with regards to the templates question...
are you trying to use Dreamweaver's Template function? if so, save the file as a template. anything you want to edit from page to page will need to be set as an 'editable' region - under the 'Modify' menu towards the bottom is the Templates commands/functions ... in it's sub-menu is something about editable regions.
Then, to make a file based off of it, choose 'New...' from the File menu. There's a tab for Templates - you can pick your template from there, and then you can put page-specific info into your editable regions.
I'm using Dreamweaver MX, though that shouldn't make too much of a difference. There's quite a bit of info in DW's Help files as well - that's how I started learning about them.
Also, point of note that if your site is HUGE, then the template function can be a pain - it'll have to update every individual page, and then you'll need to upload all those pages.
For things like headers & footers, maybe menus, PHP can be nice. Just change one file, and all the pages that reference it will update.