A template is a preformatted file that serves as a starting point for a new document. For example, you might use a template in Microsoft Word that is formatted as a business letter. The template would likely have a space for your name and address in the upper left corner, an area for the recipient's address a little below that on the left site, an area for the message body below that, and a spot for your signature at the bottom.

When you save a file created with a template, you are usually prompted to save a copy of the file, so that you don't save over the template. Templates can either come with a program or be created by the user. Most major programs support templates, so if you find yourself creating similar documents over and over again, it might be a good idea to save one of them as a template. Then you won't have to format your documents each time you want to make a new one. Just open the template and start from there.

Templates are the heart of a website page. All website pages are based on a template. The template controls the definition of a website page, and also dictates how a page looks. A typical website has many different types of website pages. Your website might have:

Articles
Features
Categories
Products
Services
Help Pages

Each of these types of pages should ideally have their own specific template. With a template your pages can have extra fields to store information about your page. Also with your template design all your template pages can have a similar look and feel. Organizing your pages in templates has many advantages such as:

• All your template pages can have the same structure
• At anytime you can add custom fields to all your template pages by simply adding it to the templates definition
• You can change the design of your template at anytime to change the look and feel of all your template pages
• It is easy to report on pages with the same templates as they all have the same definition. e.g. Articles and Feature Lists are easy to create.

A template is made of three parts;

Template Description - Holds the description of the template. The template description should ideally hold the function/use of the template.

Template Definition - The fields that make up the template. All website pages derive their fields from the template definition.

Template Content - The template content is merged with the website to generate the page you see on the website. You can update the different parts of a template by clicking on the appropriate template function. Clicking on the template name will take you to the Template Content section, as it is the most likely template part that would be updated after a template has been created.

What is a Website Template?

 A website template is simply a web page with no content. You can place images and content in them using Dreamweaver or Front Page. You can also use Photoshop (or PSD compatible software) to edit the template and place a logo inside it.

Benefits of Web Site Templates
. More cost effective than custom design work
. Easily edited

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