The Dreamweaver Template - A tutorial on using Templates in
Dreamweaver
What is a Template?
 A template
is a common structure of a web site that most of your web pages
use. Usually web sites follow a standard structure, for e.g. you
would have a header, a navigation bar and a footer that is
common to all your pages. Imagine that your site has 25 pages.
If you need to make one small change, let's say adding a new
link, you would need to go to each of those 25 pages and change
it manually. But using a template you only need to change it in
the template and all the pages get updated automatically. Here
you will learn how to use templates in Dreamweaver.
Making a Template in Dreamweaver
Step 1:
Make your web page as usual with the basic structure of the
site. This should be common to most of the pages in your site.
Note: Don't put unique content in this page.
Step 2:
Once you have created the structure go to File and click
on Save As Template, give a name to the template and
click on Save.
Step 3:
Notice the blue bar on top says <<Template>>. You now are in the
Template. The template is automatically saved under a folder
called templates. Note: You can create as many templates as you
like. If you are using different layouts for different sections
of your site you can use different templates for each of the
sections.
Step 4:
Now you need to make parts of the template
editable so that you can put in content and add information that
is unique to parts of the site. As the main content of the pages
will keep changing let's make that region editable. E.g. The
white space in the middle of the Entheos site is obviously an
editable region, as this content is unique to each page.
To make an area editable you need your cursor to
be in that location, then go to Modify/Template/New Editable
Region, give an appropriate name and if you are successful
you will notice a light blue with the name of the editable
region in your cursor's location.
You can continue to make changes, try different
layouts, add new stuff etc. in the Template.
Using a Template in Dreamweaver
Once you have successfully made your Template
your job is not yet over. You still need to make sure that all
the pages are using the Template so that when you update the
Template the pages using the Template will automatically get
updated. Here are the steps to Apply a template to a page.
Step 1:
Once you have created a page which will the same structure as
the template all you need to do is, Go to
Modify/Template/Apply Template to page
Step 2:
Once you have applied the specified
template to the page you will see a window 'Choose editable
region for orphaned content', choose the editable region that
you want the content to go into and click on OK. You will see
that the template is in yellow and cannot be edited. The only
region that is editable is the editable region you have
specified in the template.
Note: You can apply the template before writing any
content or after it. If you do it after writing content you need
to choose an editable region where the content will go.
Updating a Template in Dreamweaver
Once you have made the template and applied it to
all the necessary pages, the last step you need to know is how
to update a template. This is the magic of using Templates.
Any changes that you need to make in the basic
structure of the site, you need to do in the Template. So go
ahead and make the changes and click on save. If you have
applied the Template to any of your site pages you will get a
window asking you if you want to 'Update Templates used in the
following files'. You must click on Update. If you click
on Don't Update, none of the pages using the Template will get
updated.
This covers all you need to know about using
Templates in Macromedia Dreamweaver. Another huge time saver you
need to know about is Server Side Includes. For e.g. Though the
structure of the Entheos site is the same in all the pages, the
header and the content in some of the menus change according to
sections of the site. Find how how we did it using Sever Side
Includes.
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