Difference between Include and DWT

[Bill M.]

Probably I am overlooking something but I can't see any difference between
the Include Page and a DWT. Can someone tell me the advantasges of a DWT?
Thanks.

 

[Tom Pepper Willett]

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010775891033.aspx
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Tom "Pepper" Willett
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
---
About FrontPage 2003:
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FrontPage 2003 Product Information:
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Understanding FrontPage:
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===
"Bill M." <none> wrote in message
| Probably I am overlooking something but I can't see any difference between
| the Include Page and a DWT. Can someone tell me the advantasges of a DWT?
| Thanks.
|
|

 

[Bill M.]

Thanks Tom but other than making some regions on the page uneditable is
there any other advantage you can think of? I am a one-man gang!

 

[Murray]

An include would be a code/functional unit, like a menu, or a footer, or a
special announcement, or head content, or something like that. It only
appears in the pages into which it is inserted.

A DWT is an entire page of 'boilerplate' layout, with editable regions (and,
by negative inference, non-editable regions). Child pages are created from
DWT pages, allowing changes to the DWT to propagate to child pages. Does
that make sense?

 

[Bill M.]

Thanks Murray. It's starting to make sense I think. Most of the sites I do
are in the 5-20 page range and are pretty similar to what you might guess.
Can you think of a real world example where a DWT might benefit someone who
designs sites in that range?

 

[Murray]

Sure - I use them all the time for my pages. Here's what I do.

I put all the BOILERPLATE layout into the template.

I put all the navigation and 'temporal' content into includes.

I make the places where page-specific information will be placed into
editable regions.

That way, the base layout and page infrastructure comes from the template,
the infrequently changeable stuff comes from the includes, and the editable
stuff comes from the, well, editable regions.

I use Dreamweaver, primarily, however, and in Dreamweaver, I have quite a
bit of template logic that I can apply to the child pages that is not
available in FrontPage. For example, I can create special template
variables that define which section of the site a given page would be placed
in. Then the template can test the value of those variables and use that
value to decide which include to place on the page - this is very useful to
select subordinate navigation elements for each section, and it still leaves
the navigation elements in an include (with obvious benefits)....

 

[Bill M.]

Thanks Murray. That gives me some food for thought. I really appreciate it!

 

[Murray]

You're welcome!