Choose a Template

• 1). Start Dreamweaver. Under the "Create From Samples" menu select "More."
  
  
• 2). Select "Blank Template" in the first column. In the "Template Type" column, select "HTML."
  
  
• 3). Select the template layout from the "Layout" column. There are many options from which to choose. View each one by clicking on it. If none of them is what you need, select "Blank."
  
  
• 4). Insert editable regions and page elements. Once the template is open, decide which regions you want to remain editable. Place the cursor in regions that will be editable later on and select "Insert" from the "Menu" bar. Then select "Template Objects" and select "Editable Region" from the submenu.
  
  An editable region is any region where you place text, graphics and other elements on a page. Later, you will not be able to change any area not designated an editable region in any webpage where the template is applied.
  
  
• 5). Add links, text, images and other elements to regions that you will not be able to change on pages on which the template applies. To change a region that cannot be edited on a webpage that uses a template, you must edit the template itself and reapply the edit to the page in question.
  
  

Define a Site

• 1). Assemble the elements for the site in a single folder. This should include text, graphics, video and anything else that will appear on your planned site.
  
  
• 2). Start Dreamweaver. Click "Dreamweaver Site" from the list under the "Create New" options on the Start page.
  
  
• 3). Name the site. Enter the name for use in Dreamweaver only; it will not show up elsewhere. If the site has a URL, enter it in the blank provided, although entering the URL at this point is not necessary.
  
  
• 4). Select whether or not the site will use a server technology. If you don't know what this means, choose "No." Dreamweaver 8 can use five different types of server technology. Each corresponds to a different document type in Dreamweaver. For more information see the resource about server technology below this article.
  
  
• 5). Select " Edit the Site Locally." Then select the root folder. The root folder is the site where you must store all web pages and elements on those pages. The simplest way is to select the folder where the elements are already stored, but it is possible to designate another folder as the root folder and to move elements into it as needed. If an element placed on a page is outside the root folder, Dreamweaver asks if you want to move the element to the root folder. If this happens when building a page, choose "Yes."
  
  
• 6). Choose "None" when asked how to connect to the remote server. You can change this option when the site is complete.
  
  
• 7). Select "Done."
  
  

Create Pages and Apply the Template

• 1). Start Dreamweaver. From the Start page, choose "HTML" from the "Create New" options list.
  
  
• 2). Select "File" and then "Save as."
  
  
• 3). Save the new HTML document as "index.html." Save it to the root folder defined in the previous section. This document is the home page for the new site. You must name it "index.html."
  
  
• 4). Create other HTML pages as needed. Save them to the root folder. Do not capitalize any letters in the names, and, if the name is more than one word, use the underscore mark instead of a space between the two words.
  
  
• 5). Apply the template. Select "Modify," "Template," then "Apply Template to Page." Repeat this step for each page to which you will apply a template.
  
  
• 6). Add text, images and other elements in the editable regions defined in the first section.