Three things I ought to know about designing a website template?
As part of the Collaborative Collection Management programme I will be setting up a new CCM website at www.cocoman.ac.uk to create a central resource for information about developments in this field.
I am also planning to design a website template for free use by groups working collaboratively to allow them easily to upload data into a simple set of web pages with inbuilt functionality.
I decided to do a bit of background research and began with Google. This helped me to identify the first thing I needed to know - using Google for this is a futile exercise: Google has offered me 116,000,000 websites providing information on web templates ?.
I would really value one or two comments or recommendations from anyone who has already gone through this process.
Comments
Tavis Reddick (not verified) said on 10 May 2007 at 3:36pm:
Adobe (who now own Dreamweaver) also produce Contribute which is a cheaper, easier to use product that can edit Dreamweaver templates. Microsoft Expression also appears to use Dreamweaver templates, which gives them the status of a de facto industry standard.
Kriss Fearon (not verified) said on 10 May 2007 at 11:11am:
At York we've resolved this issue of wanting departments to look similar but not the same by providing Dreamweaver templates in a standard format and putting some of the standard information (header, address, etc) in server side includes. Some of the personalisation is accomplished by having individual colourschemes which are designed for the department by the Web Office and provided using custom style sheets along with the templates.
This works more effectively with information providers who have reasonable basic Dreamweaver skills and when the template and associated docs can be provided part-customised to the people who will be using them.
We anticipate that when we purchase and implement a CMS, some of this functionality will be automated - eg there will be an easy way for page authors to input header and footer info, a set of custom colourschemes for them to choose without intervention from the Web Office, and so on.
James Brown (not verified) said on 10 May 2007 at 11:56am:
Hi Kriss, Pete,
Thanks for the comments - Dreamweaver had slipped my mind as a tool for designing templates because I've been so focussed on working with CMS recently. You're right, it's the obvious choice, and coupled with server-side includes you're on a good track.
I like the idea of combining custom style sheets with a web-based form that allows people to access different pre-designed templates. I wonder whether you could also offer a drop-down selection of features to be included in the build.
I should note a couple of pitfalls I've experienced with dreamweaver:
But - would you agree? - it's the best there is.
Pete Mallinson (not verified) said on 10 May 2007 at 11:20am:
Been there, done that, had the nervous breakdown ... several different ways of doing things ... if users have Dreamweaver (or similar) and use that for publishing then Templates on central site are possible. Also I set up a web form based system that gave users a choice of a few template styles allowed them to put in text and display how it would look allowed choice of colours as well etc ... then generated a page where they could add content. We've also got a web CMS so that templates are fixed and users just enter text via their browsers. Plus some more.
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