Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Designer 2007 Bible

13.1. Working with Dynamic Web Templates

Dynamic Web templates (DWTs) is an HTML-based SharePoint Designer feature that allows you to create templates and then use them on Web pages of your Web site. As mentioned earlier, you design the template in a DWT template file (having the extension .dwt) and then place unique areas called editable regions at the required locations in the template file. After you create the template file, you can either create new pages based on it or attach it to existing pages.

NOTE

To be able to use DWTs on your Web site, you need to enable the use of hidden metadata. You can do this by clicking the Manage the Web site using hidden metadata check box in the General tab of the Site Settings dialog box. To open this dialog box, choose Site Site Settings.

13.1.1. Creating and attaching dynamic Web templates

In this section, I take you through the steps to create a dynamic Web template and then add editable regions to it. Then, I show you how you can create new pages based on this template:

1. Open your Web site in SharePoint Designer and then choose Site Site Settings to open the Site Settings dialog box. Ensure that the Manage the Web site using hidden metadata check box is selected.

2. Choose View Toolbars Dynamic Web Template to enable the Dynamic Web Template ...