Creating templates in macromedia will not let you save recordsets.For example if you need the same dynamic drop down list on everypage and need to be directed to a particular page. I found a way to get around this.
1. First create your page and with the recordsets. This will be the same recordsets you will use on all pages that use the template.Don't forget your edible regions
2.Next click on file and save as template.(ex: main.dwt)
3.What you now want to do is make a blank page and apply the template.Save that as Blank.asp( you will now use this as a template later)
4.Now go to the template you created and change its extension to .asp(ex: main)(go to the file list on the right hand side. do not do this outside of dreamweaver ). It will ask you if you want to update. click update
5.For every new page in your site use the blank.asp and save it with a name other than blank.asp(make sure you save it as an ASP file.
6. This is important:::Now if you need to change something in the template region open up the the template from the templates folder that you changed the file from .dwt to .asp (ex:main.asp) make your changes.Click on file and save as and find the file in the templates folder with the same name and save. CLick ok to overwrite. It should be the one that is an .asp file
7. you need to apply the .asp template to your pages, reopen the template you just save and click on modify then slide down to template and click on update pages.Now click start to update and you are done.
The reason for doing it this way is because if you open up the asp file and close it it will ask you to update and when it does it creates a new template file or it may not update at all. You cannot use modify-templates-apply template to page command because it will only reconize templates that have the .dwt extention and your .asp template will not show up
8. To create a page with the template use the blank.asp page that you made earlier. Then save it as a different file name.asp
Thats it.

Edited by - Lilac Crafts on 09 Mar 2004 23:12:27