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About editable and locked regions: A template has two types of regions: editable and locked (non-editable). Editable regions are the sections of a template that have changing content, such as an article in a newsletter. Locked regions are the sections of a template that have static, unchanging content, such as a corporate logo or a standard site navigation bar.

When you edit a template (a .dwt file), you can make changes to both the editable and locked regions. You can also create new editable regions, or lock editable regions. The editable and locked regions are highlighted in the template. By default, editable regions are highlighted in blue and locked regions are highlighted in yellow. You can change the highlight colors in Dreamweaver Highlighting Preferences.

When you edit a document that has a template applied to it (an .htm file), you can make changes to the editable regions only. The locked regions are highlighted, indicating that you cannot change these areas.

Dreamweaver handles updates to editable and non-editable (locked) regions differently. Changes in the locked regions will be reflected in the updated pages, while changes in editable regions will not.

The only time that the template affects the content in the editable region of a template-based page is the first time the page is opened from the template (File > New from Template). After that point it is not possible to update the editable regions of this page globally. Doing so would erase the existing content in the editable region, so Dreamweaver does not allow it. To change this content in the editable region you must make the change in the page itself, rather than in the original template.

Content in templates will be either in a locked region or in an editable region. A locked region contains content that will always be written to pages based on the template. This region cannot be selected or changed in the page itself; it must be changed in the original template—thus the term "locked" is applied to non-editable regions. An editable region contains content that is editable in the pages based on this template. Due to this fundamental difference, the two regions work in different ways from one another:

Content in locked regions of a template will be written to all HTML pages based on this template.

Changes to content in locked regions of a template will prompt an update to HTML pages that use this template.

Once updated, HTML pages that use this template will show the content changed in the locked region of the template.

Content in editable regions of a template will only be written to another HTML page once—when the new page is initially created.

Content in editable regions of a template will not be written when choosing Modify > Templates > Apply Template to Page. This means that the only way to write editable content to a page is to choose File > New from Template.

When pages are updated, locked regions will be updated but editable regions will not.