Adobe® Dreamweaver® CS5 Bible

Chapter 28. Using Dreamweaver Templates

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Working with templates

• Building your own templates

• Working with editable and locked regions

• Dreamweaver Technique: Converting a Page to a Template

• Setting up repeating regions

• Dreamweaver Technique: Applying Additional Editable Regions

• Inserting optional regions

• Creating nested templates

• Evaluating template expressions

• Modifying the default Web page

• Managing InContext Editing

Let's face it: Web design is a combination of glory and grunt work. Creating the initial design for a Web site can be fun and exciting, but when you have to implement your wonderful new design on 200 or more pages, the excitement fades as you try to figure out the quickest way to finish the work. Enter templates. Using templates properly can be a tremendous timesaver. Moreover, a template ensures that your Web site has a consistent look and feel, which, in turn, generally means that it's easier for users to navigate.

In Dreamweaver, you can produce new documents from a standard design saved as a template, just as you do in a word processing program. Furthermore, you can alter a template and update all the files that were created from it earlier; this capability extends the power of the repeating element Libraries to overall page design. Templates also form the bridge to one of the key technologies shaping the Web — Extensible Markup Language (XML).

Dreamweaver now also works with a different kind of template: one that allows your clients to edit their content right ...