Creating templates for a Contribute site

Using Dreamweaver, you can create templates to help Macromedia Contribute users create new pages, to provide a consistent look and feel for your site, and to enable you to update the layout of many pages at once.

When you create a template and upload it to the server, it becomes available to all Contribute users who connect to your site, unless you’ve set restrictions on template use for certain Contribute roles. If you have set restrictions on template use, you might need to add each new template to the list of templates a Contribute user can use (see Administering Contribute).

In addition to Dreamweaver templates, you can create non-Dreamweaver templates using the Contribute administration tools. A non-Dreamweaver template is an existing page that Contribute users can use to create new pages; it’s similar to a Dreamweaver template, except that pages that are based on it don’t update when you change the template. Also, non-Dreamweaver templates can’t contain Dreamweaver template elements such as editable, locked, repeating, and optional regions.

When a Contribute user creates a new document within a site containing Dreamweaver templates, Contribute lists the available templates (both Dreamweaver and non-Dreamweaver templates) in the New Page dialog box.

To include pages that use encodings other than Latin-1 in your site, you might need to create templates (either Dreamweaver templates or non-Dreamweaver templates). Contribute can edit pages that use any encoding, but when a Contribute user creates a new blank page, it uses the Latin-1 encoding. To create a page that uses a different encoding, a Contribute user can create a copy of an existing page that uses a different encoding, or can use a template that uses a different encoding. However, if there are no pages or templates in the site that use other encodings, then you must first create a page or template in Dreamweaver that uses that other encoding.

For information about creating, editing, and updating Dreamweaver templates, see About Dreamweaver templates.

To create a non-Dreamweaver template:

1. Select Site > Manage Sites.

   The Manage Sites dialog box appears.

2. Select a site, then click Edit.

   The Site Definition dialog box appears.

3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Select the Contribute category from the category list on the left.
5. If you haven’t already done so, you need to enable Contribute compatibility.

   Select the Enable Contribute Compatibility option, and then enter a site root URL.

   For more information, see Preparing a site for use with Contribute.

6. Click the Administer Site in Contribute button.
7. If prompted, enter the administrator password, and then click OK.

   The Administer Website dialog box appears.

8. In the Users and Roles category, select a role, and then click the Edit Role Settings button.
9. Select the New Pages category, and then add existing pages to the list under the Create a New Page by Copying a Page from This List option.

   For more information, see Administering Contribute.

10. Click OK to close the Edit Settings dialog box.
11. Click Close to close the Administer Website dialog box.

Related topics

• Creating a Dreamweaver template