Dreamweaver templating features allow you to manage repeating sections of your web pages, such as navigation, in a central file. Also see: Library Items and Includes. This tutorial uses Adaptive Menu Magic as its focus, but the techniques you learn are applicable to any PVII menu system or widget.
Dreamweaver Templates are a popular way to manage small and medium-sized web sites. A template carries your complete page layout. One of the most powerful features of templates is the ability to update multiple pages at once.
Templates work locally. When you make changes to the locked (uneditable) regions in your Template, Dreamweaver updates the local copy of each page that is connected to that Template. To see those changes on the internet you must then upload all the pages to your remote server. Our menu systems are designed to be fully compatible with Dreamweaver Templates. The system will recognize that a template is being used and adjust accordingly. This means that you can add a menu to any site that is already using Dreamweaver Templates without needing adjustments, workarounds, or manual coding.
If you are not familiar with Dreamweaver's Template features, please see our Template Primer for more information.
-Open your master Dreamweaver Template file (or create a new Template). The template file will have a DWT file extension and will be inside a folder called Templates in the root of your defined site.
Tip: If you are just beginning to build your site, create and design your home page the way you want it, then add your menu. After your page is completed you can save it as a Dreamweaver Template: File > Save As Template.
-Select the insertion point for the menu. This must be in a Locked (un-editable) Region, which ensures that the menu will propagate to all pages that are based on the template.
-Insert your menu, using the AMM interface.
-Save the template.
Dreamweaver will present an Update Template Files dialog.
-Click the Update button to allow Dreamweaver to update all pages that are based on this template.
The Menu system has now been added to every page that is based on the template.
You can Modify the menu at any time. The Modify system has been designed to work seamlessly when the menu is in a Dreamweaver Template. There are no special considerations required.
-Open the Dreamweaver Template (.dwt) page that contains the menu.
-Place your cursor in the menu.
-Open the menu interface.
-Make your modifications.
-Click the OK button to save the menu changes to your template page.
-Save the template.
Dreamweaver will present an Update Template Files dialog.
-Click the Update button to allow Dreamweaver to update all pages that are based on this template.
In addition to working seamlessly in a locked region, our menu systems also support insertion and modification on a template-based (child) page. This allows you to add the menu to a page that is template-based and contains only editable regions. The system will recognize that the page is based on a template and will adapt accordingly. The menu will be added to the selected editable region and the relevant CSS and JavaScript files will be linked in the document's editable <head> region. No workarounds are required.
If you get an error message stating that the template is locked that means one of 2 things has happened:
A default Dreamweaver template has 2 editable regions in the head. A title region and a region simply called head.
<!-- TemplateBeginEditable name="doctitle" -->
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<!-- TemplateEndEditable -->
<!-- TemplateBeginEditable name="head" -->
<!-- TemplateEndEditable -->
If you do not find these regions in the head of your page, open your DWT file and add them back in.
Dreamweaver manages Templates in your local site. Whenever you edit a Dreamweaver Template file, Dreamweaver updates all local files based on that Template. To complete the job you need to upload all of the files that Dreamweaver updated locally to your Web server.