Creating a Dynamic Template

[kaus]

Ok I read previously about how to create the template and have all your links, affiliate stuff inserted so you don't need to do each page individually. My question is I have pretty much my entire index done. Can I still use this approach and make this my custom template than just edit the actual information or will I muck it up? I just dont want to start screwing around with the page and make a big mess again. Thank you

[losercore]

If your site is static and you have an HTML index page you should get everything done and then save a copy of it as a template file and have all new pages created off this template. This is the FrontPage/Expressions approach of course

If you are using Dreamweaver learn how to use templates. It will be a life saver

[kaus]

Thank you

[xpertadvice4u]

Originally Posted by kaus

Ok I read previously about how to create the template and have all your links, affiliate stuff inserted so you don't need to do each page individually. My question is I have pretty much my entire index done. Can I still use this approach and make this my custom template than just edit the actual information or will I muck it up? I just dont want to start screwing around with the page and make a big mess again. Thank you

Are you talking about Content Management Software (CMS)?

Allows you to make edits that can apply to all pages - or subgoups - at the same time?

[kaus]

To be honest I have no clue what I am talking about technically speaking. I tried using my index page and saving it as a dynamic template however when I went to start a new html page using that dynamic template it would not work. It said that there were no editable regions within that page. So I am just going to take the long route and do it myself just to make sure that I don't muck things up.

[ThePokerBank]

I would also like to know a little about this.

I have got an entire site (60+ pages) that is based around the exact same template except for the index page which is slightly different. Would I have to alter each existing page to another format, so that when I change one editable region of the template, it will have an affect on the rest of the pages?

I hope someone catches my drift.

[losercore]

Originally Posted by ThePokerBank

I would also like to know a little about this.

I have got an entire site (60+ pages) that is based around the exact same template except for the index page which is slightly different. Would I have to alter each existing page to another format, so that when I change one editable region of the template, it will have an affect on the rest of the pages?

I hope someone catches my drift.

If you never started with a template in the begging then yes. By template I mean creating the file as a template in Dreamweaver. you will need to alter each page. But what you do is a find and replace on the entire site. Copy the code you want changed, added whatever and do a find and replace throught the whole site. This is dangerous so make a copy of your site folder before so you can always go back. It works great though.

[kaus]

Sorry to bump this but I have made a .dwt. So to try it out I would use a test page. I selected my editable regions for my .dwt than took my test page and attached the dynamic template. It worked except it is overlapping. Literally one page on top of another. I am curious as to what I did wrong.

I was hoping to figure this out as I have changed from buttons to normal links for my navigation and tonight has been 3 hours of hell. Each link and symbol has been manually entered, fonts changed one at a time, colour all that throughout the pages. If someone could help me figure out why I can't get the .dwt to work right I would appreciate it ???

[ThePokerBank]

Originally Posted by offyourface

Sure, take your index page and under file menu click save as template and name it whatever you want. Now your going to want to take your table where you have all your main content and just click on one of the edges so it highlights the whole table. Once highlighted, go under insert and then template objects, then editable region. Basically, this step is giving you an editable region in your template. Name the editable region something like main. Then click save. Now you are ready to create a page from this template, simply go to file, then new, then click on templates on the top beside general, make sure your looking at the very top and not under general as that can get confusing since that has a html template option also. Now that your under the template menu, find your main template and hit create. You have just created a new page from your main template. You will see the editable region in the middle of the page where your main content goes, this is where you can put any content you want. Save the page accordingly.

Now the beauty of the template, lets say you wanted to add a Nake Poker Girls page in your left nav. You would simply open up your main template, put the new link there and when you hit save, it will automatically ask if you want to update all pages created from that template. Click yes and it will update all pages created from that template in one swoop. Then reupload the pages and your golden.

Also, just create a new editable region in your main template where ever you might want to put something that is subject to change, such as a banner.

I was completely new to dynamic templates before, but offyourface gave this great short tutorial on how to create them. Just follow this guide and you should be fine, it worked well for me.

[kaus]

Ok I think I have it but my last question is you can only use this for new pages you create right? It doesn't seem to work on pages that were not created from that template