Article

Using Document Templates

by WebAIM

Dreamweaver templates

Dreamweaver allows you to create template-based web sites. You can create your template from scratch, adding all of the accessibility features that you need while designating areas for content. You can set parts of the template to be editable for each page, something that is handy if you have slightly different content that you want to appear for each page, such as page title, author, secondary navigation, etc. Select File > New > Template to create a new Dreamweaver template. Default template types have default editable areas for page title and header information such as styles and JavaScript. You can add additional editable areas to your template by selecting Insert > Template objects. There are many types of editable regions available. When your template is complete, be sure to save it as a template. For each content page you want to use that template for, select File > New > From Template and select the template you want to use. The new page will contain everything that was in the template, but Dreamweaver will not allow you to edit parts of the page that are not set as editable in the original template. You can add content within any of the editable regions that were defined. Save each document normally and the template information will be saved with it.

If you decide at a later time to edit the template, just open it and make the changes you want. When you save the template, you will be prompted to update each page that used that template when it was created. Select Yes and each page using that template will be updated with the changes you made. This allows you to easily make changes in one location that are reflected throughout the site.

Dreamweaver templates are somewhat complicated. Dreamweaver uses hidden information within the HTML page to determine which areas are editable and which are not. This information adds to page size. Each content page contains an exact duplicate of the template, plus the information that was added to editable regions. If you make major changes to your template, Dreamweaver may not be able to properly update each page that uses that template. Information could be lost or become unusable. For individuals that don´t have access to or knowledge to use a more advanced, server-based template system, then Dreamweaver works very well.

FrontPage templates

Microsoft FrontPage also allows the creation of templates, but not in the same sense that Dreamweaver does. In FrontPage you can create a page that is the shell for your site, then save it as a template. If you create a new document using that template (File > New > Page or Web > Template), the contents of the template are merely duplicated into your new document. While this feature may be very helpful in creating sites that have a shell that is accessible, updates to the original template are not reflected in each page that uses that template. Once the site has been created, if you decide to make a change or improvement to a portion of the template, you must make that change in each individual page. Still, if you have many people that are working on one site and you don´t have access to a more complex server-based template system, FrontPage templates allow you to distribute an accessible shell for content pages. Those accessibility features, however, must be maintained in each page and are not protected from change or modification.

FrontPage also provides extensions or webbots, which allow the web server to put content together ´on-the-fly´. You can use features such as shared borders, includes, and themes to accomplish much of the same functionality of templates as discussed here.

Server-based templates

Learning how to use server-based templating systems extends far beyond the scope of this accessibility training. Still, the concepts of allowing a program to do the template work for you should be appealing to anyone who manages a lot of content. Learning a server-based content system takes time and effort, and is easier learned if one has a programming background. PHP, ASP, JSP, ColdFusion, Perl, and others are very powerful tools for increasing accessibility on a site-wide basis, but do require a high level of expertise to properly implement.

posted on Jun 13, 2007

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