# 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