Wrapping-up Templates

Some confusion inevitably arises regarding the use of templates. One of the most common is how to edit areas that are locked by a template. The proper way to edit these areas is to open the template in Dreamweaver and make the necessary edits. This will insure that documents designed from the template will display the updates as well. In a pinch, you can overide the HTML comments that Dreamweaver uses to mark editable areas by using another editor such as notepad. Realize that doing this will negate the benefits of being linked to a template, but works if necessary.

The second item that commonly causes confusion, is that a template is a barebones structure. It contains the minimal material that is applicable to every page. Users, new to templates, tend to want to populate the template with images, text, or other items that will not be on each page of the Web site. Remember, only place items in a template that apply to each page (i.e. banner, navigation, footer, etc.).

Today’s Objectives:

• Construct a simple Web site plan (mission statement, target audience, topics & features, organizational diagram)
• Incorporate the Web site plan features into an HTML template

Classwork: Lesson 4 quiz & finishing the critical thinking project.

Prep Questions:

• This panel organizes media, links, colors, etc.
• List the extension for a Dreamweaver template.

Note: Great job on the quiz! The average score was 85%.

More Templates…

Extending their current knowledge of templates, students completed creating HTML templates and began constructing pages off of these templates. A short demonstration was provided, illustrating the ease of creating additional pages from a template as well as the beauty of Dreamweaver’s automatic update feature. A quick overview of templates can be found here. Additionally, here is Adobe’s (maker of Dreamweaver) developer area with more information about templates than most people could ever use. In case that’s not enough, here is a final offering. Enjoy…

Today’s Objectives:

• Exhibit the knowledge of how to effectively use templates
• Construct a simple Web site plan (mission statement, target audience, topics & features, organizational diagram)

Classwork: Students worked on Lesson 4 - Critical Thinking.

Prep Questions:

• Explain where the following sites are generally found:
  • local
  • remote
• What is the approximate length and purpose of a mission statement?
• This application connects to a server that houses a Web site and facilitates the addition, removal, movement, etc. of files.
• This dialog box specifies settings including (background color or image, pagetitle, etc.)

Note: Lesson 4 quiz on Thursday the 22nd.

Templates & the Inauguration

Web development class has been focused on creating HTML templates in Dreamweaver. There are four key benefits to be realized by using HTML templates:

• If changes are made to a template, all pages based upon this template are automatically updated.
• Only allow certain portions of the document to be editable (prevents serious mistakes).
• Maintains consistency in the amongst pages in a Web site.
• Fast and efficient way to create a Web page.

While working on the creation of templates, our attention turned to the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. While many of the epic moments had wound down by the afternooon, we were able to watch a good portion of the events. See President Obama’s Inauguration (swearing in and speech) part 1, part 2, and  part 3 .

Today’s Objectives:

• Demonstrate the ability to create templates
• Demonstrate the ability to create tables for placing elements on a web page

Classwork: Students worked on Lesson 4 - Assignment 2 and the Lesson Questions.

Note: Lesson 4 quiz on Thursday the 22nd.