Ewshost guideWeb design and development: graphics: web: templates
What's New Here? - Wow!TEMPLATE
This article describes how Dreamweaver implements templates. Technically, to use Dreamweaver templates, you don't need to know any of the information given in this article; but it is handy to know something about what's going on under the hood in case you need to troubleshoot a Dreamweaver template based document. Templates are a tool that is used in many computer applications including Microsoft Word, AutoCAD, and other office automation and design products. Templates are useful when you have a group of documents that share many similar design features. You implement the common features one time in the template, and then just customize the template with the individual features of each document. Templates are Used Only at Design Time It is important to understand that are totally a design time construct. Only two things separate a Dreamweaver template from any other HTML document: 1. Dreamweaver template documents have a ".dwt" extension. 2. Dreamweaver templates contain specially defined HTML comments that define the editable and non editable area of the template. When you create an "instance" document that is based on a Dreamweaver template and store it on a web server, the web server is completely unaware that the document was based on a template. It treats the document the same as any other HTML document, and ignores the template comments in the document the same as it would ignore any other comments in an HTML document. Similarly, a web browser would be completely unaware that a document was based on a Dreamweaver template, and would also ignore the template comments the same as it would ignore any other comments in an HTML document. Tag Syntax Dreamweaver has two sets of tags: * Template Tags are used in template files (files that have suffix .dwt). * Instance Tags are used in the "instance" documents you create that are based on a template file (files that typically have a suffix .htm or .html). Dreamweaver defines about thirty different template tags, but all of them have the following syntax: where TEMPLATE_TAG_NAME and the parameters are replaced with an actual template tag name and actual parameter names. For example: In the above example, the template tag is a TemplateBeginEditable tag named "Region 1". The syntax of instance tags is quite similar: Tag Pairs Many template tags are paired, having an opening and a closing tag. For example, the "TemplateBeginEditable" tag described above always starts an editable region that is ended with a "TemplateEndEditable". The two tags come as a pair, defined as follows: -- HTML Code goes here --- How Dreamweaver uses Template Tags One of the simplest and most important things that Dreamweaver does with Template/Instance tags is to define what regions of an instance document (document created based on a template document) can be edited. BUT BEWARE . . . If you use Dreamweaver to open a template based document in CODE VIEW, you can edit any part of the document in any way you please -- but this is generally not a good thing to do. In Dreamweaver document design view, Dreamweaver respects the instance tags that are included in a document; for example, it will only allow you to edit areas of the document that begin with an "InstanceBeginEditable" (or similar type) tag. When you have finished editing your web page, the Dreamweaver Instance Tags will remain in it, but as previously stated, these tags are ignored by your Web Server and your Browser. Finally, if you update a template in Dreamweaver, all of the documents based on the template will be updated too. Conclusion Dreamweaver templates work by using specially defined HTML comment tags to mark regions of Dreamweaver template documents and instance documents. You should recognize Dreamweaver template and instance tags, and understand what they do, but you should only edit them in Dreamweaver Design View, not in Code View. For more information on actually using Dreamweaver templates, see my upcoming article "Dreamweaver Tip: Build Better Websites Faster with Templates". Promotion: link popularity: reciprocal links: link exchange
linktrip
Link exchange has proved to be one of the easiest ways for a website, especially a just-out one, to get the thick net of backlinks needed for high Google rankings. Whether you're up to bursting your website's visibility by on your own or with the help of link-exchange software, there are things you'd better know about link exchange and its vital part - writing link-exchange requests. Read on to dig deeper into the traffic- and sales-promising world of link exchange. Why exchange links? Most probably you already know that getting real dough with an online biz is something you can't do without gaining solid search engine rankings for your website. That's the most sure-fire way to reach out to your targeted audience and get ever-growing sales, as it guarantees your website's always being at the right place and time (when a person is looking exactly for what you offer). Squeezing to highest Google's positions means gaining more Google's trust than your competitors have, for Google and suchlike rank the sites they believe to be "trust" to carry quality content higher in search results pages. And one of the cornerstones in gaining such trust is making other websites put links to your site: putting a link is like placing a this-site-is-worth-visiting sign, so the more such signs your website gets, the worthier it seems to Google. Some "super-professional" webmasters with their noses in the air may say "Ha, an A-1 website for an A-1 biz gets links on its jack. Just be the best in your field and you'll be the first in Google". And they are quite right, but for the fact that this "getting links for being the best" may take ages. And while these ages pass, your clients are lured by someone else, whose website they saw at the right place and time. So those who know better than to sit on their hands, realize: link popularity (the number of links pointing to your website) is something you'd better help up a bit. That's where link exchange comes into play to give you handfuls of needed backlinks. It goes as easy as this: you link to a website from your page, and your link-exchange partner puts a link to your website on his page. You both take home the bacon, which is in this case a "portion" of Google's trust. How to exchange links? Both starting link quest on your own, or with link-exchange software, the very first thing to do is to find hoped-for link exchange partners. Concentrate on websites relevant to your business niche and already in good with Google. Stay away from the link trading hubs and networks, and do not try to get links from pages that list hundreds of off topic link partners. The best principle is to seek link exchanges that you would pursue even if search engines did not exist. Ok, partners found, but how to push the link-exchange business through? How to hook another website owner and make him strive to exchange links with you? The next, and probably the most important step here is writing a convincing link-exchange request and e-mailing it the website owner. Make sure your link-exchange offers are personal, addressing another webmaster by name and using his website's name and URL. Have them include all information your link-exchange partner may need: your name, your website's URL, the subject theme of your website, the exact URL and anchor text you would like to get a link with. Be short, polite and professional. State all your website's positive aspects to convince the person you are writing to that your website is worth linking. Savvy link-exchange software you can find on the market is a real leg-up when it comes to link exchange, for it spares you countless hours of work and automates the process to the utmost. Make sure the software you choose provides you with e-mail templates, manages your e-mail correspondence with partners, and protects you from any black-hat techniques your partners may try to use. With a tool meeting these criteria, you're sure to reap the sweetest fruits of your link-exchange labor in the shortest possible time. |