Hi
My version of Dreamweaver is due for an upgrade but because of the cost involved I’m looking for a cheaper alternative. One of the features that DW had (and I used) was creating pages by means of html templates. Initially, in my case I would begin with a blank page and insert the header, footer and side bar including navigation links and save that template. If there are a 100 pages to the site all the pages are created from that one template. If I was to make any changes to the site, I would simply change the template and the 100 pages would change. Is there anything like this within CoffeeCup?

Unfortunately no this isn't an option for this type of request. RSD (Responsive Site Designer) would probably be the best choice for you. It's an excellent responsive designer which gives you ultimate control of style and design.

You can download the trial here http://www.coffeecup.com/designer/


That being said it does not do what you ask for with the template that updates 100s of pages. But it also does not cost a fortune or a subscription to use.

Actually, there currently is one product that does do it. HTML Editor (for Windows) has a function called libraries. Create your header, footer, slideshow or any other piece of code and save it as a library item. You can then insert the library on any page in your project. When you update the library, you can run an update and it will update all the places in your site where that library is inserted. It's very powerful.

I haven't used it in conjunction with RSD yet, but I can see where it will work very well. (Again, this is untested, but it seems logical.)

1. Create an extra page in RSD (not the homepage) called template. It should contain your primary layout with header, footer, etc. Run an export so that you have template.html to work with.

2. Create a new project in HTML Editor and copy the exported RSD files into the project.

3. Copy the header code from template.html onto the Windows clipboard. (Ctrl-C) Click Library, then Add Library Item.
-- For the title, call it header
-- In the Code area, paste the html you copied. (Ctrl-V)
-- Click Create

That library can now be inserted on any page of the site. When it is inserted, it creates this piece of code.
<!-- #BeginLibraryItem "header.lbi" -->
<!-- #EndLibraryItem -->
(header.lbi is name of the library that you created when you called it "header".) Of course, the code from the Library item appears between those two tags.

4. Now go back to your RSD project. Where the header appears on your pages, you can simply add an HTML Element and put the code below in it.
<!-- #BeginLibraryItem "header.lbi" -->
<!-- #EndLibraryItem -->
Once you export your project, you can "Update Project Pages" under the Libraries tab and it will add the code to your site.

The cool thing is that you can do this with a header, a footer, a slideshow that appears multiple places in the site, or any other piece of code you need repeated. RSD + HTML Editor are a pretty powerful combination.