Applying Templates to Existing Pages

You can also apply a template to an existing page on your site. As with many actions in Dreamweaver, there are two ways to do this. First, you can open your page, select the Modify menu, click the Templates option, and click Apply Template to Page. Dreamweaver will display a list of available templates in your site. Select a template and click Select. The other way to apply a template to an existing page is to simply open the assets panel, click on the templates icon, highlight the template you want to use, and drag it onto your document window.

Regardless of how you choose to apply your template, Dreamweaver will prompt you to specify into what editable region of the new template your existing content will be placed. (Additionally, if the page you are applying a template to has existing editable regions that match the editable region names of the new template, Dreamweaver will assume that content will be dumped into the editable regions of the same name). For unnamed regions or regions that do not have a corresponding name that matches those in the new template, Dreamweaver will place all your content into that editable region you specify within the new template.

If you have any existing style sheet definitions, meta tags, or Javascript behaviors on your page, these should always be located in the Head section of the document. When you apply a template, always tell Dreamweaver to place the Head content from existing document within the Head section of the template you are applying.

Finally, if the page contains style sheet information, meta tags, Javascript, or any other content that you do not plan to include when you have applied the new template to page, simply tell Dreamweaver to ignore this information by placing this content "Nowhere," which will be an option listed on the pull-down menu.