Template Instructions

What's Needed

We offer templates in several flavors: Expression, Dreamweaver, and HTML (generic for any html editing program).

You will need to have the appropriate software, Expression Web V4* or higher or Dreamweaver CS3 or higher, depending on the template version you purchase.

*For accurate content and page layout display in Design View.

Development

Templates are also designed to be flexible. You can add more pages, delete the pages you do not need, or even rename existing pages. Your template package will contain all of the pages and images seen in this preview.

By using your own photos in place of our sample images, you make the template unique to your business. We recommend you be familiar with the basics of CSS and HTML.

What's Included

This is a multi-page web template, containing sample pages. All of the colors (headings, fonts, gradients, background, etc.) can be changed via the css file.

This templates offers a variety of page layout designs, as well as different options for catalog and product pages. You should choose the catalog and product pages that best suit your needs and use those consistently. Most will not use all of the options available.

Responsive Design:

This template is designed to expand and contract depending on the viewing device. This is done through "media queries" that detects the viewport of the visitor. As the screen becomes smaller, several things happen:

The media queries are located at the bottom of the default.css file; however, we recommend that you not change these parameters unless you are familiar with how any changes will affect your site.

Adding Your Site Name:

The site name and slogan is plain text. The size, color, and font are set within the CSS file. To add your own business name and tag line, open the .dwt template(s) and look for the following:

  1. <div id="logo">
  2. <h1>Your Business Name</h1>
  3. <h2>Slogan or Tag Line Goes Here</h2>
  4. </div>

To change the font, size, color, or other settings, open the default.css file and look for the following:

  1. #logo h1 {
  2. font: normal 2.0em 'Font Name', "Century Gothic", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #ffffff;
  3. . . .
  4. }

Google Fonts:

By linking to a particular font stored on Google’s servers (save on bandwidth + caching benefits), you now have access to a wide variety of custom fonts. This offers a lot of flexibility for using more decorative fonts by adding just a touch of code. Quite literally, you can add these fonts into your site in under a minute. NOTE: You will not see the Google font when in design view. It will be seen when you preview the site in your browser. Learn more about Google fonts.

It’s extremely simple. First there is a link to the particular Google font that goes in the head area of each page:

  1. <link href="http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Font+Name" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

Next the font name is added to the CSS file:

  1. h1 {font: normal 30px 'Font Name', "Century Gothic", Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
  2. color: #996000;
  3. margin: .3em 0;
  4. letter-spacing: 1px;}

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS):

This template relies on an external CSS file that consists of "rules" to tell the browser how to render the pages. The CSS file sets the fonts and colors for all of the text on the page, will position items on the page such as the sidebar and content areas, and much more. You can easily modify font colors (links, headings, and text). Several elements that make up the template are actually graphic images and cannot easily be changed. If you feel the colors used in this template do not meet your needs, we offer custom design and modification services.

Note: Occasionally when adding your own text and images to your pages, the page may suddenly seem to lose the formatting. Don't panic. Continue adding your content, then Save the page (Control + S). Now Refresh the page (F5) and you will see your page "snap" back into position. Continue editing your pages. If the page loses formatting again, just Save and Refresh the page.

All of our templates are designed to meet current web standards to ensure that your web site will work in today's web browsers.

Editing Pages and DWT (.dwt) Templates:

All template packages allow you to delete the pages you do not need, create new pages, and rename existing pages if necessary.  Generic HTML templates contain only .html pages.

Expression Web and Dreamweaver versions rely on .dwt templates for the page layout designs. DWT template pages contain editable and non-editable regions. You edit non-editable regions on the .dwt template(s). This includes some elements like your site name, navigation, copyright statement, etc. Once you change a .dwt template and save the page, the changes are then applied to the .html pages that are attached to that .dwt template page.

You edit editable regions on the .html pages. This is your site content, images, etc. To edit the existing .html pages, just delete our sample content. You can then type your own text and add any additional photos. Note that you will not be able to edit any “non-editable” regions on these pages.

Creating New Pages In Expression Web: To create a new, blank page based on a .dwt page layout, go to File > New > Create From Dynamic Web Template. In the dialog box that appears, select the appropriate .dwt page (if you template offers more than one page layout). When your new page is created, save the page giving it a unique name and page title. You can then add content to the editable regions.

Creating New Pages In Dreamweaver: To create a new, blank page based on a .dwt page layout, go to File > New. From the dialog box that appears, choose Page From Template. You can navigate to the Templates folder of you web to choose the appropriate .dwt page template.

Drop-Down Navigation Menu:

The navigation menu can hold a main topic and one sub-topic level. The sub-topic level will expand on mouseover and will contract when you move the mouse off the menu item.

drop-down menuYou can delete main topics (and any associated sub-topics), add new ones, and change the text and links on the existing menu. You will edit the drop-down menu on the .dwt page templates. Note that the subtopic level will be difficult to see, so we recommend you edit the menu in code view. If you look at the coding, it should be relatively easy to make your changes.

For a main topic (top link) only, your code will look something like this:

  1. <li><a href="../index.html">Home</a></li>

For a main topic that contains sub-topics, your code will look something like this:

  1. <li><a href="../page.html">Main Topic</a>
  2.    <ul>
  3.      <li><a href="../page.html">Sub-Topic 1</a></li>
  4.      <li><a href="../page.html">Sub-Topic 2</a></li>
  5.      <li><a href="../page.html">Sub-Topic 3</a></li>
  6.      <li><a href="../page.html">Sub-Topic 4</a></li>
  7.    </ul>
  8.  </li>

Once you have your menu completed on one .dwt page, copy the entire menu and paste it into any additional .dwt page templates you will be using. Save your pages and allow the changes to update on the .html pages. Save and you're done.

  1. <nav id="mainnav">
  2. copy all coding that appears between the opening and closing nav tags
  3. </nav>

Font sizes and colors, background colors, sub-topic block width, margins, paddings, etc. are all controlled in the default.css page.

FAQ Page:

FAQ pages typically have several questions along with their answers. To make this easily readable, we have used a definition list <dl>. The definition topic <dt> and the definition description <dd> are given special classes. If you wish to change the way the questions and answers look, you can edit the classes in the CSS file.

  1. <dl>
  2. <dt class="question">Question</dt>
  3. <dd class="answer">
  4. <p>Your answer goes here.</p>
  5. </dd>
  6. </dl>

Tabbed Content:

We have added a tabbed content block on the sample product pages. This allows for several blocks of content to be displayed in a relatively small space. You can, however, add a tabbed content block to any page.

The Tabs: You can change the text that appears on the tabs while in Design View. You can add more tabs if needed by following the convention used below. A fourth tab would have rel="tab4", etc.

  1. <ul class="tabs">
  2.    <li class="active" rel="tab1"> Description</li>
  3.    <li rel="tab2"> Specifications</li>
  4.    <li rel="tab3"> Additional Views</li>
  5. </ul>

The Content: The content that appears below each tab is hidden by default using a bit of jQuery and CSS. You will have to edit the content while in Code or Split View. You can add paragraphs, lists, images, etc.

  1. <div id="tab1" class="tab_content">
  2.    ...your content goes here
  3. </div>
  4. <div id="tab2" class="tab_content">
  5.    ...your content goes here
  6. </div>

JavaScript Calendar:

This template includes a simple JavaScript calendar. Note that you will not be able to see the calendar while in Design view. This script is set to show the current date only. If you do not wish to include the calendar, you can delete it from the code.

  1. <p><script type="text/javascript" src="calendar.js"></script></p>

To change the size of the fonts in the calendar or to change the colors, you will need to edit the calendar.js file. [Credit for this application: http://www.bmgamble.com. While this script is free, we recommend that you give credit for the application.]

JavaScript Lightbox:

Your template contains a JavaScript Lightbox script. You can use the lightbox feature on any photo in your site; it is not limited to only the product or gallery pages. The Lightbox JavaScript consists of several files. We recommend that you do not move or edit any of these files.

The Lightbox allows you to click on a small photo and have a larger image appear in a semi-transparent overlay that will appear on top of the page. The script will automatically size itself, so your images can be different sizes.

First insert your small photo onto the page. Create a hyperlink to the larger photo. Create a hyperlink to the larger photo. Switch to code view and add the rel="lightbox" which activates the JavaScript. If you wish to have a title appear, add the title attribute as shown in the example.

  1. <a href="images/gallery/product1lg.jpg" rel="lightbox" title="Your product description goes here"><img alt="sample photo" src="images/gallery/product1.jpg"></a>

To click through a group of images, add a group name: rel="lightbox[groupname]". The "Previous" and "Next" buttons will now automatically appear.

  1. <a href="images/gallery/product1lg.jpg" rel="lightbox[groupname]" title="Your product description goes here"><img alt="sample photo" src="images/gallery/product1.jpg"></a>

[Credit for this application: http://lokeshdhakar.com/projects/lightbox2/.]

Template Use:

This is a free template, but does have some conditions. Please read carefully:

  1. You are welcome to use this template for one personal and one commercial site only.
  2. By downloading this free template, you are bound by the terms of our License Agreement. Our full End User License Agreement is available on our site.
  3. You must keep our credit link, located at the bottom of each page, in place and visible. If you do not want to keep the credit link in place, do not use the template.
  4. This free template does not have all of the "bells and whistles" we include in our for-sale templates. We do not make modifications to free templates.
  5. You are welcome to make changes and modifications to the template, but you may not offer our template for download or for sale.

A Checklist:

There always seems to be a rush to publish a new site. Before going live with your site, take a minute and review our list of items that should be completed first!

Need Help Fast?

Need more? We also offer a variety of helpful resources as well as design services. Please visit our web site at RTBWizards.com.