Link to the University of Waterloo home page

Waterloo Library Link to the University of Waterloo Link to the Waterloo Library website

Before you start editing files that are in the new CSS-based template format, contact Esther Millar, Rose Koebel, Marian Davies, or Marina Wan to ensure that yur Dreamweaver Site has been defined and configured appropriately.

Updating a page

  1. Check Out the page that you would like to edit from the remote site.
  2. Open the file, and make the necessary changes.
    1. Links can be added using the link box in the Properties panel.
    2. Text can be formatted in the properties panel.
    3. Do not worry about the date at the bottom of the page, it will automatically update for you when you save.
  3. Save the page and put it to the server.
  4. Open the page in a web browser.
  5. Click the XHTML link at the bottom of the page.
  6. If the page is Valid you can check it in and close it, otherwise correct the errors.

Modifying the sidebar (if you have one).

  1. Get the sec_navbar.html file from the ssi folder on the remote site.
  2. Check the file out, and open it.
  3. Add or Remove items from the list. Make sure to leave the Skip Navigation item at the top.
  4. Adding a link is simply done by selecting the item and typing the filename of the page that you wish to link to in the link box in the Properties panel.
  5. Save the file and put it to the site.
  6. Navigate to a page within your site that uses the sidebar, and that you know validates.
  7. Click the validation button at the bottom to ensure it still validates with the changes that you have made to the sidebar. If it does not validate correct the errors.
  8. If the page validates save it and check it in.

Modifying the bottom navbar (if you have one).

  1. Get the footer_nav.html file from the ssi folder on the remote site.
  2. Check the file out, and open it.
  3. Items can be added or removed. Separate each item with a vertical bar ( | )
  4. Adding a link is simply done by selecting the item and typing the filename of the page that you wish to link to in the link box in the Properties panel.
  5. Save the file and put it to the site.
  6. Navigate to a page within your site that uses the sidebar, and that you know validates.
  7. Check that the link goes to the correct site.
  8. Return to the page.
  9. Click the validation button at the bottom to ensure it still validates with the changes that you have made to the sidebar. If it does not validate, correct the errors.
  10. If the page validates save it and check it in.

Creating a new page

  1. Connect to the site that you want to add a page to.
  2. To make sure you have the latest version of the templates select the Templates folder, and choose Site > Get. If the Templates that you have are up to date, you will not see anything happen.
  3. Select the top of your directory by clicking on it.
  4. Select File > New... . The file menu that you need to select is the one that is in the top left corner of the Dreamweaver window, not the one under the Files panel.
  5. Click the Templates tab at the top of the new document window.
  6. Choose the site to which you are adding a page from the list at the left hand side of the window.
  7. From the list in the middle of the window choose the template you wish to use. Make sure that Update page when Template changes is checked, and click Create.
  8. Save the page with the name you want, making sure to give it an .html extension. You should be looking at a page that is complete except for the content. The navbar may or may not appear, and it may appear as a rather long set of lists, do not worry, the site will look fine on the internet.
  9. Add a content title
    1. There is a green box labeled Header at the top of the document. Put your title in here.
    2. Select your title and from the properties box at the bottom of the screen, choose the Format list, and select Heading 1 . This setting may already be set for you.
  10. Change the <title> attribute. This is the text that appears in the title bar of the browser window when you open the page.
    1. At the top of the area where the page you are working on is shown, there is a box labeled Title. Click into this box at the beginning of it and add your title. This should read something like the following. Anything that is in square brackets needs to be replaced

      [Current Page] | [Current Area] | Library | University of Waterloo
  11. Add the content.
    1. Simply type or paste the information that you want to add to this page. You can add formatting such as bold and italics as well.
    2. If you add an image, make sure that you give an alt text which is an alternate description. This is used to make the page more accessible. You can add an alt text by clicking on your image, and then typing the description into the text box labeled alt.
    3. Links can be added by selecting the text or image that you would like to add the link to and then typing the address of the page or web site that you wish to link to in the Link text box.
    4. For information on linking to your e-mail address, read this page on spam protection (https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/webops/antispam.html).
    5. Remember to save your page while working on it so that if something goes wrong you don't loose everything.
  12. If you have a pre made contact info section, click into the contact info section at the bottom and delete the content that is there. Then switch to code view and type

    <!--#include virtual="ssi/contactinfo.html"-->
  13. Do not worry about the date at the bottom of the page, it will be automatically updated for you when you save.
  14. Save your page and Put it to the server.
  15. Open the page in a web browser.
  16. Click the XHTML link at the bottom of the page.
  17. If the page is Valid you can check it in and close it, otherwise correct the errors and return to step 14.

Changing contact info

  1. To change the contact information, select the ssi folder and then open the contactinfo.html page.
  2. Change any information that is necessary. If you need to change your e-mail address, you will need to switch to the code view and follow the instructions available at https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/staff/webops/antispam.html for spam protection.
  3. Save the file and check it in on the server.
  4. Make sure that the changes are valid by validating a page that uses the ssi and was known to validate before the changes were made.

Changing the title

  1. The title for each page is located in the green Header box.
  2. Make sure that the title is an H1.