MACROMEDIA 38028779 - Macromedia Dreamweaver - Mac, Using Manual, Page: 376 / 582

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Templates are best for situations in which you want a set of pages to have an
identical layout—where you want to design the complete final layout for a set of
pages first, and then add content later. If you simply want your pages to have the
same headers and footers, with different layouts in between, use library items to
store the headers and footers. (Library items are stored page elements that you can
reuse in multiple pages; as with templates, you can update all the pages that use a
library item whenever you change the item’s contents. For more information, see
“Creating, managing, and editing library items” on page 396.) It’s important to
note that for pages created with templates, you can’t convert tables to layers or
layers to tables.
Note: Using a template may limit your later changes to design and layout. If you intend
to make major layout changes to your pages later, you may want to use library items
instead of templates.
Templates are particularly useful in a collaborative environment in which a
designer controls the page layouts, and other people add content to the pages but
aren’t allowed to change the layout.
Dreamweaver also provides other kinds of reusable content: server-side includes
and library items. You might use these elements for content that appears on every
page of the site (such as a header or footer) or for content that appears on only a
few pages but must be updated frequently (such as news headlines or sales
discounts). These approaches are appropriate for different kinds of sites:
•
Server-side includes can be used only for sites that are viewed from a server, not
for sites that are viewed on a local system without a server. They can be seen
only on servers that are configured to process server-side includes. (Ask your
webmaster or system administrator whether your Web server supports server-
side includes.) See “Using server-side includes” on page 404.
•
Library items can be used on sites that are viewed locally as well as those that
reside on a server. On sites that are viewed locally, without a server, you must
use library items rather than server-side includes. See “Creating, managing, and
editing library items” on page 396.