Note: This tutorial assumes that a designer has already set up your template with editable location tags. If the following instructions don't work on your site, talk to your designer and ask them to make sure the template is configured correctly.
Template content is used across multiple pages on your site. Some sites only have one template, so the content is the same on all of the pages. Other sites have a different template for each page, so sidebar and footer information can change from page to page. Editing template content is very similar to editing regular content, with a few exceptions.
Figure 1
Choose "edit this template" from the admin toolbar (fig. 1, A.). You'll be taken to a new window.
Figure 2
This is the template dialog. Familiarize yourself with the template tools:
A. Advanced Site Editor
B. Edit Location Code (This is used for hidden locations, such as page-specific javascript, styles, or meta tags.)
C. Save a Copy / Save Template
D. Example Markup (This area replaces your main content. The purpose of this is for your designer to check the styles for all of the elements on your site.
E. Template content area
Also note that the site navigation is missing from this editor. This is because you can't browse to different templates from this area. In order to edit different templates, you must use the normal admin interface to browse to a new page.
To edit content on an existing template, click in the editor area (figure 2, E.) and make changes just like you would in the standard editor. Click the green Save Template button (C.) and close the window. Refresh the live view of the website to see your changes.
If you would like some pages to have different template content than others, choose the purple "Save a Copy" button (C.). Enter a name for your new template and hit OK. This saves the new template. Make your changes, then select "Save Template" (C.).
Next, you need to change the page settings so the new template is used on the correct pages. Click the Advance Site Editor Button (A.).
figure 3
To apply the new template to a page, choose the page from the site structure tree (fig. 3, A.). Select the Display Options tab (B.). If there is more than one template thumbnail (as shown here), choose the new template from the Template Content list (D.) within the blue-highlighted template. Go back to the live version of the site and refresh the page to see your changes.
For more complicated site designs, there may be more than one starter template. In figure 3, there are two completely different site designs, each having its own "Accompanying Template Content" options. This just means the program is pulling from two entirely different sets of code. Once the site is built, it is very rare that you need to change the template folder. If you do, simply click on the thumbnail of the other template.
figure 4
If you have made changes to a template that you could like to become the default template for the entire site, select Templates / Displays from the sidebar (figure 4, A.). Choose the new template from default template list (B.) and click the green button. This wil change the template for all pages that have not been previously defined.
If you have built a new template in the backend of the site, you must create a new database entry for it using this dialog. Upload the template folder to the "templates" folder in the root of the site, and then choose the name of the folder from the list. Give the new template a name (C.) and click the green button. You will then be able to select the template from the default list or add it to individual pages, as detailed above.