Best Tips for Customizing a Website Template to Your Needs

Jan 14
16:11

2012

John Klein

John Klein

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

The first thing to keep in mind when starting out with templates is not to over think it. Customizing website templates really is very simple, but if you are overly critical of your work, the process can be stressful and lacking the fun it could be if you let yourself go.

mediaimage
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

The first thing to keep in mind when starting out with templates is not to over think it. Customizing website templates really is very simple, but if you are overly critical of your work,Best Tips for Customizing a Website Template to Your Needs Articles the process can be stressful and lacking the fun it could be if you let yourself go.

When you have your initial template, the next thing to do is get yourself a HTML editor. HTML editors make customizing fun, and are one of the easiest, most user friendly ways of accomplishing your goal. Start to finish is as easy as loading the index.html file that you would have gotten with your template, and copy/pasting your own content into the areas where the "dummy" content is. Just make sure not to overlook changing links, adding your tags, and including image sources where needed.

If you want to go more into the image editing, but don't have access to programs like Photoshop, the next best way, and easiest many would say, would be to request BMP files from your template provider. Standard file formats you receive with templates are usually PSD, however BMP is much simpler to work with because the BMP can be edited using literally any editor out there rather than PSD where mostly just the higher end image editors are able to be used.

Remember to change the title of each page, menu names if needed, and add your unique logo where you want. Doing these is what truly makes the template yours. 

The great thing about being able to customize your template yourself is that you don't have to search for a specific labeled template. Just find one that you like the initial layout of and re design it to meet your style or needs. The possibilities are endless, so don't be afraid to play around a bit with your template and see just what you can do with it.