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Dreamweaver Templates - How to Save 1000 of Hours Using Them!
Now you may think “OK, you are going to talk about fancy web
templates out there which may save my initial designing efforts”. No, I
am going to talk about “how to make whatever template you choose a
BIG-Time-Saver”.
The most misunderstood aspect of web templates is using them as time
servers. If you use same HTML file and change a particular part and save
it as another web page, you move onto a big mess that can cost you 1000
of hours in the future.
The most phenomenal factor of a web site is “changing”. No matter how
nice your template looking now, you will want to change it (For adding a
special offer to every page etc).
Think, by the time you will have 100 web pages and if you used “Save As”
method you will have to open up all 100 pages and make the necessary
change 100 times.
How about doing the change one time and making all 100 pages changed at
the same time? Cool, ha? Now let’s move onto the practical side of doing
this.
I assume you can work with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX (Tip: Free trial
for Dreamweaver is available at http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/).
(1) First create a root folder anywhere in your hard disk.
(2) Open Dreamweaver and select Site>New site…
(3) Dreamweaver asks several questions including your server
information. Give a memorable name to your site. You can omit server
information and answer them later.
(4) When it asks “Where on your computer do you want to store your
files?” choose the root folder you created above.
(5) After setting up your new site, open your HTML file which contain
your default site layout (Note: Before opening, save this file and its
contents in the root folder you created).
(6) Select File>Save as Template… In the dialog box, check weather the
site name you gave has been selected and give a name to your template.
Dreamweaver will automatically create a folder called “Templates” in
your root folder and save the template in it (Note: Don’t rename or move
this Templates folder).
(7) Select a particular part that may get changed from page to page
(Like a special table cell where you add body content).
(8) Select Insert>Template Objects>Editable Region and give a name. Then
save the changes.
Editable regions allow you to add unique content to each page. Define
appropriate editable regions in your template, especially for head and
body.
To define editable regions, I prefer direct coding.
<!-- TemplateBeginEditable name="Region-Name" -->
Your unique content is here.
<!-- TemplateEndEditable -->
Give different names for each editable region. Your editable region
exists between above tags.
(9) To create a new page using this template select,
File>New>Template-tab>Site-Name>Template-Name. You will notice that
except the editable regions, all other parts of the page are “not
editable”.
Whenever you want to make a change to all pages do it on the template
(Outside of editable regions) and save it. Dreamweaver will ask about
updating related pages and will do it with a one click. Dreamweaver
makes only the original change you made and doesn’t add any crazy codes
to your pages.
That’s it! You have created a huge time saver. Use this time to improve
your site ontent.
Feel free to use this article on your web site, blog or in ezine as long
as the full content is displayed without any alteration and all active
web links remain as they are.
Copyright © HomeBizPal.com All Rights Reserved.
The author Gayanath Jayarathne is the founder of HomeBizPal.com. As he
says "Working with a template is only a one step of designing a
successful web site. There are 11 steps more". Find them all at How to
Create Your Own Web Site.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gayanath_Jayarathne