Menu Writer and Nested Templates

I am attempting to create a site with a set of buttons in a left vertical nav panel. This set of buttons will be identical on all pages in the site. I have created this and saved it as template1. I also want to have a set of horizontal nav buttons across the top of my pages for each main "section" of my site.

I want to open template1, add the horizontal nav buttons in the appropriate div at the top of the page and save this page as template2. I will then open template2 and create all of my content pages for this particular section. I will repeat this process for each section - creating a new template with the new horizontal nav buttons.

I can easily create template1. I have been attempting to create template2 but am having difficulty. In template1 I have made a div called "topnav" which is right under the header and made it an editable region. I then create a new "page from template" using template1. After this page opens I use menu writer and insert the horizontal menu in the editable region. When I try to save this as a template I get a message saying:

"You have made changes to code that is not marked as editable. If you retain those changes they will be lost the next time you apply a template update to this file. Do you want to retain the changes until then?"

If I try to ignore this and move on, it doesn't work. If I create pages from template2 and save them, all is well. But if I try to make changes to template2, the pages derived from template2 do not update. Curiously, changes made to template1 DO take.

Why is this happening? I have inserted the menu into the editable region. Why is it saying I am making changes to code that is not editable?

Is there a better way to create nested templates and still be able to use menu writer?

Any help would be appreciated.

you can create a template from a page that was created from a template.


you need to create a basic page for the first payout, then create another basic page for the two menu layout, and save each of these as a template.

Start with a static page, and create your layout, then add the side menu and save it.

Save a copy of this page as well, In the copy of the page, add your second menu.


Once both pages are created, you can save them as templates.

Originally Said By: Jason Byrnes

  you can create a template from a page that was created from a template.


you need to create a basic page for the first payout, then create another basic page for the two menu layout, and save each of these as a template.

Start with a static page, and create your layout, then add the side menu and save it.

Save a copy of this page as well, In the copy of the page, add your second menu.


Once both pages are created, you can save them as templates.  

I'm not sure if we're on the same page (pardon the bad pun). I want to create a 3-column layout with a header and footer and a top navigation bar just below the header, above the main content.

In the left column I want to have a series of buttons. The top button will be "Home". The second button will be "Section A". The third button is "Section B". The fourth is "Section C" and so on.

I want to create one template where I can edit the left column content. This will be the "master" template - Master.dwt. All other templates will be children of this template. This way, if I want to edit the header info or the footer info or the left column info, I only have to do it in this one file.

So I would start by creating a blank page. I would use CSS Sculptor and build this first page. After completing the CSS Sculptor dialogs I would then use Menu Writer to add the left column navigation. At the moment, this is a basic html page. Once I had the left column navigation built I would save this page as a template. If I didn't want to use the top nav, this one template would be the parent of all my content pages and it would work great.

However, I want a different type of navigation. When you click on the Section A button on the left it will take you to a Section A Landing Page. On this page will be a series of buttons in the top nav bar - "A1", "A2", "A3", "A4", etc.

My plan was to create a new page from the Master.dwt template. This page would then be saved as a new template - Section A.dwt. Thus, the "master" template is the parent template and the "section" templates are the children templates. Please correct me if I am using incorrect terminology.

Unfortunately, this isn't working.

Is it possible to create a master where I can edit the majority of my overall structure only once or do I have to create a "master" template for every section? If this is the case, if I have 10 sections I will have to edit the header and footer and left navigation 10 times instead of just once. I can't imagine that is the right way to do this.

Please advise.

no, nested templates in Dreamweaver are problematic at best.

you should create a separate template for each layout.


It may seam like you would be saving yourself a haste by creating a nested template like you describe, but you are really only adding to the headache because of the problems that are inherent when trying to use the nested template approach.

Hi all,

Me too interested in web designing. And daily I have work on Cascading sheets. So much information i gathered from these threads. Thank you very much.

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