Help Attaching DWT's...

[Brightbelt]

Hello -
I'm using Frontpage 2003, Win XP Pro. I'm having a hard time getting my
content to go to the correct area of the page when attaching a dynamic web
template. I'm converting pages from 3 shared borders (Top, Left, Bottom) to
a template, which seems to work fine and I have already converted a page for
the template. So the template looks ok - there's the logo, background
graphic etc on the top, the navigation runs vertical down the left and the
bottom has small text links for convenience. I think I'm doing all the right
things here:
- I'm entering editable regions into the template and it is placed
correctly where it should go on the page (in the middle between all the
parts I mentioned above).
- When attaching the template to the page, I let it default into the body
tag as suggested.
But what happens is the navigation on my left gets squeezed out by the
content box. I already have my content in tables on all my pages, but the
content box seems to want to take up 100% width of the page, no matter how
the table is set up. Is there any way to set the content box to a
percentage ? Is it possible to have already tabled content inserted into the
editable region when attaching the template ?
I may have to use CSS in the template to lock everything into place. I may
have just solved it here. I'm open to ideas. I thank you for your
help,...Frank
www.westwindentertainment.com

 

[Thomas A. Rowe]

It is easier to create your DWT, attach it to a new page, then cut and paste your content into the
editable region(s) from your old page.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WebMaster Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
If you feel your current issue is a results of installing
a Service Pack or security update, please contact
Microsoft Product Support Services:
http://support.microsoft.com
If the problem can be shown to have been caused by a
security update, then there is usually no charge for the call.
==============================================

 

[Brightbelt]

Hello -
Thanks for your help. Yes that was my back-up plan !! I guess I thought
there might be one-size-fits-all way, but I guess my content is so specific,
it should really be handled page by page. Thanks,...Frank

 

[Tina Clarke]

But what happens is the navigation on my left gets squeezed out by the

content box. I already have my content in tables on all my pages, but the
content box seems to want to take up 100% width of the page, no matter how
the table is set up. Is there any way to set the content box to a
percentage ? Is it possible to have already tabled content inserted into the
editable region when attaching the template ?
I may have to use CSS in the template to lock everything into place. I may
have just solved it here. I'm open to ideas. I thank you for your
help,...Frank
www.westwindentertainment.com

I'm not totally understanding what you mean ... but I use the content
editable region to default to this means choosing it .. I found it never
works with the default.

I'm also not sure why your making editable regions of your logo area ... for
any area that is going to stay the same on each page make it non editable
.... if your site has a second level on the menu then use includes for the
menu area and make it editable.

Here is a free ebook about how to work with DWT
http://frontpage-ebooks.com/dwt-ebook.htm

see http://addonfp.com for how I've used includes for the menu ... used a
dwt template and used css.

hope this helps.

Tina


--
http://accessfp.net/ - FrontPage Tutorials
http://anyfrontpage.com/ - http://frontpage-ebooks.com/
http://addonfp.com/ - FrontPage Addons
http://frontpage-tips.com/ - Weekly FrontPage Tips
http://msmvps.com/frontpage/ - FrontPage News & Articles Blog
http://frontpage-advice.blogspot.com/ - FrontPage Advice Blog
http://artdoodle.com/ - Abstract Pen and Ink Drawings

 

[Brightbelt]

Hi Tina -
Thank you for writing. I may not have stated it clearly enough - the logo,
Navigation and bottom links are set as NON-editable regions in my template.
I was just explaining what I used to have as the shared borders. The
content box seems to have a mind of its own and apparently there seems to be
no way to resize it. The content goes onto the page either entirely beneath
my navigation (which makes no sense if the navigation is to be vertical on
the left) or it comes up and actually merges into the navigational area
(which I don't want). Imagine a 3-sided box with the right side missing,
but you still have content located in the middle inside. That's where I
want my content to go.
I've tried cutting and pasting too. Most of my pages are so specific to
the artist's content that trying to formulate a one-size-fits-all table for
the editable region in the template beforehand is impossible.
Also, I've landed on another problem... I tried just doing the template
with no editable regions, then doing a 'save as' to an html page, and
pasting in the content from the original page. It works fine in IE, but in
Netscape and Mozilla, where there's a mysterious ~450 pixel vertical dead
space between the logo header and where the content actually starts showing
up.
Thanks for mentioning your ebook. I'll definitely give it a look ! Frank
Bright

 

[Tina Clarke]

Actually come to think of it ... it probably works for me because of the way
I make a dwt ...

When I have an existing site I copy and cut the content ... because the rest
of the old template is either going to be static (ie the same on each page
like the logo and other bits of info) ... if I need the menu (which my case
for my old sites is going to be includes - if your moving from an old
template that used shared borders and nav bots time to move to includes at
this point) I bring up the include link copy that above the content so I
'remember' which include menu (At the moment I'm converting a large site so
I have a lot of includes for the menus) I copy and cut the content plus the
link for the include menu and then control + A on the keyboard to select
everything then press delete then control + V to paste ... Then control + A
then Control + shift + Z which removes old formatting then I check certain
aspects of the coding (some stuff does not get removed so I use find and
replace or frontpagepoweredit which ever is quickest for what I want to do)
I then apply the dwt and choose content ....

apart from my content area my menu areas are editable .... since I have
include set up on the dwt for the menu area i just cut the code i left in
the content section and double the menu include and paste in the path...
press ok and it changes ... I recheck the coding to make sure everything
went to plan (for instance I found that old categories were left dangling in
the code so I used replace to get rid of them throughtout the web) and my
new doctype did not always overwrite the mess of a doctype I had before I
paste that in over the old crappy one ... another thing that remove
formatting does not remove is span tags which if you don't set fp right ...
will insert them I have loads left over (I've not redone this site for
nearly gasp four years) so lots to throw out.

By making the new template already have the info of the old site .. in the
old locations and making those non editable ... and by just copying the
content plus path for the menu include ...then getting rid of the old stuff
and pasting it back then removing formatting with the above tweaks I
mentioned ... I find I can get into a rythem and not lose anything ... i
have a backup of the orginal of course ... I always have orginal backup and
then the copy I'm working on to covert. ... this is all in the ebook I
mentioned before...

this is probably more than you wanted to know... but hope it helps

tina

--
http://accessfp.net/ - FrontPage Tutorials
http://anyfrontpage.com/ - http://frontpage-ebooks.com/
http://addonfp.com/ - FrontPage Addons
http://frontpage-tips.com/ - Weekly FrontPage Tips
http://msmvps.com/frontpage/ - FrontPage News & Articles Blog
http://frontpage-advice.blogspot.com/ - FrontPage Advice Blog
http://artdoodle.com/ - Abstract Pen and Ink Drawings