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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
(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.
Your unique content is
here.
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.
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