A ready-made webpage template gets what you need to get your website up and running with minimal cost - but great looks. Webpage templates can be easily customized.  A novice or an expert professional can use a web template to immediately make a website exclusively unique.

The files that you get when you buy a web template can vary according to what company you buy from and which available features are for a given type of template. Whichever sort of template you choose to buy there are certain files you must receive with your purchase: Index.html file, jpeg/gif image files, font files, External CSS Style sheets, and PSD files. - You might also receive .js file (for templates that use JavaScript) and readme.txt files. Usually these files are sent to you in a .zip format. You can unzip them to use them - you can get unzipping software like WinZip dowmloaded from winzip.com website.

There are two major types of templates: exclusive - which are copyrighted templates and nonexclusive - which are non-copyrighted templates. The exclusive template gives you ownership but the nonexclusive template does not.  Exclusive webpage templates cost more but they are not sold to any other designer. A nonexclusive template is cheaper but gives you only the right to use the template. So you can modify the template however you want but no resale to a third party. Non-exclusive templates can be resold by the template provider to more than one customer.

Editting your web template involves putting content into the webpage, changing areas of the style and changing graphic elements. This is done by using files provided with your purchase: psd and index.html for example.

To edit images and graphics you will require the PSD files. You can change image color; add/remove image layers etc. PSD files are those created using Photoshop and can be edited by Photoshop or other image editing software.

If you only want to change or add the content of the template, you just go to edit the index.html file. The index.html file is provided for any webpage templates by the seller and it can be edited with any html editor - Dreamweaver or Frontpage. You may also edit content using text editors. Index.html can also be used for replacing the images or changing links as well as adding meta-tags, alt texts, title and changing the image sources.

For editing your layout and styles you will need a CSS style sheet. The CSS style sheet is a document that lets you make changes like text color, paragraph spacing, headings, links, etc. to all the pages at one time. Be sure to ask the web template seller to give you the external CSS style sheets to make it very easy to do editing. The CSS style sheet can be edited using any of the HTML or text editors. You can use the web template customization services that are provided by most template providers if you are having difficulty.

An Immaculate Misconception,
Arthur Browning