Dreamweaver template question - more on technical & seo

[dmcghie]

Hello first of all and this is my first post here.

I have been building websites for quite a while, but using just html and now have learned and got a grip on CSS which is absolutely fabulous.

Then a friend told me about templates as I am building this website which will be like 50 pages to start with and I moaned about having to update every page if the main menu of links changed. She soon put me in my place and talked about templated and how dreamweaver sorts it all for the designer.

So I looked into it and liked it right away. However on the duplicated pages the links and any text are greyed out. Does this mean Google and Co. cannot read the text or follow the links on those pages?

Most of the sites I have built over the years were 5 to 10 pages but this is a monster so the template idea is great, just worried that it will harm the indexing of the templated pages.

Please tell me what you think as I cannot find the answers anywhere.

Thank you very much!

From a wee lass in London

[dmcghie]

Not even one tip or hint?

Does the question not make sense? Then I will rephrase. Please let me know.

Thanks!

[spenland]

Well I am personally not a fan of Dreamweaver templates and I will tell you why. For dreamweaver templates to function properly the sections you label as part of the template have to match exactly on every page or you get weird formatting problems. This really inhibits the creativity of your site, if every page has to look the same (although I'm sure someone will disagree with me on this). Secondly even if you decide to go this route, you still have to upload every page that the template changes to your web server.

I prefer to use includes for my sites because if I want to change something as simple as a menu system, footer, or header, I just have to do it on one page that I upload and it effects my entire site. An example of a php include would look like this:

<table width="900" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="center">

<tr>
<td height="88" colspan="2" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<?php include('header.php'); ?>
</table> </td>
</tr>

It seems like you may be a beginning designer so hopefully this doesn't confuse you :)

[trogar]

Hello dmcghie,

If you have learned about templates, then you have made certain areas editable so that when you create additional pages, the only areas available for changing the information is within the white areas. The grayed out areas are areas that are either a: set as uneditable regions within the template used to create them, or b: are library items, which are also uneditable areas except through opening the original library item you used to create the area. Grayed out areas have nothing to do with search engines being able to read or not read a specific area on a Dreamweaver page. All it means is that you cannot edit those areas in the present page you have opened. As I stated earlier, if it is from an uneditable region in a template used to create the page, then you have to edit that area within the template. If it was an area created with a library item, then you must open the library item in order to edit the area. Hope that this information helps.

***Edit***
I agree with spenland on the include comment. It's much easier to change one file and have the rest of the files update. This falls along the lines of CSS and is really a great help in automating HTML sites. If you are using HTML or XHTML, then you can use code similar to the following for a server side include. Before placing the file, create an file with your HTML markup within it and give it an .inc file extension. DO NOT use HTML, head, title, or body tags within this .inc file. Then, in the file you want the .inc information to be placed in, simply use code similar to the following:



That code will allow you to edit the .inc file, and then the information will update throughout your entire site, just like CSS would.

[Weedy Lady]

My site has almost 1,000 pages. When it just had a couple hundred pages I could do changes by hand. No longer.

I do my own html, but I use Dreamweaver for site-wide editing. I can change 15,000 links in a few minutes with the "find and replace" feature.

Just load your existing site into Dreamweaver and use it for an editor. It's great.

I have several different "templates" if you want to call them that...one design for category pages and one for cards pages. I just copy an existing page and change the appropriate parts for a new page (remembering to rename the copied page of course).

I also use a little css but not much because I do not understand much of it.

But why switch to a WYSIWYG program where you don't get exactly what you want for a finished page, when you know how to code it in html?

[jeffposaka]

Dreamweaver templates can be a great help.

But I recommend using php includes as well.

<?php include("footer.php"); ?>

Especially for the header, navigation and footer. It will save you a lot of time.

[alwazup]

I have used Dreamweaver templates for a number of sites and have had excellent results. I agree the you will need to consider using includes for pages that require more advanced php or asp coding, because of the way that the templates can alter your coding. SEO covers so many different areas that you can use Dreamweaver templates and just pin point the other areas that will equate to a search engine friendly site and give the public the most informative website you can.

[wwwizzard]

I know most people like bagging FrontPage, but FrontPage makes includes dead easy for a newbie: no need even to use php includes, it is all WYSIWYG, and all handled by the Frontpage extensions on the server, and no need to have PHP working on your server.

FrontPage is not perfect, just like Dreamweaver. It is how the craftsman uses his tools what counts, not which tools he uses.

Cheers

[dmcghie]

Thank you very much for all your help. It has triggered my understanding of the PHP part and this include thingy. Will play with that now to see how it goes. My understanding is that I can then have more than 1 menu on the site, which would be excellent for me.

Why go down the dreamweaver route when I can code html? Well, I am pressed for time and if one does not use the coding every day one tends to forget.

Thanks again, this has helped me immensely. Once the site is ready I will post it for a critique.

[seoqueen]

INCLUDES baby includes. The best route ever.

No really I use Dreamweaver daily and include files made my job a whole lot easier and site-wide editing is a fabulous tool. Now Frontpage...that's a lost software in a dark cave. Just kidding.

Just my 2 cents.

sq