Table of Contents Chapter 9: Customizing User Interface

Chapter 8: Creating Lesson Templates

In Chapter 5: Publishing Web Lessons, we briefly mentioned about a file called dtTemplate.ht_, which is located in the Digital Teacher authoring program folder.

dtTemplate.ht_ is the master blueprint from which the Digital Teacher authoring program generates the Digital Teacher web-based lessons in different types (HTM or ASP) and styles (one question on a page, all questions on a single page, or the Table of Content style).

By duplicating this master template and modifying its graphical user-interface related scripts, we can create another template, from which we can generate lessons specific to the template.

Creating Custom Templates

Suppose we want to display a fancy background image for all the lessons targeted at our Junior class. We

	1. Copy dtTemplate.ht_, and make a new template file called TemplateForJuniorOnly.ht_
	2. Open the new template file using a text editor such as Wordpad
	3. Locate the line  <BODY BACKGROUND="../program_images/back.gif">
	4. Modify the line to <BODY BACKGROUND="../program_images/fancyImage.gif">.

Then, all the lesson files created using TemplateForJuniorOnly. ht_ will contain the tag that will point to the fancyImage.gif file.

Or, if we don't want to display borders of the question box on a training course page for our Sales Dept., we can create another template "thisTemplateIsForSalesDeptOnly.ht_" and set the border of the question box to 0.

For a try-out demonstration, please see the next chapter - Chapter 9: Customizing User Interface and Style.

Note: You should always work on your custom-made templates - not directly on the master template dtTemplate.ht_. Also, you must not change or edit the content of the master template file. This is important for the purpose of supporting Digital Teacher Web Application.

Adding Template Locations

In order to use templates, we must add their location information to the Digital Teacher authoring program.

The figure shows us the template file list in the Digital Teacher authoring program. Here, we can add or remove the location information (file path) on our template files. The selected (highlighted) file in the list becomes the default template from which the Digital Teacher authoring program will generate our web-based lessons.

Tip: When we have a number of templates added to the list, we can link each template to a small graphics image. That way, we can visually and easily tell what the currently selected template is for. When linked to an image, clicking on a file name in the list will display the linked image.

Digital Teacher Web Application does not include these images. You should create them using an image editor.

Table of Contents Chapter 9: Customizing User Interface