Insert panel greyed out in live view when editing templates

[jeannettev38930121]

I am working on a new website (made a few before in Dreamweaver) and created 2 bootstrap templates myself (I created the pages as regular html files until they looked as I wanted, and then saved them as templates with one editable region on each of them). Now I am making new pages based on these templates and of course changes need to be made to the templates as well. However, the insert panel is greyed out in live view when editing a template ... Also inserting through the insert menu is not working. Am I missing the point here? I do hope I am doing something wrong, and that this isn't the way it should work ...

[Nancy OShea]

Please switch from Live to Design in your document toolbar when editing Template.dwt files.  See screenshot. 

Document Toolbar

[jeannettev38930121]

I know, but in Preview it is a mess and quite difficult to see what you are doing. Adobe is advertising the fact that you can insert bootstrap elements in live view. Then isn’t it weird that that does not go for editing templates?

(Sent from my iPhone)

[Nancy OShea]

No because DW Templates have a long history.  Long before Live view and long before Bootstrap were introduced.  If you can't work in Code/Design view, don't use Templates.  I never use them.  I prefer server-side includes over Templates every day of the week.

https://alt-web.blogspot.com/2015/07/server-side-includes-with-php.html

[jeannettev38930121]

Well, it seems that inserting bootstrap components in design view doesn't seem to work either, not through the insert panel, and not through the menu. The only difference is that the items are not greyed out anymore, you can click them, but then the following message appears: "Dreamweaver supports Bootstrap-based responsive web design in Live view. Switch to Live view to use Bootstrap".  I find that weird. They show you a message telling you what to do, but the solution they give doesn't work. That templates have a long history shouldn't be an excuse.  

[Nancy OShea]

I'm not a big fan of DW Templates.  As I mentioned above,  SSIs are better.

That said,  workflows matter a lot.  I think you put your cart before the horse when you prematurely saved as template. A well-crafted test page should contain everything you will need for your site:

• layout,
• sitewide navigation,
• headers,
• footers,
• forms,
• ads,
• scripts,
• Bootstrap components,
• slideshows,
• carousels,
• modals,
• and any other elements that may be needed on some but not all pages.  

In other words, you haven't put enough planning and stuff into your test page to call it a template yet.   Saving as Template should be the next to last thing you do before creating child pages.  Adding Template Regions for Editable and Optional Editable content is the last thing you do.  

I hope that makes sense.

[jeannettev38930121]

Thanks Nancy, I appreciate your extensive replies, I really do. I had spent a month on building a nice page in html, all items you mention were included, before I saved it as .dwt. And even then it appeared to be necessary to make changes. A good suggestion to have a look at server-side includes, I will have a look at it.