main.less file.

    However, before you jump into modifying the selectors in main.less file, it is important to know what the different selectors mean, and the code elements they impact. Review the following table to understand the code elements in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP files that are impacted by these selectors.

    You can also use the Token Inspector to understand the code elements that are impacted by a particular selector.

    .cm-atom  Entity names such as &nbsp; Color in hexadecimal, RGB, or HSL format, predefined attribute values such as strong, none, auto, inherit, and so on. true, false, null, undefined, NaN, Infinity True, False, Null and magic constants such as __LINE__, __DIR__, and so on .cm-attribute  Attribute Name Media types such as all, braille, print, screen, and so on .cm-bracket Tag brackets such as <, >, /> and </ .cm-builtin  ID selector Built-in functions such as htmlspecialchars, trim, substr, and so on .cm-comment  Comment Comment Comment Comments .cm-def  "@ rule" variable, function definition and function parameter  The function name in function definition  .cm-error  Closing tags without a starting tag
    Missing a quotation for a attribute value Error because of missing  { or } brackets or missing quotes for a property value or unrecognized property .cm-keyword  Color names, !important, keywords in @media like and, only, and so on. Control structure keywords (if, else, …), in, of, from, default, public, private, and so on Keywords like function, if, else, new, echo, isset, and so on .cm-meta  <!DOCTYPE> Declaration Browser specific prefixes such as -webkit-, -o-, and so on Ellipsis in spread syntax. Example: myFunction(...iterableObj); <!DOCTYPE> Decleration and PHP start and end tags: <?php, ?> .cm-number  Any number with or without a unit Any number like 12, 2.1, 123e-5, 0x11, 0b11, 0o11, and so on Any number like 12, 2.1, 0x11, 0b11, 0123, 5.0E+19, and so on. .cm-operator  Operators: +, -, *, +=, !==, &&, >>>, and so on Operators like ===, &&, !, =>, +, -, and so on .cm-property  Property name Object property or method .cm-qualifier  Class selector .cm-string  attribute value Regular string, like one passed to a url() call, font name within quotes, and so on. Literal string Literal string .cm-string-2  Non standard properties like scrollbar-arrow-color, scrollbar-base-color, and so on. Regular expressions .cm-tag  Tag name Tag selector .cm-variable  Font names without quotes Global variables/functions, class references User defined function names, interface/class references, class properties, casts,  .cm-variable-2  Custom properties such as main-bg-color Scoped variables/functions references User defined and predefined variables, parameters or attributes .cm-variable-3 Pseudo-classes such as :hover, and :focus, and pseudo-elements such as ::first-letter, ::selection, and so on

    Change the mode of the file by typing in the filename extension and clicking Change mode .

    For example, if it is an HTML file, then change the filename extension to html. The page updates to reflect the change in mode and states the current mode at the top of the page.