Applies to
Microsoft Office FrontPage® 2003

To learn more about creating a Dynamic Web Template, see Create a Dynamic Web Template.

If you want to change the current page layout of your Web site, and you are using Dynamic Web Templates, you need to do one of the following:

• Update the current Dynamic Web Template
• Attach a different Dynamic Web Template

Update the current Dynamic Web Template

When you use Dynamic Web Templates, it doesn't take much to keep your Web site current and professional looking. After you create a Dynamic Web Template and attach it to the Web pages in your Web site, you can update that template in the following ways:

• Add new editable regions
• Rename editable regions
• Remove editable regions
• Detach files from a Dynamic Web Template
• Manually update attached pages

You can update the content in the editable regions as well as the protected regions of the template as often as you want. You can even attach more than one Dynamic Web Template to your Web site.

Attach a different Dynamic Web Template

When you want to change the entire look of your Web site, consider creating an entirely new Dynamic Web Template.

When you attach a different Dynamic Web Template to a Web site that has an existing Dynamic Web Template attached, you may not want to move any content from the existing template to the new template. If that's the case, just detach the existing template and attach the new one.

If, however, you have content in editable regions in the existing template that you want to move to the new template, we recommend that you use the same naming practice for the editable regions. For example, if the old template contains a News editable region, use that same name in the new template. That way, when you attach the new template and specify where the content goes, you do not have to look at the pages themselves to designate a region in the new template.

After you create the new template and specify the editable regions in it, you are ready to move the content from the editable regions in the old template to the editable regions in the new one.

If, for some reason, you add content in the new template — for example, you include a sample of the text that you want the writer to add in the region — be sure that the content from the old template does not overwrite the new content. To do this, before you attach the new Dynamic Web Template, in the Choose Editable Regions for Content dialog box, click Modify, and then select (none) from the New Region list.

If the existing template contains protected content that you want to move to the new template, you can copy the protected content from the old template to the new one.

Case scenario: Maple University e-newsletter

Barry Potter, the editor of the monthly e-newsletter at Maple University, has been updating the newsletter Web site by making modifications to the attached Dynamic Web Template that he created several months earlier. However, Barry wanted to give the newsletter a facelift. Over a few weeks, as time allowed, he created a Dynamic Web Template with a fresh layout while he kept the current template in use.

Barry could easily detach the existing Dynamic Web Template from the current Web pages and attach the new template. But he identified two blocks of content ("This Week" and "ViewPoints") on the Events page that he wants to keep.

From the Folder List, Barry opens the Events page. To attach the new template and move the existing content to the new template, he uses the Choose Editable Regions for Content dialog box.

When Barry created the new Dynamic Web Template, he named the pertinent "destination" editable regions in the new template the same as those in the old template, to make it simple.

Barry specifies the destination regions. The "Notions" editable region in the old template contains content that Barry doesn't want to move to the new template. So he changes the destination region to (none) to ensure that no content from "Notions" will be copied to the new template.

Now that Barry has the content that he wants from the old template, he displays the folder list and selects each file in the Web site. He then detaches the old Dynamic Web Template. Next, with the files still selected, he attaches the new template.

The Choose Editable Regions for Content dialog box appears again. Because Barry wants to keep the content in "This Week" and "ViewPoints," he sets those regions to (none). Again, this ensures that the content in those regions is not overwritten by the attachment of the new template.

The LipService Web site now has a fresh look, and the contributors can begin adding content to the editable regions.

Procedures for changing a Dynamic Web Template

Follow these procedures to change a Dynamic Web Template.

Attach a different Dynamic Web Template

1. Open the Web page to which you want to attach a different Dynamic Web Template.

   To attach the Dynamic Web Template to more than one page, select the pages that you want.

   How?

   • In the Folder List, hold down CTRL and click each page that you want.

     If the Folder List is hidden, click Folder List on the View menu.

2. On the Format menu, point to Dynamic Web Template, and then click Attach Dynamic Web Template.
3. Locate and click the Dynamic Web Template that you want to attach, and then click Open.

   If the Web page that you selected contains editable regions specified by the Dynamic Web Template that was previously attached to the Web page, the Choose Editable Regions for Content dialog box appears. The dialog box displays the default settings for mapping content from the old template to the new template. The Old column lists the editable regions that were specified by the previous template. The New column lists the editable regions that are specified by the new template.

   In the Choose Editable Regions for Content dialog box, do one of the following:

   • To move all of the content in the body of the Web page to the default editable region, click OK. If the default editable region contains content, that content is replaced with the content in the page.
   • To move the content from an editable region that was specified by the previous template to a specific editable region that is specified by the new template, click the region in the Old column, and then click Modify. In the New Region list, click the editable region that you want to move the content to. If the editable region in the new template contains content, that content is replaced with the content in the page.
   • To maintain all of the content and structure of the Web page, click Skip Current Page. The template is not attached to the page.

Add a new editable region

1. Open the Dynamic Web Template (.dwt) file.
2. In Page view, at the bottom of the document window, click Design.
3. Right-click a selection where you want to add an editable region, and then click Manage Editable Regions.
4. In the Region name box, type a name for the editable region; for example, Header, Body, or Footer.
5. Click Add.
6. Repeat steps 3 through 6 for each new editable region that you want to add, and then click Close.

Rename an editable region

1. Open the Dynamic Web Template (.dwt) file.
2. In the document window, right-click the editable region that you want to rename, and then click Manage Editable Regions.

   You can identify editable regions by the boxed areas on the page that include a tab with the name of each region.

3. In the Region name box, type the new name, click Rename, and then click Close.
4. On the File menu, click Save.
5. Click Yes.

 Note   If the Dynamic Web Template that you edited hosts attached files, FrontPage will prompt you to update those files.

Remove an editable region

1. Open the Dynamic Web Template (.dwt) file.
2. In the document window, right-click the editable region that you want to rename or remove, and then click Manage Editable Regions.

   You can identify editable regions by the boxed areas on the page that include a tab with the name of each region.

3. Click Remove, and then click Close.
4. On the File menu, click Save.
5. Click Yes.

 Note   If the Dynamic Web Template that you edited hosts attached files, FrontPage will prompt you to update those files.

Detach files from a Dynamic Web Template

1. In the Folder List, select the file or files that you want to detach from the Dynamic Web Template.

   To select multiple files, hold down CTRL and click the files that you want to detach.

2. On the Format menu, point to Dynamic Web Template, and then click Detach from Dynamic Web Template.

 Note   If you detach a Dynamic Web Template from one or more pages in a site, you remove only the formatting provided by the template — the content is not automatically removed from those pages. To remove the content from those pages, select and replace the residual text and page elements.

Manually update attached Web pages

Update Web pages from within the attached Dynamic Web Template

• With the Dynamic Web Template open, on the Format menu, point to Dynamic Web Template, and then click one of the following:
  • Update All Pages
  • Update Attached Pages

Update a selected page in the Folder List

1. In the Folder List, click the page that you want to update.
2. On the Format menu, point to Dynamic Web Template, and then click Update Selected Page.