Web Site Template Collections
What is a Template?
A new Affiliated-Business.com site is set up with a standard template, one that's fairly dry and simple. The Affiliated Web Business logo goes at the top left, the navigation is on the left, and everything else goes on the right.
We've been using site templates for so long that sometimes we forget that not everyone knows what they are. A web site template is just an HTML file shell that contains the common elements that you want to appear on every page. That can include your navigation links, artwork, a search field, legal text... literally anything!
The main point about templates is that they don't contain anything specific to one page on your site. Instead they contain elements which apply to a group of pages, and placeholders for everything that's specific to any one page.
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. You should clearly see that the only difference between this page and the template of this page is the text you are currently reading.
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 Make Website Using Free Web Page 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
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 layout for most older web pages was done using tables. This is still common (may 2006) 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. Because of support requirements for layout/positioning with CSS I continue to use tables for the layout and CSS for the element formatting.
How to make web website x 10 times cheaper and x 10 times faster.
Take a look:
Time after time ALL web developers need for good design like this.
Actually design of web site is VERY important at nowadays. Online competitionis very hard. Internet is filled with competing web sites that are proposing almost the same services. For example, few days ago I was browsing internet attempting to choose good merchant system provider. In my opinion, most of the web sites have the ugliest interfaces I have ever seen, but ALL of them have similar terms and pricing packages.
My choice falled on provider who had best design because I assumed that they pay same attention to their customer support, quality of service as they pay to design.
By the way, MediaMetrix monitoring shows that good design and usability influe on 60% of site visitors in their final decision. Good design makes people TRUST web site.
However it is a dilemma because hiring good designer cost a lot of money sometimes.
I was working as freelance designer for 8 years from now. My first project was web design studio - (http://www.inverse-logic.com). After 1 year of hard work and marketing I realized that we have more job that we can make. At this time I though to use web design template for the first time.
I devoted next few hours for searching for good web site that is proposing pre made design and I must tell that I was VERY dissapointed. Most of them were proposing very ugly stuff.
However I was still able to use some of designs. Of course I had thoughts that probably someone will encounter web site with similar design online. That's why I opened template with photoshop and made a lot of changes that made design unrecognizable.
Conclusion: I have saved 1-2 days and received $3000 from client who was very happy with what I have done.
2 years later I have realized that website templates can become a good business and have made my first e-commerce project TemplateMonster.com. Website templates.
There was very different opinions about TemplateMonster. Some people was telling that it is bad, others was admiring this. I was dissapointed that only 10%-20% of customers were customizing templates - other was only inserting their logos and writing down other info.
Let`s let back to the merchant systems. Can you imaging how good merchant system provider can look with design like this:
(http://www.templatemonster.com/~david/article/109-b.htm)
Template websites can be found on google directory (http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Graphics/Web/Templates).
Usually templates come in HTML and Photoshop format. Good template sites are inclusing all fonts and other elements needed to modify template.
Many designers purchase premade clipart from such web sites like arttoday.com. So what is the difference? I think that it quite reasonable for novice designer to purchase professional graphics elements in Photoshop file of template
Website templates as a web site design solution saves your business time and money.
These site template collections will assist you in your Internet endeavors.
- 4 Templates - Beautifully designed templates that will instantly give your site a professional looking appearance.
- Free Site Templates - Beautifully designed free web site templates available in several different categories.
- Art for the Web - A variety of templates, backgrounds, flash animation, buttons and interfaces.
- Dollar Templates - A growing business needs a top-quality web presence to compete in today's online arena, but getting professional presentation at a low price can be a challenge. If you're in need of a quality web site, then these templates may be your answer. They're low cost, royalty-free, ready-to-use, customizable, and downloadable at Web speed.
- Free Web Templates - Over 200 free web templates available in several different categories.
- Sitebuilder - A variety of web page templates and tutorials including Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Fireworks, Flash, Photoshop and more.
- Template Depot - Over 60 high quality content ready templates and mini-webs. Plus, Flash templates, intros, and online customization. Join as a member and get access to a large assortment of web tools and services.
- Template Kit - A template resource site for Flash, HTML, PowerPoint Backgrounds, HTML Email, DTP, Pagemaker, Royalty Free photos, Swish, and other free templates. Template Kit also produces kits you can use for Web Design Pricing, Web Design Contracts, Freelance proposals, Storyboards and more.
- Template Monster - If you're looking for professionally designed web site templates, look no further. These templates are top of the line.
- Templates For You - The premier templates source for professional web developers and designers on the Worldwide Web. If you are looking for high quality pre-developed layouts for your web projects, Templatesforyou.com is your right choice.
Templates are used to make the website look and feel consistent. All websites are built using templates and many website authoring tools and packages include templates. Here we will look at the templates that are available and go on to make web pages using these templates.
Template Types
Templates are created by designers using various tools, and some i.e. FrontPage templates may require the hosting server to support FrontPage Extensions. Therefore my advice for beginners is to avoid templates of this type and use only plain HTML templates. Some of the types you will see are:
Most Websites offer themed templates like:
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kids
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business
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computers
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music
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Internet
There is nothing to be wary of here just choose the appropriate theme for your Website. How To Use a free Website Template
The template is used to create each page in our website. You simply open the template and type in the text we want and then save it using a different file name. It is always a good idea to create a few backup copies of the template in case you overwrite the original. In order to do this we require a WYSIWYG editor. The one I used here is Trellian Webpage which is available for free and is a very good web page editor. However; if you have FrontPage or DreamWeaver then they will work as well.
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