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Lessons & Exercises |
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Creating a
Dreamweaver template
Select File >
Save as Template.
NOTE
Unless you selected Don’t Show This Dialog Again in the past, you’ll
receive a warning that says the document you’re saving has no editable
regions. Click OK to save the document as a template.
The Save As Template dialog box appears.
Enter a unique name for the template in the Save As text box. Click
Save.
Dreamweaver saves the template file in the site’s Templates folder
in the local root folder of the site, with a
.dwt filename extension. If the
Templates folder does not already exist in the site, Dreamweaver
automatically creates it when you save a new template.
NOTE
Do not move your templates out of the Templates folder, or put any
non-template files in the Templates folder. Also, do not move the
Templates folder out of your local root folder. Doing so causes errors
in paths in the templates. |
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Inserting an editable
region
Before you insert an
editable region, you should save the document you are working in as a
template.
You can place an editable region anywhere in your page, but consider the
following if you are making a table or a layer editable:
You can mark an entire table or an individual table cell as editable,
but you can’t mark multiple table cells as a single editable region. If
a <td> tag is selected, the editable region includes the region around
the cell; if not, the editable region affects only content inside the
cell.
Layers and layer content are separate elements; making a layer editable
lets you change the position of the layer as well as its contents, but
making a layer’s contents editable lets you change only the content of
the layer, not its position.
To insert an
editable template region:
In the Document window, do one of the following to select the region:
Select the text or content that you want to set as an editable region.
Place the insertion point where you want to insert an editable region.
Do one of the following to insert an editable region:
Select
Insert > Template Objects > Editable Region.
Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Macintosh), then select
Templates > New Editable Region.
In the Common category of the Insert bar, click the arrow on the
Templates button, then select Editable Region.
The Editable Region dialog box appears.
In the Name text box, enter a unique name for the region. Click
OK.
The editable region is
enclosed in a highlighted rectangular outline in the template, using the
highlighting color that is set in preferences. A tab at the upper-left
corner of the region shows the name of the region. If you insert an
empty editable region in the document, the name of the region also
appears inside the region.
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| 3 |
Applying
template
You can apply a
template to an existing document using the Assets panel or from the
Document window. You can undo a template application if necessary.
To apply a template to an existing document using the Assets panel:
Open the document you want to apply the template to.
In the Assets panel (Window > Assets), select the Templates category on
the left side of the panel.
Do one of the following:
Drag the template you want to apply from the Assets panel to the
Document window.
Select the template you want to apply, then click the Apply button at
the bottom of the Assets panel.
If content exists in the document that can’t be automatically assigned
to a template region, the Inconsistent Region Names dialog box appears.
If you have unresolved content, select a destination for the content,
then click OK.
For information about moving existing content to editable regions in the
document, see Resolving inconsistent region names.
To apply a template to an existing document from the Document window:
Open the document you want to apply the template to.
Select Modify > Templates > Apply Template
to Page.
The Select Template dialog box appears.
Choose a template from the list, then click Select.
If content exists in the document that can’t be automatically assigned
to a template region, the Inconsistent Region Names dialog box appears.
If you have unresolved content, select a destination for the content,
then click OK.
For information about moving existing content to editable regions in the
document, see Resolving inconsistent region names.
To undo the template changes:
Select Edit > Undo Apply Template.
The document reverts to its state before the template was applied.
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Homework:
- Create a separate temporary
folder (eg. "testing_template")
- Open Dreamweaver as a new site in
this folder.
- Create simple table layout with
inserted navigational table.
- Save it as a template and insert
editable region.
- From your template create a few
simple pages to simulate a website, saving them as html
documents.
- Apply every page to your template
- Open template and make changes to
non editable region (eg. navigational table) and save
it.
- See if other pages were updated.
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