Working with Content and Page Layout

When you analyze the website you are looking at each type of page your website uses, and the types of content delivered by each page:

• The types of pages can include home page, general content pages, newsletter pages, etc.
• The types of content can include the main block of text included in each page, news or press releases, forms, adverts, announcement information, etc.

Once you have analyzed your website you design the templates for each page type, adding the appropriate placeholders for each type of content. When the pages are assembled by Website Manager the content placeholders are replaced with topics published from Author-it, adding the HTML file containing the appropriate block of content.

In the following example, the template includes placeholders for the main page content {body}, helpful information {tip}, product announcements {announcement}. The body topic creates a new webpage, while the tip and announcement topics are added as small sections in sidebar on the right-hand side of the webpage.

The website content is created in Author-it. Topics are organized in the book's table of contents to match the menu structure used in the website. Topics included at root level are the parent items in the menu, while topics demoted to the second level are often the child items in the menu.

Content appearing in each web page can be divided into two groups:

1. The main content is referred to as the page, and is created in its own topic object. Assign the New Page variables to all topics that create a new webpage.
2. Sub sections or secondary content appearing on the page (for example, advert blocks, tips, or announcements) are referred to as page parts and are created in separate topic objects, using a new topic for each page part or content type. Assign the Part of Page placeholder variable to the page part topics.

In the book's table of contents pane, add the page part topics directly under the page they belong to. Website Manager uses the placeholder value assigned to each topic to identify the content's location in the webpage.