Editing masterpage locks all content

[tansycat]

I've edited my masterpage to get the heading, menu and style as I want it, but now I can't edit any of the text boxes or images on the other pages. The entire page appears to be locked (greyed out), not only the main elements. I thought the text boxes and image placeholders would be there on each page as editable regions to allow me to keep a consistent layout to the site but it seems like the only way to put any content on the pages is by removing all of these on the masterpage and placing new textboxes/images on each individual page. 

When I try to do the same thing on a new template, without configuring the masterpage first, everything works as I would expect and I can edit the text. Any ideas what's going on?

I'm using the recommended browser Firefox and the Easysitewizard Pro Fern template.

[chrismcl]

That is what the masterpage does. If you are going to design the site with the masterpage. Only place what you want on all pages on the masterpage. Otherwise the best thing to do is start again and don´t use the masterpage.

Hope this helps.

Chris

[tansycat]

So you're telling me that if we use Easysitewizard we have to design every single page afresh each time? That I have to set up our logo in the header, change the colours and the images from the original template, reposition the menu bar, add all the twitter links/feeds etc, - in fact redesign the entire look of the template with each and every page?

That is ridiculous! Surely a masterpage should be just that - a template for you to add text and images in the places reserved for them whilst still maintaining the overall design of the page ie a page with fixed areas but also editable regions. That is how it works in Dreamweaver and it is how I read it in the instructions for Easysitewizard. Why say that masterpage areas will be greyed out if that means the whole page is greyed out? It is also how it works if I use any of the supplied templates without changing them, but they are no use because they don't have our logo etc on them.

[duskjome]

When working with the masterpage you would only want to leave elements you want to keep on all pages. So, for example, if you had a text box with the filler text in it you would remove that from the master page as you do not want that filler text on each page.

Once the master page is configured you can add text/images to each page wherever you would like. So in your example you would set the company logo and the correct colors on the master page as well as whatever images and text you want on every page (contact information, twitter feed links et al.) When this is done you can add new pages and choose the "use master page" option to have all these items on each page.

[duskjome · Accepted solution]

Just going over your original post and I wanted to be sure my response was clear. When your master page is done and you see all the elements "greyed out" as you described on the individual pages you would add new images or text boxes via buttons on the top left of the editor. There would be no "placeholders" on the master page, as you would see in some other editors, just an empty page with your logos, menu and template changes.

Hope this helps.

[tansycat]

Thanks. I was expecting the Masterpage to behave as it does in Dreamweaver with editable and non-editable regions. I've removed all the text that came with the template and added text boxes to the individual pages and that works how we wanted. I think I'm getting there now.