Web Design Templates – The Limitations
Are you thinking of building your website using web design templates? If so, you could run into design limitations and flexibility issues using website templates. Templates look great but if you do not have HTML skills or Flash coding knowledge, you could get stuck with a template and no room to operate.
Most website templates can be downloaded from a website that gives you a lot of choices. After choosing a template you like, you'll download the files and edit them to fit your website style. The files need to be unzipped and organized before you upload them to your hosted website. This is a good time to make sure all template files are present and accounted for. You should have a folder that has images, various pages and your index files.
The index file is your HOME page file. If it's missing, your HOME page is missing. Good technical support comes handy when you're missing files. Most companies take a break on weekends so try to download your files during the first part of the week to make sure you have access to technical support.
Be sure to bookmark the website page where you received your downloaded files. Once you have all of your elements, start setting up your files the way they will look on your hosted website.
Even though you like the look of your template, you will want to make some changes to enhance the look of your website. The header that came with the template will need be changed to show the logo for your business. A good way to replace the header is to open it with Photoshop and do a save as to keep your original files untouched. Repeat that process each time you make changes to your original files.
If the amount of text you want to add to your website does not fit the template, you will need to edit the space to get around the limit. This is just one of the annoying limitations of using web design templates. So what is the solution?
If you have HTML knowledge, you can easily work around this issue by redesigning the space. The same is true for images. If the images you want to place on the website were created horizontally and the template images are vertical, you will need to re-compose the images.
Flash templates are even tougher to manipulate if you do not have flash coding experience. I once built a website for a company that initially loved a particular web design template but later change their minds. Be sure to get everyone involved on the same page before you start building any website. It turned out to be a good thing because we scrapped the idea and used Dreamweaver to build the website.
When choosing a template, make sure you have enough knowledge to edit the template files to fit the style of website you want. Web design templates can work if you do not need to make a lot of changes.
My Top 5 Tips when using Web Design Templates.
1. Make sure you have access to technical support after downloading your files.
2. Make sure all template elements are accounted for after downloading your files.
3. Organize all template files before uploading them to the server.
4. Make sure you have enough HTML knowledge to edit your files.
5. Make sure you have enough Flash coding knowledge to edit your files.
