Now you may think "OK, you are going to talk about fancy web
templates out there which may save my initial designing
efforts". No, I am going to talk about "how to make whatever
template you choose a BIG-Time-Saver".
The most misunderstood aspect of web templates is using them as
time servers. If you use same HTML file and change a particular
part and save it as another web page, you move onto a big mess
that can cost you 1000 of hours in the future.
The most phenomenal factor of a web site is "changing". No
matter how nice your template looking now, you will want to
change it (For adding a special offer to every page etc).
Think, by the time you will have 100 web pages and if you used
"Save As" method you will have to open up all 100 pages and make
the necessary change 100 times.
How about doing the change one time and making all 100 pages
changed at the same time? Cool, ha? Now let's move onto the
practical side of doing this.
I assume you can work with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX (Tip: Free
trial for Dreamweaver is available at
http://www.macromedia.com/downloads/).
(1) First create a root folder anywhere in your hard disk.
(2) Open Dreamweaver and select Site>New site...
(3) Dreamweaver asks several questions including your server
information. Give a memorable name to your site. You can omit
server information and answer them later.
(4) When it asks "Where on your computer do you want to store
your files?" choose the root folder you created above.
(5) After setting up your new site, open your HTML file which
contain your default site layout (Note: Before opening, save
this file and its contents in the root folder you created).
(6) Select File>Save as Template... In the dialog box, check
weather the site name you gave has been selected and give a name
to your template. Dreamweaver will automatically create a folder
called "Templates" in your root folder and save the template in
it (Note: Don't rename or move this Templates folder).
(7) Select a particular part that may get changed from page to
page (Like a special table cell where you add body content).
(8) Select Insert>Template Objects>Editable Region and give a
name. Then save the changes.
Editable regions allow you to add unique content to each page.
Define appropriate editable regions in your template, especially
for head and body.
To define editable regions, I prefer direct coding.
Your unique content is here.
Give different names for each editable region. Your editable
region exists between above tags.
(9) To create a new page using this template select,
File>New>Template-tab>Site-Name>Template-Name. You will notice
that except the editable regions, all other parts of the page
are "not editable".
Whenever you want to make a change to all pages do it on the
template (Outside of editable regions) and save it. Dreamweaver
will ask about updating related pages and will do it with a one
click. Dreamweaver makes only the original change you made and
doesn't add any crazy codes to your pages.
That's it! You have created a huge time saver. Use this time to
improve your site ontent.
About the author:
The author Gayanath Jayarathne is the founder of
HomeBizPal.com. As he says
"Working with a template is only a one step of designing a
successful web site. There are 11 steps more". Find them all at
Ho
w to Create Your Own Web Site.
