Use Templates
Frontpage 2003
Creating the template from scratch
Start with a blank page and hit [ Format ] / [ Dynamic Web Templates ] / [ Manage Editable Regions…]
![[ Format ] / [ Dynamic Web Templates ] / [ Manage Editable Regions…]](../../images/templates/fp1.jpg)
In the ‘Region Name’ field type Content, and click “Add” then click “Close”.
You have now created an editable region within your blank page. The region is where you will insert your content. Create the navigation and the header around your content region.
When you are done, save the file with in a directory called [Templates], you may have to create this directory. Frontpage will save this files with the extension of .dwt.
Creating the template from an existing HTML (basic) page
In many cases, the site exists and templates are being added to allow ease in editing.
In the New task pane, click [From existing page], locate and click the fileyou want to use as a odel for the template, and then click [Create new].
When the page opens, highlight the areas you want to be editable, usually the content pane, footer and possibly separate header area. Each need to be done separately.
Choose [ Format ] / [ Dynamic Web Templates ] / [ Manage Editable Regions…]
Frontpage will tell you the file will be saved as a template and ask you to browse to where the file should be saved. Save the file with in a directory called [Templates], you may have to create this directory. Frontpage will save this files with the extension of .dwt. You can then proceed to the dialogue box naming the editable region.
In the ‘Region Name’ field type content, header or footer, etc. and click “Add” then click “Close”.
Remove the exisiting content and header text in the new ediatble regions so each region is blank. In the footer, keep the email of the contact for page and date last updated and insert the date and time from the [Insert] tool so the page date will be automatically updated when the page is saved.
Save the template page.
Create a page based off this template
Choose [ File ] / [ New ].
From the column on the right hand side select [ From existing page…]. Navigate to your template, it should be in the templates folder. Select your template and click [ Create New ]. You now have a blank page with your layout. The content area, header and date in the footer will be editable in individual pages.
If you are adding a template for an existing site
Although templates created with the above method can be applied to existing pages, the fool-proof method is to create a new page from the template and cut and paste existing Web page text into the appropriate region, save the new page over the top of the existing one.
Changing non-editable region text
Content such as the navigation bar is generally not editable so can only be changed using the template. Open the template, make the change and save the page. You should see a dialogue box asking if the attached pages should be updated, click on [yes] and a message indicating files updated will appear. All pages built from the template will be updated at once.