Template Tutorials

Murray and I have written a compilation of tutorials regarding templates and some of their obscure and possibly undiscovered, to you, methods. We hope that you can walk away with more knowledge of the Dreamweaver MX template elements and that perhaps these tutorials will assist in prompting your creative juices to flow for your implementation of the individual template components.

We have more tutorials planned for the future, so visit our web site often!

Controlling Page Layouts with Templates (DMXZone $1.99)	Dec. 2, 2003
Suppose you want to give a template driven sites content editor(s) (using Contribute or Dreamweaver MX+) a little layout control while retaining the lock facility of the main site images, the navigation system and the footer content. By providing the content editors with some layout control (through provision of several Optional regions), you build in the capacity to allow the content editor... [more]
Creating Parameter Error Checking Routines (DMXZone $1.99)	Nov. 4, 2003
The main reason for building template-driven sites is so that another user can amend the content themselves using Dreamweaver or Contribute without coming to you for small changes and advice - so you need to make the templates as self-explanatory as possible, to avoid having to field lots of queries on which template parameter takes which values, and ending up with just as many questions... [more]
Design Time Style Sheets For Contribute or Dreamweaver (DMXZone $1.99)	Oct. 21, 2003
This project teaches you how to link style sheets to templates, how to manipulate these style sheets using a Template Optional Region (non-editable) and its associated Template parameter. Although CSS support in both Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Macromedia Contribute 2.0 has improved, there are still quite a few CSS-P bugs related to Design view and commands (Macromedia Dreamweaver and/or Macromedia Contribute). A curiously absent feature of Macromedia Contribute is that it doesn't directly support Design Time Style Sheets at all... [more]
Templates: Locking/Unlocking Code Outside HTML Tags (DMXZone $1.99)	Sept. 30, 2003
One of the more complex template functions to wrap the ol' noggin around is Dreamweaver MXs capability to lock markup above the opening HTML tag (<html>) or below the closing HTML tag (</html>): <!-- TemplateInfo codeOutsideHTMLIsLocked="{value}" -->. Very often people get lost reading the content of Dreamweavers F1 help files due to inconsistencies and plain wrong information regarding templates. That 's where this tutorial comes into play and teaches you what this markup does and how to use it through several examples. After reading and performing the mini-projects of this tutorial, you will understand what the markup does, how it is inserted, and how to get the best of both worlds (locked and unlocked) as possible. [more]
Templates, Library items and Includes (DMXZone $1.99)	Sept. 2, 2003
Templates are useful for maintaining a consistent layout of the website as well as providing a method of locking areas from user editing with Macromedia Contribute. Once you've mastered Dreamweaver Templates, you will learn that Templates are your friend. They will allow you to create consistent websites with ease and save development time once the template is created and fully functional. This tutorial summarizes the differences between Templates, Library items and Server-side Includes. Delving into the definition, description of use and sample markup. Once this tutorial is mastered, you will understand better about the various discussed technologies, and which can be used together when developing your website. [more]
Template Parameters & Expressions Explained	May. 6, 2003
One of the most difficult things to wrap the 'ole cranium around is Dreamweaver MX Template Parameters and Expressions. This article will try to explain... [more]
DMX Template Repeating Regions and Tables	May. 6, 2003
Just what are the differences between Repeating Regions and Repeating Tables as related to Dreamweaver Templates and while yer at it, why not provide... [more]
Contribute/Dreamweaver Workflow	May. 4, 2003
Here's a situation you may encounter: you've built a site for your client using Dreamweaver MX templates and/ or library items and the client is using Contribute to maintain their site as well as develop new pages... [more]
Create a New Template (from Scratch)	Mar. 13, 2003
Ever notice that most references (read: books) start out with a basic template already set, but almost none tell you how to get to that initial point? Hopefully this tutorial will help you understand the first part of using templates... [more]
Editable Meta Data with Macromedia Contribute	Mar. 13, 2003
One of the more prevalent issues that comes up is how to make the meta data of each page unique when using Dreamweaver MX templates in conjunction with Contribute. With Dreamweaver MX this is no problem if you base your site on templates... [more]
Using Parameters with Includes (SSI)	Mar. 13, 2003
Wouldn't it be nice if you had several includes, each containing a different navigational method, that your site maintainers could use with templates in Contribute and Dreamweaver MX? [more]
Setting Template Parameters in a FlashBang! Button	Mar. 4, 2003
This tutorial teaches Macromedia Contribute friendly methods to employ Dreamweaver MX template parameters and expressions to control FlashBang! generated buttons (FlashBang! is a Dreamweaver MX extension developed by: Joseph Lowery and Edoardo Zubler). We also discuss how to implement a warning layer when the user sets parameter values that are outside of the designated scope which is Contribute friendly as well. This tutorial is located at the FlashBang! support site. [more]
Revert your MX template to DW/UD 4 Format	Feb. 14, 2003
You may find yourself in a situation where you have upgraded to Dreamweaver MX and your colleagues have not, as yet, done so. If the scope of your project requires templates, and you want your subs to be able to use those templates... [more]
Controlling Button 'States' with Template Parameters & Expressions (Formerly: Buttons as Breadcrumbs)	Feb. 2, 2003
On a complex (or even a relatively simple) website, one is always faced with the issue of displaying, in an easily grasped manner, some kind of roadmap (or 'breadcrumb') so... [more]
Using Parameters & Expressions to make a Breadcrumb Trail within a Template Driven site	Feb. 2, 2003
How many times have you wanted to have a visible trail through the folder architecture of your web site for easy navigation to a previous area... [more]
Template Third Party Tags	Feb. 2, 2003
Are you tired of seeing the same old icon in design view of your template or child pages, when you have template expressions or... [more]
Modify the Template Code Coloring	Dec. 11, 2002
Ever wanted to change the colors you see for the Template markup in your template and its associated child pages? Been frustrated with trying to make this happen? So have... [more]
Selective CSS with Templates	Dec. 9, 2002
There are actually 2 methods to achieve the desired effect and both work wonderfully with Templates and Child pages. There are differences between them though so make sure you... [more]
Batch Apply Template	Dec. 9, 2002
Your web site needs to be updated by having a new template applied to it and you want to do this as painlessly as possible, preferably as a batch routine... [more]
Template Recovery - DW/UD 4	Dec. 7, 2002
Ever lost your template due to a system crash or a server crash and had to recreate it by hand from scratch? There is a pretty easy method of recreating your template from a child page and this tutorial walks you through... [more]
Updating your Template to MX Format	Dec. 5, 2002
There may come a time when you realize that your Dreamweaver 4/UltraDev 4 (DW4) templates do not migrate smoothly forwards into Dreamweaver MX (DMX). You most likely discover this because of persistent DMX error... [more]
Static to Template	Nov. 8, 2002
There are times when you take over a web site that was built totally static, in the sense that no templates were used to built it. As a professional web master, your idea is to convert the site to be template driven so... [more]
Troubleshooting Tips	Nov. 7, 2002
Trouble with Library Items, Templates or General issues with your page? There are many tips and tricks here in assisting you with finding and correcting the issue(s) that may be present with your documents... [more]
Parameter Types	Nov. 5, 2002
As you may or may not know, the F1 help files leave a little to be desired with respect to template parameters. These help files refer to a parameter type of STRING, which is not accurate... [more]