Part II: Appreciating Web Design Options in Java

Generate Quick Response Code in Java Part II: Appreciating Web Design Options

You can choose from many different kinds of templates to create Web sites; and you can find many places on the Web where you can buy them or even download them for free At its simplest, a template is a ready-made page design, usually created in a way that makes it easy to add your own text and images Some templates are customizable so that you can change design elements, such as colors, images, or fonts Dreamweaver takes this concept a few leaps further Not only can you create templates that can be used to create new pages quickly and easily, you can also use Dreamweaver s templates to make global changes to all the pages created from a template Templates are best used in the following scenarios: Templates are definitely the way to go when you re creating a number of pages that share the same characteristics, such as the same background color, navigation elements, or logo I recommend that you use a template any time you create a site with more than a few pages For example, you might create a template that includes your logo, a row of links at the top and bottom of each page, and styles for the text colors and fonts After you create a template with all these features, you can use it as the basis for all the other pages in your site This approach makes it faster and easier to create a series of pages that share the same navigation, logo, and so on If you ever decide to change one of these elements, such as your logo, you can change it once in the template and automatically update all the pages created from the template in your site If you want to use different design elements in different sections, you can even create more than one template for a site For example, if you re creating a Web site for a bed-and-breakfast inn, you might create one template for all the pages where you want to show off the rooms in the inn and another for a collection of pages that features great places to hike in the area When creating multiple templates for a Web site, you may benefit from a nested template, a template whose design and editable regions are based on another template For example, you can create a main template for elements that appear on every page across an entire site, such as a navigation bar Then for secondary templates, start with the main template and add nested templates that have design variations for a section (or sections) of a site

Templates are valuable when you re working with a team of people with varying skill levels For example, say you re building a site for a real-estate company and want to let the employees update the sales listings without messing up the page design The fact that templates have locked regions can protect the most important elements of a page, making it easy for sales staff to add new information without accidentally breaking navigation elements or other consistent features The most powerful aspect of Dreamweaver s template feature is the capability to make global changes to every page created from a template Even if you re working alone on a site, this aspect of templates can save hours (or even days) of time as the site grows and changes over time

Creating a template is as easy as creating any other file in Dreamweaver You can start by creating an HTML Template page much as you would any other page You can also choose File Save As to turn any existing page into a template The main difference is that the extension for a template file is dwt (Dynamic Web Template), and template files are stored in a special Templates folder When you create your first template in a Web site, Dreamweaver automatically creates a Templates folder in the root folder of your Web site and stores all your dwt template files in this folder Templates must be kept in this common Templates 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 haven t gone through the setup process to define your root site folder yet, see 2 and complete those set up steps first