Adding and removing HTML templates

HTML content assist provides several templates, or chunks of predefined code, that you can insert into a file. You can use the default templates as provided, customize the default templates, or create your own templates.

For example, you may work on a group of HTML pages that should all contain a table with a specific appearance. Create a template that contains the tags for that table, including the appropriate attributes and attribute values for each tag. (You can copy and paste the tags from a structured text editor into the template's

Pattern field.) Then select the name of the template from a content assist proposal list whenever you want to insert your custom table into an HTML or XHTML file.

To add a new HTML template, complete the following steps:

1. From the

   Window menu, select

   Preferences.

2. In the Preferences page, select

   Web and XML | HTML Files | HTML Templates.

3. Click

   New.

4. Enter the new template name (a text string) and a brief description of the template.

5. Using the

   Context drop-down list, specify the context in which the template is available in the proposal list when content assist is requested.

6. In the

   Pattern field, enter the appropriate tags, attributes, or attribute values (the content of the template) to be inserted by content assist.

7. If you want to insert a variable, click the

   Variable button and select the variable to be inserted. For example, the word_selection variable indicates the word that is selected at the beginning of template insertion, and the cursor variable determines where the cursor will be after the template is inserted in the HTML document.

8. Click OK to save the new template.

You can edit, remove, import, or export a template by using the same Preferences page. If you have modified a default template, you can restore it to its default value. You can also restore a removed template if you have not exited from the workbench since it was removed.

If you have a template that you do not want to remove but you no longer want the template to appear in the content assist list, go to the Templates preferences page and uncheck its check box.

 

Related concepts

Structured text editors for markup languages

 

Related tasks

Adding and removing markup language templates - overview

Adding and removing JSP templates

Adding and removing XML templates

Editing text coded in markup languages - overview

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