DJ Website Designer Todd Donald
Specializing in SEO DJ Websites and SEO DJ Web Design.
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Free Template Free Website Templates
How To Use a Free Website Template
When starting a new website, I spend a great deal of time in the design process. Selecting a free template to use, can make building a new website much easier.
Okay, okay... My graphic about following "these easy steps" is purely a joke. The first thing to understand about building a website, is that there are no magic bullets. It is hard work and to make a new website from a template does make it easier, but certainly not as simple as you may think when you here the term "template". When I build a website, I spend a ton of time in the beginning browsing through website templates to get ideas for new designs or I may get lucky and find one I like, then modify it and use the design for the site I am about to launch.
The term Template is a little deceptive... If you are looking for a free template that works like you might think, (usually people think that a template is something that you select, fill in some text and then publish), then think again. While there are "template based" website building solutions, such as EZDJWebsites, or Homestead Quicksites, you pay for those and you are very limited as to what you can do with them. When web designers initially refer to "templates", we are referring to website designs that are already pre-made by another designer, (usually someone who specializes in templates). In other words, the skeleton is there, the coding is in place and they may even include a few graphics or photos.
After a template or more appropriately; "a design" has been selected, we then customize it to suit our needs. We may change the width, alter the layout, swap graphics, add elements, etc. Then, once we are pleased with that, we will "SAVE AS TEMPLATE", which tells our web design software that we will be using this template over and over to create new pages and any site wide changes can be made to the template and it will automatically update the rest of the website, saving gobs of time and keeping everything uniform.
When I use a Free Template,. I primarily choose one that has a style and layout I like for the design I am working on. Then I make sure that it is XHTML, CSS and that the code is clean. There are tons of templates that are a pain in the butt, so I like to choose ones that are structurally sound before I spend too much time customizing them. There are some website template designers that do exceptional work and I may use their designs before any others.
If you are interested in finding a free template, or if we are in the design process and you want to see what sort of designs are available, I keep an updated list of free template providers and also have live examples of some free CSS templates I've liked or used.
