Design Time Style Sheets for Contribute or Dreamweaver

This project teaches you how to link style sheets to templates, how to manipulate these style sheets using a Template Optional Region (non-editable) and its associated Template parameter.

This in-depth 18 page tutorial has a set of finished files that you can preview if you get stuck with the instructions. The finished template is in the Templates folder and named: tut3-dtcss-finished.dwt, its dependant file (instance or child) is in the root folder and named: index-finished.htm. Feel free to view these files at your leisure.

Although CSS support in both Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 and Macromedia Contribute 2.0 has improved, there are still quite a few CSS-P bugs related to Design view and commands (Macromedia Dreamweaver and/or Macromedia Contribute). A curiously absent feature of Macromedia Contribute is that it doesn't directly support Design Time Style Sheets at all, unlike Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, which does, but not as desired for these outlined issues. There are workarounds that you can use to overcome these bugs and missing features, one of which is to employ Design Time Style Sheets (DTCSS), which empower your content editors with the full functionality of either product, as long as you have created the Style Sheets properly.

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Overview

Table of Content:

  • Recommended Reading:
  • Creating the Site Definition:
  • The Techniques Discussed:
    • Technique: Controlling CSS Using Template Optional Regions
  • Tutorial Project:
    • Linking the Stylesheets
    • Inserting the Design Time Optional Region
    • Inserting the Web Style Sheet
    • Modification 1: Conversion to a Complex Expression (Optional!)
    • Modification 2: Conversion to a MultipleIf Block (Optional!)
    • Creating the instance pages
    • Style Sheet Hints
    • What does this accomplish?
    • Recommended Workflow with this technique
      • Quick Start Guide
    • Alternate Techniques
      • Technique: Prefixing mmhide_ to your Custom Classes
      • Technique: Dynamically calling the linked CSS
      • Technique: Using a base href tag (A hack)
    • Contribute & DTCSS & Includes
    • Conclusion

Brad Halstead

Brad HalsteadBrad Halstead (www.dreamweavermx-templates.com) is a computer software engineering technologist by trade, but deviated from that dream to join the Canadian military as an air weapons systems technician where he learned all about various computerized aircraft weapons systems as well as loading the munitions. Brad has dabbled in the web in various capacities since 1989 and left the military to become a fulltime computer technician. Brad tries to play an active roll in the support forums for Dreamweaver, Contribute and Project Seven, as time permits him to. Brad is HTML 4.01 Certified, and has contributed content to Dreamweaver MX Magic and Inside Dreamweaver MX, in addition to being a technical editor for both publications. Recently, Brad co-authored Dreamweaver MX Templates and has been accepted as a Team Macromedia Member for Contribute.

He lives in London, Ontario with his cherished partner Brenda and their daughters Megan and Amanda, son Aaron, a Yorkshire Terrier, and their newest addition, a Sheltie.

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