Web Templates

What are they and why would you want to use them?

Web Templates are premade web pages that you drop your content into. They have a finished graphic theme along with pre-defined navigation and logo areas, making life way easier for you graphically-challenged guys and gals.

Templates are also a great way to make sure your website looks cohesive and professional, which comes in handy when you have no idea what you're doing design-wise.

The cool thing about templates, especially for a newbie web designer, is that they make it super fast to get a site together since most of the work is done for you. All you do is plop your stuff in there, maybe tweak it a bit and voila...you've got a website.

Personally, because I'm into the whole graphics deal, I don't use web templates, preferring instead to sweat painfully through the creative process, because that's the kind of masochist I am. But I know for a fact that there are far more folks lacking a graphics thumb than have one, or else there wouldn't be so many butt ugly websites out there. So for you guys...I say "go for it!"

When choosing a template, you'll want to pay special attention to the theme of your site, just as you would when designing it from scratch. A site about finance will look very different from a site about Paris Hilton (if it doesn't, you're screwed). So make sure you respect the theme of your site so your visitors will understand what they're looking at.

Many of the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors like Dreamweaver or NetObjects Fusion, come with a few templates to get your started. You can also download them off the numerous templates sites scattered on the web. Even if costs you a couple bucks, it's sooo worth it, with the time and aggravation you save.

So check out some of the template sites when you can. If nothing else, they'll give you ideas and that's a very good thing.

And now we'll discover some important stuff about making your site look professional: Web Design 101