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Templates |
What are templates? A theme may provide the page background and define the fonts and size of text on your pages. Navigation buttons, and other graphics may also be included. A template is a theme plus additional features such as shared borders, and tables or frames that provide a structure to the page. If you're looking for a quick and easy way to get a professional looking Web site up and running in the shortest amount of time, why not use a template? You may be able to introduce a logo for your site to be seen on every page. A template page is one with several features that you use on several or possibly all your Web pages. There is usually one or more areas of the page for text or graphics to be added for each page that uses that template. Thus a template can be opened, additional text or graphics entered and the new page saved. Web authoring programs may provide a variety of templates. If you wish you may chose to find a template that comes nearest to your requirements and then modify it for your personal needs. You can download excellent templates that you can use as they come or modify them to your own specifications.
How do I choose the right Web template provider?
A good template will save you the headache of designing your own and as a beginner this is a tremendous bonus. You need to look at some basic features that the right template provider offers!- First take a look at their portfolio.
- Check to see that thy provide techincal support
- Before you purchase ensure that the template isw compatible with the Web authoring program you are using such as Frontpage or Dreamweaver.
- Check that the template will use the features of the Web authoring program.
- Ensure that the template allows for different screen resolutions. A fixed width template will not alter with different screen resolutions.
- A variable width template may have fixed and variable sections. Take care when modifying pages with your chosen template that you do not alter sections that are fixed as the page will appear distorted.
Let me begin with a word of caution. A template
appears to have more than one meaning
according to the Web authoring program you are using. Dreamweaver encourages
you to develop a Web page that will be the standard for many or possibly all
the pages on your site. The template may include the background, text
characteristics, graphics such as your site logo, and your site navigation
facilities. When you wish to create a new page, you open a template page,
add the content for that page and save your new page. Your site may have
hundreds of pages. Inevitably, the time will come when you will need to add
or change a feature for all your pages. All that is required is that you
change the template and Dreamweaver will make
the changes to all your pages developed from
that template.
With Frontpage, a template may similarly contain various elements that will provide the foundation of all pages created with it. There does not appear to be a facility to change a template and all the pages created with it being updated.
This Web site has been developed with Frontpage. The buttons in the navigation (left and below) were produced using Xara Webstile 3.0. Frontpage automatically adds the new page to the navigation bars when you enter the navigation option (View>Navigation). This occurs throughout the site and for me this has proven to be tremendously helpful. On this site the shared borders option has been used at the top and the left. On every page these borders are present. A word of caution: Do not try to have different Navigation Bar content on different pages within a shared border. The shared border must be common to all your pages. The banner (top right) automatically includes the name of the page. The Navigation used below is at the bottom of the body text and not in a shared border. This page is linked under 'Web page content' in the Frontpage navigation system. By incorporating this navigation in the body rather than in a shared border, pages below the other main pages (e.g. mistakes to avoid) can have a different navigation bar linking all the linked pages.
An interesting feature with Frontpage is the 'time to load' icon (bottom
right). This demonstrates that the page would take a visitor using ISDN one
second to load. Double clicking on this icon provides a choice of modem
speeds.
How Do I Edit A Template In Frontpage 2002
In the template below, I wished to change the guestbook Sign and View Gifs. The template is opened (New > Page Template - choose appropriate template. The template appears as a new Web page and not as a template. You may wish to add a Web site logo.
The page is modified and saved as a template with the same name as the original.
