I mainly work with Dreamweaver, and have created a new Dreamweaver site for a non profit and the person who wants to update the site works with the HTML Editor 2009. Is it possible for her to use the HTML Editor with the Dreamweaver site, making use of the templates (.dwt) to create and edit files?. Do you have a tutorial available that shows how best to work with a Dreamweaver site?

One concern I have is being able to update the templates. If she can't use the templates as they are designed, but instead creates copies of pages, then if we want to make changes to the menu, or page layout, or even the copyright date, it would have to be done page by page. Thanks in advance

Tom Rogers
Tom Rogers Web Design

Only DW and, to a more limited extent, Contribute support DW templates. So, she'll need DW or maybe Contribute to retain the use of templates.

Does the HTML Editor make use of a template system? Perhaps I should buy a copy and convert the Dreamweaver template to a HTML Editor template. I guess she could do the same?

If a client wants to be able to edit page contents, I install SnippetMaster (http://www.snippetmaster.com/index.php). I haven't yet had a client who wants complete control of a site but, when that happens, I think I'll use WordPress as the CMS rather than Drupal or Joomla. I think WordPress would be a better choice for most end users because of its intuitive and relatively simplistic design.

Nope. It does not.

No template system? Seems like a limiting factor. I guess it would be good for small websites, but if you had 100 pages, it would take all day to update them one by one.

HTML Editor does allow use of it's own templates, they are now called "Themes". It cannot convert other software templates for you, but there is a set of some that come with it, as well as some add-on's that are available for purchase.

Even if using a "template", if one had 100 pages to edit/update, CSS would be a "must use" if you wanted to limit headaches. Still learning it myself, but from what I've seen, it's well worth the investment of time learning it.

Large websites get around this by using server side languages such as PHP and ASP.Net. Then they can use includes and such to build their pages from various pieces on the fly, as pages are requested by the browser.

It's like using DW templates, but you don't have to regenerate and resave and reupload all the pages made from a template if the template is modified. You merely modify a single file, say a file containing the same menu code used on every page. Save and upload that one file, and every page that "includes" that file will show the latest changes in the visitor's browser.

This approach isn't proprietary, so it can be used with any editor.

What DW calls templates are something quite different. I don't know if referring to them as master pages helps, but they basically define elements that will appear on all the pages that are based upon them. There are areas defined as editable within the child pages, but other elements can only be changed by editing the template itself. In that case, all the child pages based on that template have to be regenerated, resaved, and reuploaded to the server so they will all reflect any changes made to the template.