The UW Web Common Look and Feel template is one component of the framework that has been established to simplify the process of conversion to the new format.
A Dreamweaver template is simply a Dreamweaver file, with an extension of .dwt upon which other Dreamweaver or Contribute files may be based. A template may contain text, images, links, etc. Any text, images, links in the template will automatically appear in any document based on that template.
Templates must contain at least one editable region. An editable region is an area of the template where a page creator can insert or modify text. Templates may contain more than one editable region, and they will also contain non-editable regions. A non-editable region is an area of the template that cannot be modified by the page maintainer.
Dreamweaver templates may contain optional regions. When a page maintainer creates or updates a page based upon this template, he or she can set an option which determines whether any given optional region should be included on the page.
Dreamweaver and Contribute documents remember what template was used in their creation. When you modify a template in Dreamweaver, Dreamweaver checks all documents in the site to see if they were created with that template. If so, it updates all affected documents.
Note: Before updating a template, synchronize your local and remote Dreamweaver sites, copying all newer files from your remote site to your local site. When the template and related documents have been updated, synchronize your site again, copying all newer files from your local site to your remote site.
The template, as downloaded, is a Dreamweaver template, and, using Dreamweaver, can be configured for a specific site. A Dreamweaver template is a “starter document” upon which other Dreamweaver or Contribute web documents are based. The Dreamweaver or Contribute documents “remember” the template that was used to create them, and if the template is modified, all relevant documents can be updated automatically.
A Dreamweaver template is made up of regions, some of which are designated editable, and some of which are not editable. When web content providers use the template with either Dreamweaver or Contribute to create or edit documents, they can add or modify content in an editable region, but cannot modify anything in a non-editable region.
The Dreamweaver template contains optional areas such as the picture or collage and the right hand navigation column. When a web page is created in Dreamweaver or Contribute using this template, options can be set, indicating whether various optional regions should or should not be included on that page. This means that a single template has the ability to create several different types of pages.
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Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
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