The Use of Templates

Using & Editing Templates

There could be a number of reasons why you are here, one you could be looking for a recommended site in which to find the best templates on the net, two, you don’t really know what you are looking for in a design and have decided to just pick an already made design and use it as your own, or three you just felt like reading this article, since all the rest were just as interesting. Hopefully you picked the last one. *wink*

Using Templates…

Using a template isn’t a bad thing, sometimes some designers feel ashamed for having to “lower” themselves to using someone else’s work to show off their content, but in reality they have no reason to. I feel that using a template, if you are a designer, just means that at the moment your are in a slump of what to create and so to change the look, you need to use someone else’s work. For someone who doesn’t want to hire a designer or create their own, this is basically a paradise. The only problem with that is actually editing the templates yourself.

Editing Templates…

Finding the template was the easy part, now editing it can either be a walk in the park or harder then its seems. You have to remember that sometimes choosing a template can be more work since your not aways familiar with how the designer codes. Some designers often place comments within the design in order to help people who normally don’t like to pick up where someone left off. While other designers don’t do this at all and this is where the hardships comes in. No worries, with the tutorials on these pages it’ll be a sinch for you to get in and come back out alive and well.

If you are new to the world of HTML, I would suggest reading the basic HTML page I’ve written up with the basic HTML setup and a table full of commonly used HTML tags. This will help you get a better understanding and feel for HTML when you go to edit your templates. Now if you’re familiar with coding, then this should be an easy task for you, but just be aware that not all designers are the same and reading the code carefully will help you not to make too many mistakes.

What EVERY Template Should have

These three things are what you’ll need to expect when downloading a template. If the folder does not have one of these things, then either they are saved somewhere else, or the file is missing.

• Index.html File
• Style.css File
• Images Folder

Recommended Template sites…

Templatemonster.com This is the place to go for all trendy flash and non-flash templates. The downside is that they cost money and although the cheapest can be up to $39 bucks, anyone else can buy the same layout. So in a way, its a waste of your poor money. The up-side to this website are the templates are all one-of-a-kind designs and this site is always updated with new content. Another down-side, these templates are more recommended to the HTML savvy.

OpenDesigns.org Now this site is highly recommended to find the most trendiest Web 2.0 templates! The best part, they’re FREE! But do not get me wrong, they are still linkware, which mean that although free you must always keep a link back to both the website you found it on and the original creator. It’s called credits!