Website Templates The dictionary defines it as: 1. A pattern or gauge, such as a thin metal plate with a cut pattern, used as a guide in making something accurately, as in woodworking or the carving of architectural profiles. 2. Computer Science The purpose of a templates is to remove repetitive work and provide a framework for consistency. Templates are used when writing letters, sending email ,and of course, making web pages. The very first web page you make is the template page then each page you create you create from the template. The web page template consists of the logo, and navigation structures. The template I used for creating this web page is here. You should clearly see that the only difference between this page and the template is the text you are currently reading. Website Template Sources Included with Web Editor Most modern web page editors (FrontPage, Dreamweaver, Net Fusion Objects) come with pre-built templates which you can use or modify. You need to be careful when using these templates that they don't require your web host to support FrontPage Extensions or PHP, server side Includes etc. Or if they do then make sure your host supports them before you use them. Free or Purchased Template There are many websites offering good high quality professional templates for free or low cost. The only problem is finding one that you like and that is easy to modify. The templates usually come with usage restrictions please read those before using. Using these templates is covered in making a website using templates. The main problem with many of these templates is if you want to change the navigation. With some it is not possible and with others it's difficult. Make your Own Template The advantage of this approach is that you have total control over the look and feel and have no restrictions on usage. It does mean however that you need to do some web page design. Having said that even with bought templates you usually need to modify them. To make your own templates you first need to understand web page layout. The Web page layout for most older web pages was done using tables. This is still common (May 2005) but is gradually moving towards cascading style sheets or a combination of style sheets and tables. Cascading style sheets (CSS) are much more flexible than tables but even using tables for the layout and cascading style sheets for the formatting still offers tremendous advantages. It is fair to say that new websites today (June 2007) use CSS for the page layout. Related Articles:
What is template?
A document or file having a preset format, used as a starting point for a particular application so that the format does not have to be recreated each time it is used: a loan amortization template for a spreadsheet program.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Website Templates
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