Choosing WebSite Templates

Why using a web template?

If you choose to build your website on your own, using a website template can be a real time-saver solution. The truth is building a website is not difficult but having it looking nice and professional is !

A template for your website will help you keeping consistency during the development and render your website business very professional. With a web template, you will be able to focus on the content of your website and will not worry about the design aspect.

What is a website template?

A web template can be defined as a plug-n-play design for a website. It defines elements or modules to be displayed on the pages (possibly login/pwd element, columns, headers, footers, body parts etc...), some navigation items and possibly some images or flash components.

A good web site template separates the design part from the content / information on the pages. It should be very customizable. For example, you should be able to change the color of an item as a configuration parameter and see that particular item modified automatically on all web pages. The idea behind website templates is that they should not include anything concerning the business and particularly about the content of the pages, logos, specific images or colors. For that, the usage of CSS (Cascading Style-Sheets) is what usually provides a good choice to create the design / content separation.

A quality web site template is in itself made of two separated layers :

• A structural "layers" defining the presentation agencement of code blocks:
  that's where you say for example... that your pages will be made with a right column, no left column, a header with your logo on the left, a footer etc...
• A purely esthetic related "layers" (CSS usually) :
  that where is defined the look of the elements (text, links, tables, lists, input boxes, etc...) with specific colors, fonts, styles, relative positions...

Using a house correlation, the website template is like:

• The architectural frame of a house (the web pages modules).
• The communication door system to pass from one room to another (the web links allowing to go from one page to another).

Next... Buying a website template