Updating Library References

If you choose not to update your pages at the time you edit a library item, but decide to do so later, Dreamweaver lets you do all the updating with a single command. For instance, you may want to wait to update pages at a later time if your Web team members have pages checked out that contain library items.

Note

If you are using Check In and Check Out, a site-maintenance feature covered in Lesson 14, and you want to make updates to pages using a library item, Dreamweaver asks you if you want to check out the pages containing that library item. You must say yes to allow Dreamweaver to check out the file if you want it to be updated.

1.	In the copyright.lbi file, change the copyright date to 2006 and save the document. Click Don't Update in the Update Library Items dialog box. Neither community_intro.html nor BeginningGreen.html shows the new copyright date yet.
2.	From the menu bar, choose Modify > Library > Update Pages. The Update Pages dialog box opens.
3.	In the Look In menu, verify that Entire Site is chosen. The menu to the right displays the current site, Yoga Sangha. You're choosing to update all files that use library items. Using these options, all library item references throughout the site will be updatedfor all library items, not just copyright.lbi. You can choose to update references to a single library item by choosing Files That Use from the Look in menu and selecting the desired library item from the menu to the right.
4.	In the Update check boxes, verify that the Library Items box is checked and the Templates box is unchecked. Check the Show Log box and click Start. The Update Pages dialog box shows which files were updated.
5.	Click Close to close the dialog box.

The new copyright date appears in both BeginningGreen.html and community_intro.html. You can close the copyright library item document.

Note

Similar functionality can be achieved through the use of Server Side Includes (SSI). To include SSI on your pages however, your server must be configured to support SSI.

Note

Snippets are another Dreamweaver featurethey allow you to insert often-used portions of code, although they are not updateable because they are not linked to an original item. Snippets are covered in more detail in Lesson 14.