can I place menu in external file

[secure377208]

Hi,
I am looking to use menu maker for a large site and would prefer all the links to be in an external file so that adjustments to the menu structure will be picked up by every page. At present it seems that all the menu data is written directly into the hosting page which I assume means that if we then use that page as our template the menu on every page will have the same menu structure and we cannot create a site wide change, is this correct, if so how can we best overcome this other than placing the menu on a seperate header page and using a ssi to add the header page to every page on the site.

Thanks in advance

[Ray Borduin]

If you apply menu writer on a .php page it will automatically add it to an external file as you describe. It only adds it directly to the page if you are not on a .php page.

[secure377208]

Thanks for that, would that mean that I have to use .php for all my pages or just the template? What I want to do is create a couple of template designs to suit all the pages in the site but I need to be able to modify the menu in a single location and have that change replicated in every page in the site in the same way that css works, previously this was done by having an include page (via ms frontpage) for the header and footer which worked very well, but I am looking to start using Dreamweaver and css for the rewrite and the learning curve is huge and not helped by the 101 other things which require my attention during each day. I dont want to have to go back to the familiar territory of Frontpage.

I am also using css sculpture and am basing the site on the 3 column rounded corners style with the nautica theme and would ideally like to insert the bubble horizontal menu centrally within the base of the header with the code externally available in such a way that any menu change while editing any page will take immediate effect on every other page which has been created based on that template. Being 100% new to dreamweaver cs4 and to css I am afraid that I am still at the stage where I need step by step instruction for most things even though they may be obvious to those with even a little experience in these packages.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Ray Borduin]

You will need to use .php for all of your pages, including adding it to your template extension. Then it will function as you need it to automatically.