USING DREAMWEAVER TEMPLATES

Introduction | Creating a Template | Using Editable Regions
Creating New Pages | Converting Existing Pages | Updating Templates
Additional Resources

Using Editable Regions

What is an editable region?

Dreamweaver uses this term to describe an area of your Web page template that can be edited within Dreamweaver on Web pages created from this template. For example, if you want a content area to be different on each page you need to define a content area of your template as an "editable region." After you create a new Web page from your template only these editable regions can be modified. Other areas of the Web page are locked, preventing you (or another Web designer) from accidentally changing an area that should remain consistent on each page.

Dreamweaver supports four different regions in a template: editable regions, editable attributes, optional regions and repeating regions. Only editable regions are covered in this tutorial. For information on using the other region types, please refer to the Additional Resources page.

Making content editable

1. Now that you have created your template you need to define areas as editable regions. Identify areas of your Web page where you want information to change from one Web page to the next - such as a content area.
2. If you do not already have your template file open in Dreamweaver, open the file from the Templates folder in your site.
3. Click inside the area you want to make an editable region.
   • The simplest way to create an editable region is to create a table to act as the editable region (as in the example). Since Dreamweaver uses a complete HTML tag set as an editable region (like <table>...</table>), this method gives you maximum flexibility on the content that you place in this editable area.
     
     To do this, insert a one row by one column table in the area of the Web page that will contain the editable area. Type some sample text to remind you what you will need to place here later.
4. Click the HTML tag at the bottom of the Document window to select the HTML tag set that will contain your new editable region. If using a 1x1 table, select the <table> tag, or select the <td> tag to select the cell of the table. You may also right-click inside the table and choose Table > Select Table from the pop-up menu.
5. Select Insert > Template Objects > Editable Region. Alternatively, right-click inside the area and select Templates > New Editable Region from the pop-up menu.
6. Name your editable region or accept the default value and click OK. You should now see a thin box around your editable region with the name of the region above your content in the shape of a tab, as shown in the image to the right. This only appears in the Design View of Dreamweaver and will not appear in the browser.
7. Repeat steps 3 through 6 above to create additional editable regions in your template. Remember to save your changes by selecting File > Save.

You are now ready to begin creating new Web pages from your template.

Removing an editable region

1. Within Dreamweaver, open your Web page template you want to modify. Template pages are located in the Templates folder.
2. Right-click inside the editable region you want to remove and select Templates > Remove Template Markup from the pop-up menu. Alternatively, click inside the editable region and select Templates > Remove Template Markup from the Modify menu.

Next page --> Creating New Pages