Software Articles

Dreamweaver templates are one of the program’s most powerful features. Templates allow you to control and update the appearance of an entire site. They are one of the features covered in detail on our Dreamweaver training courses. This article looks at how to set up, apply and modify templates. Templates facilitate site management by allowing you to modify and update several pages at once. A template is a web document (HTML, ASP, ASP.NET, etc. ) which contains a combination of locked elements and editable regions. When creating a new document, if you opt to base it on a template, the page will inherit all of the elements which the template contains. You individualise the page by modifying the content of the editable areas. If you later modify the template, all of the pages which are based on it can be automatically updated.

You can create templates from scratch or you can take an existing document and convert it into a template. To create a template from scratch

1. Choose File – New to display the New Document Window.

2. Click on New Template in the first column of the New Document window.

3. In the second column, specify the type of template you want ((HTML, ASP, ASP.NET, etc. ).

4. In the third column, you may optionally choose one of Dreamweaver’s preset CSS layouts or click None to start with a blank page.

5. Should you decide to use one of the CSS layout, in the forth column, you will need to specify whether the necessary code is placed in the head of the document, in a new CSS file or an existing one.

6. Finally, click Create to generate your new template.

When you create your first template in any site, Dreamweaver creates a special Templates folder which it stores in the root folder of the site. All templates are automatically stored in this folder. You can also take a regular HTML document and convert it into a template.

1. Open the document that you intend to convert into a template.

2. From the File menu, choose Save As Template.

3. Type in a name for the new template and click Save.

All of the elements that you place on a template will be locked. They will appear on each page based on the template but will not be editable. To create the locked regions of a template

1. In the templates folder, double-click the name of the template you wish to edit.

2. Create the elements which you wish to appear on every page.

3. All of these elements will remain automatically locked and unchangeable on all pages based on the template.

4. If you save the changes you have made to the template at this point, Dreamweaver will remind you that you have not yet created any editable regions. Click OK.

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Layers are a feature in several programs within the Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator and InDesign. Their function differs from program to program but, in general, the use of layers serves to offer flexibility of composition. Items of related content can be placed on their own individual layers. Layers can then be made visible or hidden or can be locked to prevent their content being changed. Equally, the stacking order of layers can be changed to determine which elements are displayed in front of which other elements. Layers are not always required when creating documents in InDesign but they can beneficial in several situations.

1. The most common scenario is where you need to produce several different versions of a publication. For example, there may be one version of a catalogue for in-house use and another for clients; or you may need to create different language versions of the same document.

2. Another situation in which layers is useful is where certain page elements take a long time to redraw. For example, if you’re creating a large poster with a high resolution background image, you may find it useful to place it on a separate layer and hide the layer when you are working on other elements.

3. Since layers can be made none-printing simply by hiding them, it is also possible to use layers to store text and other elements which are relevant to the publication but are not to be included in the final version. Such layers could also be used for comments and reminders and can simply be deleted once the publication has been completed.

4. Complex page layouts often require the creation and intricate manipulation of many different InDesign elements. This process can sometimes be made much easier by placing elements on a series of layers.

5. PowerPoint users often complain that elements placed the slide master will always be behind elements placed on the slides. Whilst the same if true of InDesign master page elements, using layers allows to overcome this fact. Simply place all those items which need to be front-most on a separate layer and move that layer to the top of the heap.

6. Layers can also be useful when creating a document by using a similar publication as a template. A full sized scan of the original document can be placed on a locked background layer and used to ensure that each part of the layout is in the right place, has the right dimensions and so forth.

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