How to Build a Website Template

A good website design is something you want to keep. With the advent of cascading style sheets and powerful Web design programs, it is easier than ever to repurpose Web designs as templates. A template is a page design that can be applied to blank Web pages as a quick and easy way to format them. Here's how to create a template in Adobe Dreamweaver.

Things You'll Need

• Adobe Dreamweaver

Instructions

1. Start Dreamweaver. Under the Create From Samples menu on the Start page, select More.

2. In the Window that opens, select Blank Template in the first column. In the Template Type column, select HTML.

3. Next, select the template layout from the Layout column. There are many options to choose from. If none of them is what is needed, select Blank.

4. Insert editable regions and page elements. Once the template is open, decide which regions you want to remain editable. Place the cursor in regions that will be editable and select Insert from the Menu bar. Then select Template Objects and Editable Region. Any area not designated an editable region will not be able to be changed in any Web page the template is applied to later.

   In this step, it is also necessary to add links, text, images and other elements to regions that will not be able to be changed on pages the template will be used for. Any changes to these regions must be made in the template itself. Then the template must be reapplied to the page.

5. Save the template.

Resources

• Dreamweaver