Setting Standards

Template designers who beta tested the FrontPage 2003 version were quick to see the advantages of dynamic web templates (DWTs). Your favorite FrontPage web template and theme designers were hard at work testing all of the new FrontPage 2003 features so that we could bring you new and improved web templates, including some snazzy dynamic web templates.

A Dynamic Web Template makes it possible for your template designers to set up unique and sophisticated designs so that a user can add content without any fear of compromising the site's design.

A Consortium for Templates?

You may soon hear of the new Dynamic Web Template Interchange Guidelines Consortium. What we discovered is that this new Consortium is describing dynamic web templates as "themes on steroids," "include pages in reverse," or the "web version of a PowerPoint master slide."

The theory behind the Consortium's guidelines is that if ALL template designers use the same editable region area names, then you could change the look of your entire web site by just applying a new dynamic web template. If a user has a DWT-based web site, attaching a new DWT to a page will simply replace that "base layout." It's like a FrontPage Theme -- on steroids! It's a neat concept.

Can One Size Fit All?

At first glance, I'll admit we were a bit confused. It seemed like an overwhelming problem to get all of our future templates to conform to the Consortium's Version 1.0 guidelines. Upon more reflection, however, we have come to see it as a reasonable goal. After all, we should try to make it easier for YOU to redesign the look of your website.

While we will certainly strive to create new interchangeable DWTIG dynamic web templates, we will most likely create some that are not built to these guidelines, too.

Why? The answer is easy....we often offer features that are not included in the current standards. We often use include pages, include navigation that is not dependent on the FrontPage navigation web bots, and sometimes use CSS to create the roll-over button effects. As yet, there is no way to accomplish this in a Consortium interchangeable template.

Will We Develop DWT Templates?

Yes, definitely!! We feel these new DWT templates offer the most flexibility and easy-of-use over anything that has been developed to date. With each new template, we will specify whether it comes with a "dwt" file that you can use to create new pages for your site. The "dwt" file will take the place of a newpage.htm or a FrontPage page template. Complete instructions will be given with each template package.

Confused?

• A Dynamic Web Template is simply a new type of template available for FrontPage 2003.
• A Dynamic Web Template leaves the layout of the page in tact and has "editable regions" where the user adds text, images, navigation, etc.
• Just like regular web templates, Microsoft placed no restrictions, rules or guidelines on designers who wish to develop dynamic web templates for resale.
• A DWTIG template is a dynamic web template which conforms to the Consortium standards. Most of these templates are interchangeable with each other with some modifications to the DWT template.
• There is no "one-size-fits-all" answer yet. With so many talented template designers and such a wide variety of template styles, it is not feasible that all of your needs will be met without some template modifications.
• Trust your favorite designers. Those who design dynamic web templates will develop them so that they are easy for you to use and modify if necessary. This does not mean, however, that all dynamic web templates will be interchangeable.
• Understand that you can still edit any DWT template to suit your needs. Within each DWT is a read-me file which details each editable region and how to incorporate items which you may have which do not fit within specified parameters.
• We will be bringing you details and helpful tutorials over the coming weeks which will help you understand these new dynamic web templates.

You, as a purchaser, may miss some great dynamic web templates if you are not aware of these terms.