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the design to better fit your site. Creating Your Own Templates Creating a template is as easy as creating any other file in Dreamweaver. You can
start by creating an HTML page as you would any other page (or modifying an existing page as you would edit any other page). The main difference is that when you save the file you save it as a template and the file is stored in a special Templates folder, which Dreamweaver automatically creates in the main folder for your Web site. Templates must be kept in this common folder for the automated features in Dreamweaver to work properly. The template features work only if you define your Web site in Dreamweaver. If you havent gone through the setup process to define your site yet, refer to Chapter 2. Custom templates created in Dreamweaver have locked (noneditable) regions and unlocked (editable) regions. Use editable regions for content that changes, such as product descriptions or events in a calendar. Use locked regions for static, unchanging content, such as a logo or site navigation elements. Figure 4-2: You can edit a page created from a Dreamweaver design file much like you would edit any other page. Chapter 4: Coordinating Your Design Work 93 For example, if youre publishing an online magazine, the navigation options may not change from page to page, but the titles and stories do. To indicate the style and location of an article or headline, you can define placeholder text (an editable region, with all the size and font attributes already specified). When youre ready to add a new feature, you simply select the placeholder text and either paste in a story or type over the selected area. You do the same thing to create a placeholder for an image. While youre editing the template itself, you can make changes to any part of the file, be it the editable or locked regions. While editing a document made from a template, however, you can make changes only to the editable regions of the document. If you go back and change a template after creating it, Dreamweaver gives you the option of having those changes updated in all the pages you created with that template. You can create both editable regions and editable attributes in a Dreamweaver template. An editable region can be changed in files created from the template - you alter text, replace images, and even add tables, images, text, and so on. Editable attributes relate only to specific elements in a template. For example, you may want to make the attributes of an image editable to allow the alignment to be changed from left to right. In a new template, all elements are locked by default except for two parts of the document head section, which is indicated by the <HEAD> </HEAD> tags. These tags enable you to change the title in any page created from a template, or to insert JavaScript if you use behaviors on the page. For the template to be of much use for building new pages, you must make areas in the body of the page editable as well. Remember that you can always go back to the template later to alter the design, make more areas editable, or lock areas so they cant be changed. Creating a new custom template To create a template that you can use to create new pages, follow these steps: 1. In the Files panel on the right side of the work area, click the Assets
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- the design to better fit your site. Creating Your Own Templates Creating a template is as easy as creating any other file in Dreamweaver. You can