Sophie the cat

Building A Template Page

Start by setting up a page in DreamWeaver that follows your layout as I did here. I placed a banner image in a banner area (put your logo here). I added a navigation bar with working links to all my pages. I could have created an area to place my Page Name. On this page I included it in the Content Area. I placed text in the Content Area. I wanted my pages to be a consistent length so in the styles for the ID of this DIV area I added overflow: auto. I added a footer with my footer information. Be sure to have your styles saved in a CSS external style sheet.

Once you are happy with your layout, it is time to save your page. Save the page as a Template page. Go to FILE >> Save as a Template. If it asks you about updating any links, say NO, if you will be saving your page where you originally created it. -- the book said yes-- but it didn't work for me. The file that is created has an extention of .dwt. This stands for DreamWeaver Template.

Editable Areas

The area I wanted to be Editable on this page is only the Content area. Select the text in this area. Choose INSERT >> Template Objects >> Editable Region. An Editable Region Box should pop up. I named my Editable Region - CONTENTArea and pressed ok. This area will be editable on all the pages I build from this template file. If I had another Editable area on this page I would repeat this, but on this specific template I only have one area I want to be able to change.

Choose FILE >> SAVE to save your Template. You may see a warning about putting an editable region with in a block area, press ok.

Creating New Pages From Your Template

To use your new Template page to create pages, click on the Assets Panel (next to FILES in the right panel area). CLick on the templates icon and select the template you created. In the upper right hand corner, press the ASSETS panel menu and choose NEW from Template. A new untitled document based on your Template will open. Choose FILE >> SAVE, navigate out of the Template folder to your working folder and save your new page. The uneditable areas will be grayed out, the Editable areas will be accessible. I add my new text and images here.

Create as many pages as you need to match, from the same template.

Changes to the Template

If you need to make changes to all these pages in the non-editable areas, go back to your original Template File and make the changes there. Probably the most common change would be to your navigation area or your footer. All the changes you make to the Template will automatically update on the pages you have created from this Template file.