Information Resources & Technology (IRT)–

Set Up Local Templates

You will need a local copy of the Templates resources for your site in order to preview your pages in Dreamweaver. If your pages look weird or broken, it's probably because you don't have local Templates resources installed in your local site folder.

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Extract Templates from Templates.zip

  1. You should have done a "Get" of your site, copying of all the live files to your computer
  2. In your browser, follow one of your site's links to a page or stationery file
  3. In Dreamweaver, find and open the same file you viewed in the browser (check the end of the browser URL if you're not sure of the file's name)
    • If it looks broken as expected (not at all like the browser view) then you need to extract your local Templates folder
    • Close the file
  4. Examine your computer's local site folder for a file named Templates.zip; contact Web Help if you do not have a Templates.zip file or Templates folder on your live site
    • Windows XP and Vista users: Don't double-click the Templates.zip file to extract it; this creates a double-nested Templates folder, which breaks it. Instead, do this:
      1. Find the Templates.zip file on your desktop
      2. Right-click the Templates.zip file; from the pop-up menu, select "Open With" and then "Compressed (zipped) Folders; this opens the .zip file as if it were a folder
      3. Right-click on the Templates folder and find Copy
      4. Use the Back button to return to the root of your local site folder
      5. Right-click on the white part of the window and select Paste; a Templates folder is pasted into your local site root
    • You can get the free Stuffit Expander utility from SmithMicro site:
         Expander for Mac
         Expander for Win
      After installing Expander, use it to expand the Templates.zip archive
  5. You should end up with a folder named "Templates" at the root of your site's local folder
    • This Templates folder is only to enable your preview in Dreamweaver
    • Whether you put it to the site or not will have no effect on your Web pages
  6. Return to Dreamweaver and re-open the file you opened in step 3; it should appear much more like the view in the browser

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