Some Web designers handcraft sites with loving care, changing layouts, colors, fonts, banners, and navigation from page to page. But that approach isn’t always practical—or desirable. Consistency is a good thing. Web pages that look and act similarly reassure visitors; when only important material changes from page to page, readers can concentrate on finding the information they want. Even more important, a handcrafted approach is often unrealistic when you’re designing on a deadline.
This is where templates come in. Frequently, the underlying design of many pages on many Web sites is identical (see Figure 18-1). For instance, a company Web site with an employee directory may dedicate a single Web page to each employee. Each employee page probably has the same navigation bar, banner, footer, and layout. Only a few particulars differ, such as the employee name, photo, and contact information.
Figure 18-1. These three Web pages are part of a section of a Web site dedicated to answering frequently asked questions. The pages each provide the answer to a different question, but are otherwise identical, sharing the same banner, navigation buttons, sidebar, and footer. This is a common scenario for most Web sites that include news stories, employee profiles, product pages, or press releases. In fact, it’s so common that Dreamweaver has a special feature—Templates—to ...
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