Dreamweaver MX: The Missing Manual

Update a Template

Templates aren’t just useful for building pages rapidly; they also make quick work of site updates. Pages created from templates maintain a link to the original template file; you can automatically pass changes to a template along to every page built from it. If you used templates to build your site, you probably won’t cry on your keyboard when the boss says you must add an additional button and link to the navigation bar. Instead of rebuilding every page, you can simply open the template file, update the navigation bar, and let Dreamweaver apply the update to all the pages.

You update a template (and all the pages based on it) like this:

1. Choose Window → Assets.

   The Assets panel appears.

2. Click the Templates button (see Figure 18-4).

   This reveals a list of the site’s templates.

3. Double-click the template’s name to open it.

   Alternatively, you can select the template in the Assets panel and click the Edit button to open the original template (.dwt) file (see Figure 18-4).

   The template opens.

   Tip

   You can also open a template from the Site Files panel (see page 432.) Just double-click the appropriate template (.dwt) file in the Templates folder.

4. Edit the template as you would any Web page.

   Since this is the original template file, you can edit any of the HTML in the document, including Cascading Style Sheets, meta tags, timelines, and layers. You can also add additional editable regions to the page or remove editable regions (see page 539).

   Take care, however, to edit