Things you want to know about websites

 

Make a template in Dreamweaver

You have seen how to define an html site in dreamweaver. Lets move on and make a template for our website.

Templates are very useful. They are like a die which you can use to mold your designs again and again.

Since the basic web site design remains same throughout a website, you can just make a template once and then create all other pages of your website from that template.

In this guide i will show you how to make an html site template and make a web page from it. Lets start.

1. Run Dreamweaver. Click File menu and select New.

dreamweaver template

2. In the New Document window, select Blank Template, Html template and 3 Column Fixed header and Footer. I am choosing this just for example. You can choose whatever design you like. To understand the difference between all these layouts available see this guide to CSS layouts. Click Create.

dreamweaver template

3. Now Dreamweaver will create a 5 section page with 3 columns. If you want to see more about different section layouts used in web design, see my guide to Designing layouts.

4. Lets give it a title, make some changes to the text and give it a simple navigation.

dreamweaver template

5. Now, we have to define the editable regions. I am only making the main content section editable, while leaving the rest non editable.

First Select the main content region. Then click Insert, select Template Objects and Editable region.

dreamweaver editable region

6. Enter the name of this editable region and click Ok. An editable region will be created.

First Select the main content region. Then click Insert, select Template Objects and Editable region.

7. This example template is now done. You can see your template listed in template folder in Files Panel.

8. Lets make a page from this template.

Click File, select New. Then select Page from Template, Exmaple site and Example tempate. A page just like the template will be created.

dreamweaver template page

Save the page and now you can see it in the Files panel.

dreamweaver template page

You can only edit the main content section in this page and the rest is locked.

In this way you can create as many pages you want from your template.

If you want to change some things in your design like colour , font size , font family, block positioning or anything, just make the change in the template, save it and update it. In this way the changes will automatically be applied to all the web pages created from that template.

Remember only the changes made in non editable sections are applied to the whole website.


Bookmark or Add to Favourites

Related:

Define an html website in Dreamweaver
Upload files using Dreamweaver
Design website from a ready make Template

Link to this page :

Copy and paste the following code in an html document to link to this page,