Reusing Objects from One Page to Another
It's often a good practice to reuse cells, text, and images that you've created on one page as you build a new page. Not only does this save time, it's a great way to ensure that your site's pages have a uniform appearance or "theme".
You can copy an object from an old page and paste it in a new page. This will work, but it is time-consuming, as you must save the page you are working in, go to the old page, copy the object, go back to the new page, and paste the object. It's more productive to use Templates of the Favorites Library.
Page Templates
Often a developer will create a page, usually the home page, on a site and tinker with format, graphics, and layout until it has the appearance that he or she want other pages on the site to have. (Sometimes this is called the "Alpha" page). Now the job is to turn this page into a Template so that new pages can easily be created that have the same look and feel. The following example shows how this can be done.
After working on the page shown below, the developer is satisfied that it has the layout and appearance that she wants as the "standard" for the site:
She could use this page as a template when creating new pages, but all the text and images, including a substantial amount below what appears at the top of the Design Environment, would have to be deleted and written over for each new page.
Instead, she creates a new page, named (in this example) "Index Template", using the "Application" page as a page template. Then she deletes most of the text and other material that was specific to the original page and only keeps the header, the menus, and a few cells with formatted titles, text, and subheadings:
She can now create new pages using "Index Template" as a template. Once the new page is created, she can replace the Title, Subhead, and text areas and add cells, text, and images as needed. The look and feel of the "Alpha" page has been retained, and there is no need to recreate header or menu elements or text formats.
(More on templates)
Favorites Library
Page templates are great if you're disciplined enough to plan in advance how you want your Web site to be organized. You can set up your menus on a Template page, and they will automatically be copied each time you create a new page, complete with all the correct links.
Unfortunately, some of us aren't always able to do this, and sometimes a site will need to be modified to meet new needs and circumstances. When you have an element (for example, a new menu) that you need to insert on several existing pages, the Favorites Library is an ideal tool to use.
Let's use an example to show how the Favorites Library can be used:
An existing Web site has a menu that needs to be changed to reflect the addition of two new pages to the site. Here is a page before the menu is changed:
The developer first changes the menu:
Now she copies it to the Favorite Library:
Now the developer opens another page on the site that still has the old menu:
She deletes the cell that contained the old menu:
Now she accesses the Favorites Library by clicking the  button on the Toolbar and locates the "New Menu" in the list of favorites (note that you will see it on the left of the Favorites screen):
She clicks "Copy to Clipboard", and the new menu is now available for pasting. She now pastes it onto her page by choosing "Paste" on the "Edit" menu or pressing the "V" key while holding the "Control" key. The new menu, with all its links, is pasted on the page:
The cell containing the new menu needs to be positioned correctly. The developer accesses the "Cell Properties" screen by choosing "Cells" and then "Edit" from the "Edit" menu. She sets the X position to 15 and the Y position to 94:
The new menu now appears correctly on the page:
Since the new menu is still on the clipboard, the developer can continue to open pages on the site, delete the old menu, and paste the new menu -- without using the Favorites Library -- until all pages have the new menu. But if, during another WebBuild Express session, the developer needs the new menu on a page, it's always available in the Favorites Library.
(More on the Favorites Library) |
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) and select the page you want from the list:
