What Software Will I Need to Edit a Website Template?

The website templates may consist of several different components, and have a number of solutions that can be used to edit the templates successfully.

Typically a website template will contain a sliced layout containing one or more HTML pages, along with the PSD source files that a website designer used to create in the design. Some templates, such as “Full Flash Sites” or “Flash Templates” will also contain FLA source files as well as SWF exported files. All of the materials will be compressed into a ZIP file. A further explanation of these components as well as some of the software products than can be used to edit them is as follows:

Compressed ZIP Files
Certain software programs are able to package together numerous files into one single file with a file size that is smaller than the original files. This allows an entire template to be downloaded in a single file to be extracted after a download is complete. All of the products that you will receive are contained within these ZIP files. Before you begin any work you will need to extract the zip files. There are many different software programs that are able to accomplish this, several of which are listed below:

WinZip http://www.winzip.com/
WinRar http://www.rarlab.com/
ZipGenius http://www.zipgenius.it/
TurboZip http://www.filestream.com/turbozip/

There are many other programs that are capable of extracting zip files, and the above is simply a small sample of these available applications. See our Unzipping the Template article for an example using WinZip.

Once you have extracted the zip files, you will find a set of folders containing many of the below file types, depending on the type of product you have downloaded:

HTML Pages
These are the individual "website pages" of your template, and the files that are loaded in your web browser when a template or website is viewed. The HTML pages contain the formatting and look of your ready to use template. To add your content to the HTML pages, you will need a HTML editing program. There are two types of editors including text based editors, such as wordpad and notepad (both are standard windows programs), for very advanced users that understand how to edit HTML code, as well as WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editors. WYSIWYG editors will keep the template looking like a template as it is edited so that users of any skill level can make visual changes to their template, such as changing the text and content. Several popular WYSIWYG HTML editors include:

Adobe Dreamweaver (Formerly Macromedia Dreamweaver) http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/

Microsoft FrontPage, SharePoint Designer, or ExpressionWeb
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/frontpage/default.aspx

Adobe GoLive
http://www.adobe.com/products/golive/

AceHTML Freeware (FREE SOFTWARE)
http://software.visicommedia.com/en/products/acehtmlfreeware/

CoffeeCup HTML Editor
http://www.coffeecup.com/html-editor/

There are many other HTML editors that can also be used to edit the website templates, so if you have a favorite HTML editor not listed above that can edit standard HTML pages then there are no problems in continuing to use your favorite editor.

PSD Files and Graphics
To edit our graphics, most templates provide 2 options, the PSD source files or the “blank images” that are provided in a secondary version of the template.

If you choose to edit the PSD source files, then this will require the use of a program called Adobe Photoshop. More information about Photoshop can be found below:

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/index.html

It is possible that some PSD files will work correctly in older versions of Photoshop, however it recommended to always use the latest version of Adobe Photoshop as we try to keep our templates up to date using all the latest effects and tools that are available as newer versions are released. Likewise, a lighter version of Photoshop, named “Photoshop Elements” may also not be a solution robust enough to manipulate all of the features of a PSD file. The advantages of using Adobe Photoshop to edit the PSD files will include simple control over all text labels that are a part of graphical images as well as the ability to swap out photographs that are integrated into the design, and full control over all layers and effects.

However, if Photoshop is not available to you, you are still able to modify all of the text labels that are part of GIF or JPG images by editing the “blank version” of the templates that you download. The “blank version” templates are exactly like the original templates that you preview on the website with the exception that the GIF and JPG images do not contain any prewritten text. Therefore, any graphics program, including free graphics programs, can be used to add your own text and labels to the graphics of the templates. A few of these programs are listed below:

Microsoft Paint (This program is already a part of the standard Windows operating system)

Corel Paint Shop Pro
http://www.paintshoppro.com/

Gimp (FREE SOFTWARE)
http://www.gimp.org/

KolurPaint (FREE SOFTWARE)
http://kolourpaint.sourceforge.net/


FLA and SWF Flash Files
There are two types of Flash enabled templates. These two types include Flash Templates, which are made part in HTML and part in Flash, and Full Flash Sites, which are made completely in Flash. Both of these templates will contain FLA and SWF files.

A Flash Template will contain text and links that are displayed in the SWF file that is embedded into the HTML web page. Because we understand that not all users will have access to software that can edit the Flash movie, our Flash Templates are all designed to pull their data from a simple .txt file that is found in the HTML folders of your template. What all this means is that customizing the text and links of a Flash Template is simple, and you can use any text editor that is capable of editing a txt file. Some of these programs include:

WordPad
NotePad

If however you would like to change the photos, colors, or other elements of the Flash portion of a Flash Template, it will require the use of Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash). Likewise, as a Full Flash Site is made up entirely of Flash components, this will also require the use of the Adobe Flash program to edit the source FLA files.
More information about Adobe Flash can be found below:

Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash)
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/

As with Photoshop, it is recommended that you use the latest version of Adobe Flash to ensure maximum compatibility with all of the templates that are available.

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