Subtitles of the Movie

Let me provide some usage tips for how to use Library Elements in Dreamweaver CS5 and also some common library problems and how to avoid them or fix them. These Library Items, as I've shown here for footers and page headers. You can also use Library Items for navigation systems, although it's a little bit tricky in using navigation systems. For example, here in the Sample Site Content Page. A good use of a Library Item would be a footer down here that has links, copyright information, stuff that you want on every page. Also you don't want to update every page so a perfect use of a Library. Also these icons here or these graphic elements that are repeated in each paragraph. You could insert a Library Element there and then simply change the Library Element and then all of these icons will change rather than having to insert new icons in every single location. You could also use a library for this menu, this Spry Menu up here but again, it's a little bit tricky because remember, these Library Elements are placed in a separate Library Folder with a capital L. What that means is that any links that you create in that Library Element need to have a way to get out of that Library Folder. So normally the links will start with a ,slash. See a previous movie for details on this. Also, Dreamweaver has caused my students and myself problems when trying to place Spry Menus in libraries. It runs into difficulties so be careful with that but doing a standard menu, like a Fireworks Menu or maybe a Dreamweaver Menu, you shouldn't have any problems using it as a Library Element. Don't use Library Elements for larger sections of your page content. Use templates, Dreamweaver Templates for this purposes. Although I've found over the years that using CSS Layouts and CSS Positioning and Styling tends to lessen the need for using templates. Occasionally I still run into students or clients who do need the use of Dreamweaver Templates but I've found over the years that my usage of templates has decreased. Instead I use CSS Positioning. Regarding library problems, the most-common library problem that you'll encounter is problems with site management. If you're sloppy with your site management, your Dreamweaver Site Management, you'll have all kinds of problems with libraries. Namely, you must save all your files to your local Root Folder. You also must establish a site and a local Root Folder before you can start working with libraries. The most common problem is to either start creating libraries and you're not clear on which site you're working on so you're actually creating Library Elements for a different website or a different local site Root Folder or you don't create a site Root Folder at all or you don't save your files to your local Root Folder. Another very common problem is you'll go ahead and make a change to a Library Element and then you'll save that Library Element and you won't get that Update Library Element Dialog Box. Could be that you haven't opened the Library Element properly. Like notice that this is not opened yet. This is now opened. You want to be able to see this dialog right here when you save the Library Element. If you don't see this Update Library Items Dialog, that means the link between the Library Element and the pages that you are using has been broken. It could be that these pages are no longer in your local site root, you've changed site roots without realizing it or some other problem has happened. Rather than spending hours trying to figure it out, what I usually have students do is go to these files where you know those Library Elements should be, delete the Library Elements that are there and re-attach or re-link the Library Elements by simply dragging and dropping them from the Assets Panel back onto the document or perhaps even easier, go ahead and open up the Assets Panel like so, click on the Library Icon and just physically drag that Library Item back onto the page again. Sometimes that the quickest way to fix the problem rather than try to figure out why that link got broken. Just delete it, re-link it back and then go ahead and test the link by making a change to this Library Element, saving the change and again making sure that the Update Library Items Dialog shows up and that new page, in this case it was the Library Use Tips Page, does appear in the list of updated files. Those linking problems are the first ones you'll notice but most of them are related to site management issues. You're just not managing your Dreamweaver sites very well. That's why I don't include library instruction in the early parts of my Dreamweaver courses. I wait until the end of the course when students or clients have a much better handle on the way that you really must handle and work with sites in Dreamweaver CS5.