but nothing appears when I use the Design View in
> Dreamweaver.

accurate guess: the includes are complete html docs with their own head and
body tags.

when dw "sees" two body tags in one document, design view goes blank.

fix: strip the includes down to just what html is correct/needed for where
they are inserted into the main docs.


--
Alan
Adobe Community Expert, dreamweaver

http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/