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pageoneresults -> RE: Template vs. No Template (9/17/2002 16:58:40)
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Hello Barry. I think this thread might do better in one of the other forums and I' m going to leave it for one of the administrator' s to move to the appropriate forum.
In response to the Template vs. No Template, what you are doing is actually one step ahead of those who do not design using templates. If you are building web sites, templates are a necessity. Based on your post I' ll assume that you are using the same template for each web site you are developing but change the graphics around. In essence, you are building a core template for each site and then using that to build additional pages within that same site.
When I teach FP, one of the first things I discuss when building sites are setting up templates. Some sites may have only one template, others two, and there could even be more than that depending on the structure of the site. If you have multiple sub-theme topics to cover, then you' ll probably end up with multiple sub-directories all containing their own template.
What I do is drop an index.htm page in each subdirectory. That is pretty much my working template for that section of the site. It will include graphics, navigation, metadata, external css and js file references. Each time I add a new page to a site, I will start off with the index.htm page for that category or will find another page within that category that has similar features. I' ll then do a save as, give it a new file name, update the page title and metadata, and start building the content for that page.
When designing websites, most of my time is spent on developing the initial look and feel along with the working templates for the site. Setting up the CSS and JavaScript and then making sure that the templates validate are key to a successful build. I should also add that this is the time when I build the navigation includes. Most sites that I work with have a top, left and bottom navigation element. Some sites I' ve built have 15-20 navigation files in their structure. The deeper the website goes into sub-directories, the more navigation you' ll end up with if you are optimizing the link structure of your site.
Either way, you are doing the right thing Barry. You' re saving yourself quite a bit of time and are streamlining the development process. Kudos to you!
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