Dreamweaver help please?

Question

I am trying to create a custom template in dreamweaver for a university project. I want a frame down the left hand side with a selection of different links to different parts of the site and a header along the top of the screen, I want to be able to open this template and be able to leave the frame on the left hand side and the top as they are all the time and just be able to edit the main body of the page. I have been trying to do this now for hours but I am getting no closer to a solution. Can anyone please help?

Answer 1

You are talking about creating a template. Frames are completely outdated, and should be avoided like the plague as they are not supported universally.



In dreamweaver, you will start a new file or website. Select Master Page as the type of page you are creating. From there, you can select New Page from Template and select that master page. The best way to do this is to create a website first, and from there the master page you created will always be easily found. In the master page, you need to create editable regions that will contain the content that is different on each page. You can do that by right clicking and selecting "Template" options.

Answer 2

A Dreamweaver template is one way to go, but whenever you update the template, you will need to re-upload all pages that use that template. If your site is small, that's ok.



If you plan on having a larger site, I'd recommend using server side includes. You'd create a side navigation file and a top banner file and insert the includes into the code of each page. Then if you update the navigation file, the whole site will update.



I'll give you some links for either method.

For SSI you will either need to name your files with the proper extension or enable .html in the control panel.

Answer 3

Hiya.



You should try taking a look at the standard pages already included within the Dreamweaver software. Depending on what version of Dreamweaver you are using (I'm on CS3 here) you should see a splash screen when you first start up Dreamweaver this gives you a whole load of options to Open Recent Items, Create New or Create from Samples. Under Create from samples you may be interested in looking at Starter Page basic or Starter Page Theme.



Hope this helps.



Clare.



http://www.cam-web.co.uk

Answer 4

I think i know what you're talking about. The problem you're having is, if you've already created a template you should be able to create html files using the template you created. If you haven't created the template, well, there a severel ways to go about and cteate templates. You could go to file-new-template, or you could just go to file-new-html and when you save the document you can save that as a template. But before you save the template you have to set some editable regions in your template. To do that select a region in your document, in your case the body part of your template, whether that's sitting on a layer or in a table, and click on insert-template objects-editable region. Now you have an editable region, you can create new html files just by choosing file-new-from template and choose the template you want to use.

Hope it helped to solve your problem

Answer 5

Honestly, this sounds like you want a CMS. Why not learn a bit PHP and use on your site? No need to learn the whole PHP thing but the learn 'Include' part of it. Where you create parts (header, navigation, etc) of a site in different bits and merge them together in one document. Like a puzzle.

Answer 6

I hate using that...try Coral paint shop pro or even pain lol ermmmm so many others wich r easier than that i find that hard