Internet and Businesses Online > Web Design > Dreamweaver Templates - How to Save 1000 of Hours Using Them!
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Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : Gayanath Jayarathne
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.
<![CDATA[<!-- TemplateBeginEditable name="Region-Name" -->]]>
Your unique content is here.
<![CDATA[<!-- 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.
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