Template based web page development:\
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A lot of people get tempted by good looking web templates.
Some template vendors even offer do-it-yourself kits
to their customers. Web templates are designed by
experts, using the latest designing software. They
look stunning,\
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compared to web pages developed by other means. While
readymade templates offer several advantages, they
have some disadvantages too.\
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Advantages of using templates:\
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1.\ You know how your finished site looks. You can
choose the template that appeals to you. You need
not rely on a web developer to get a good looking
website.\
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2.\ Faster turnaround. You need not spend a lot of
time on getting the colors and layout right. You can
go straight to changing text and proceed with programming.\
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3.\ Templates are much cheaper than hiring a web developer.
There are several sites that offer free templates
as well.\
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4.\ Templates look much better than sites developed
in traditional HTML Programming. Templates are designed
by professionals that are creative and competent and
experienced.\
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5.\ Templates can be customized by anyone with basic
HTML knowledge. You can Customize the template yourself
using a text editor.\
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Disadvantages of using templates:\
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1.\ You can get web templates for free or at a low-price.
But these templates are not unique. Several people
may have already bought or downloaded the template
you have chosen. If you cant change the colors or
layout a bit, your site looks like a clone of several
sites. If you want a unique template design licensed
only to you, you need to spend a fortune on it.\
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2.\ Often, templates don\'t look good if you stretch
them a bit. For example, if there is space for 100
words in a block and if you try to insert 200 words
in that space, the template layout may change. And
this may not look good. This puts limitations on text
you can place in a template based web page, thereby
restricting you from optimizing text or being descriptive
about your business . It is well known that the more
verbose in a page the more attention it gets from
search engines. A template doesn\'t come with Meta
tags. You need to insert these meta tags.\
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3.\ Templates are good for static pages. If a site
needs dynamic pages with a\
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huge database to built, you need to opt for simpler
templates.\
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4.\ If you are doing customization for yourself, always
work on a copy of the template files. Templates are
often done with simple HTML. But if you try to edit
HTML tags instead of text between them, you might
end up with bad page layout.\
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5.\ If there are template files with .tpl extension,
locate the files where variables are defined. Then
try to establish the logic behind the file system
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Using WYSIWYG editors:\
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Nowadays, several WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You
Get) editors are available for creating web pages.
With these editors it is possible to create good looking
pages simply by dragging and dropping objects on the
page, without any HTML knowledge. They come with a
lot of menu options. If you are familiar with windows
objects or windows based software, you can create
a web page in time.\
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Advantages of using a WYSIWYG editor:\
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1.\ Its great fun to create web pages this way. You
can do it yourself, experimenting with colors and
layouts. The web page is likely to be unique, unless
you are trying to clone another web page. You can
stretch your imagination.\
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2.\ It\'s faster and easier to create web pages. You
can make changes to a page layout by simply dragging
the objects to their new positions.\
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3.\ You can make changes to content (text or images)
in WYSIWYG editor, instead of searching for and inserting
between HTML tags, or using a complex content management
system.\
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4.\ WYSIWYG software runs on any windows computer.\
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5.\ you can also create background images on fly.\
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Disadvantages of using a WYSIWYG editor:\
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1.\ A WYSIWYG editor produces files of large sizes.
The web page may take a bit longer to download.\
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2.\ The HTML code generated may not be compliant with
existing web standards. Some of these editors are
meant for web sites to be hosted with particular servers.
Some WYSIWYG editors even produce files with their
own extensions.\
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3.\ You need to fill in a lot of details, such as
Meta tags and link colors for each page. Some WYSIWIG
editors support CSS while editing and some don\'t.\
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4.\ You need to preview the page in different browsers
more often to see if the page is shaping up as you
intended.\
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5.\ Web pages designed using WYSIWYG editors are rigid.
They do not stretch if you put more text or images
on a page. Instead they overlap on each other. Some
WYSIWYG editors produce excessive div tags. It is
difficult to edit these pages in an ordinary HTML
editor.\
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6.\ Often these web pages are difficult to optimize
for search engines.