dreamweaver template not updating Contribute pages

[Rhenan]

Currently I'm trialing Dreamweaver (MX) and Contribute (3.11), to check
that it's a workable solution for my company, in terms of editing and
auditing, but right now I'm having a problem.

I have some templates (.dwt files) that I create in Dreamweaver, for
use with Contribute, i.e. I create the template, other people create
the content for our site based on the those templates.

The issue is that when I make a change to the template, I would expect
the pages created in Contribute to be refreshed to use the new
template, but that doesn't appear to be happening. The only way I can
get the page to be updated is to edit the page in Contribute, go to the
Format menu and choose 'Template Properties', then hit OK again to
close this dialog. I then see the page refresh with the new template
changes.

Am I doing something wrong? I would expect, as I mentioned, to have all
pages automatically updated when the template is saved, and published.
Is there a setting I need to turn on, or a procedure of publishing the
template that I need to adhere to?

:confused; any advice would be appreciated.

[wickahead]

I remember that you need to press the "Refresh Templates" button in Contribute
when creating a new page (from template) to see the new templates... perhaps
the old ones are getting cached.

Which raises another question: Is there a way to push the template changes
down to the Contribute client users so that they see/have/use the latest
templates?

On the assumption that you have a copy of you site locally (on your HD), then
you need to make sure you syncronize your (local) DW site with what is on the
server to make sure that you have captured all the (contribute) changes that
have taken place, and then make changes to your template (so that DW can update
all the pages within your local site). And then, of course, you will need to
upload/sync back to the server.

I apologize in advance if I am telling you something you already know or have
tried.

--mark

[Rhenan]

Thanks for the reply Mark. While I think I've found most of the things you
mentioned since my first post, it is useful to get confirmation of my finding,
which appears to be consistent with your post.

Here's what I've found, and later, why I'm not really liking it:

If I edit the .dwt file in Dreamweaver and try to save it, I'm prompted to
only update those files I have locally that reference the template.
I can only update those local files that are checked out, though the saving
process will check them out automatically
If I create a new page using Contribute, I must refresh the templates first

My concerns are:
if I can only update those files I have locally, then do I need to have the
whole remote site stored locally too? My company site is huge (as it's
translated into 6 languages) and has multiple contributors/editors. It sounds
like I will have to download the entire site before I edit a template, and put
it back again afterwards. Is that right?? it sounds rediculous, so I'm sure
I've got it wrong.
if I have the files locally, I must check them out before or while saving the
template. However, I then have to check them back in manually. Again, with
potentially 300 to 400 pages per template, that's a lot of manual checking-in.
If the saving process can automatically check pages out, can it also
automatically check them in again??
Like you, Mark, I find it strange that Contribute requires a manual refreshing
of templates. I've searched all the options I can find, but I don't see an
auto-refresh templates setting, which would be sooo useful. As it stands I will
have to instruct each editor/contributor to refresh before they create a new
page, and pray that they do.

any further advice from Contribute/Dreamweaver users would be greatly
appreciated. How do users with very large website handle this? Are there any
tricks or hints that you can pass on?