Symphony.

We’ve all been there: you are launching a new website and you look around for a suitable template to found your current dream. We’ve all run into the problems as well: fixed widths, pixel precision layouts that fail when you modify anything by 1px, insufficient styling for tags, etc. What do you look for in a template? What would you like templates to do that they never seem to do?

What exactly do you mean by “template”?

You know, things like http://www.templatemonster.com/category/web-2-0-templates/ or http://www.templatesbox.com/premium-templates/website-templates/. Basically, it’s an HTML and CSS foundation that gets you started in the direction you want to go. You hack them up to your will and pleasure to suit your individual needs.

What do you look for in a template?

I must admit, I don’t…

I don’t look for templates either. Maybe thats because I’m a designer, so I prefer to start from Photoshop, then write the markup myself. I like it this way as then I know how the site works, so if anything breaks, I’ll be able to fix it with ease.

Me neither.

Basically, it’s an HTML and CSS foundation that gets you started in the direction you want to go. You hack them up to your will and pleasure to suit your individual needs.

That is essentially how I view them. I’m always working with a custom design, so I need something that has addressed a few basic layout issues but otherwise gets out of the way. I almost always completely replace the css before completing the site.

This is more of a Wordpress issue for me though.

A guy I know asked me to pump out loads of designs like “templates”, I simply said no. I’m not keen on templates designs, they should all be bespoke.

Honestly your replies don’t seem that out of line, now that I think about it. On lots of sites where I’ve asked this question I get varied and detailed responses, yet few people here seem to use them or even care about them. My educated guess is that here we’re do-it-yourself folks. Extensible stylesheets and data structures don’t write themselves, you know!

My educated guess is that here we’re do-it-yourself folks.

Good guess ;)

You are all snooty web development elitists.

Allen: you called on me?

:-P

I love my snooty web development elitists :)