Not so with MassageTemplates.com templates. This is because our header graphics contain no text and are displayed as a background.

What this means to you is that you simply add your own text into the header of the webpage HTML which gets displayed in front of the header graphic.

HTML Screenshot

What this means is that you don’t need any special graphics editing software such as Photoshop which will save you time because all you need to do is duplicate the template and start adding content to it.

All you really need is a plain text editor.

Unless you use a program like phpDesigner, it can be very time consuming locating the beginning and end of certain HTML containers. Especially if the one you need to delete or duplicate contains several other containers within it.

Unless .. The beginning and end of the container you need to locate has already been commented for you.

HTML Screenshot

Here at MassageTemplates.com, we have commented the most commonly used containers to save you time by eliminating the guesswork:

• The left and/or right navigation blocks are commented.
• The main content blocks are commented.

To see how this works, click through to one of our previews and View the Source.

However, if you use an Object Orientated HTML Editor to do this, the document you end up with may not look like the original template. Here’s why ..

Object orientated HTML editors, or WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web design software usually adds extra code that has not been authorized by the user. This is usually referred to as code bloat.

Code bloating editors add extra code to the document which can cause big problems to the original work.

The very best way to edit website templates is to use an editor that does exactly what you tell it to do!

In most cases, this usually means using a plain text editor such as Notepad, or selecting a more advanced solution such as a Programmers Editor.

The following is a short list of some of the editors I use most often and have found pretty simple to use straight out of the box without reading a manual.

Plain Text Editor

On most computers there should be some kind of a default Plain Text Editor. The one on my machine is called Notepad. Notepad does the job but has only basic editing features.

1st Page 2000

The Free HTML editor I learned to code with is called 1st Page 2000.

1st Page 2000 has many more features than Notepad like unlimited Undo (even after Saving) and different colors for different HTML elements which makes it easier to find specific bits of code in long docs.

phpDesigner

I purchased phpDesigner this year (2009). The main reason I purchased phpDesigner is because it can locate the beginning and end tags of any HTML Element. A big time-saver!.

For example, I click on a start tag and phpDesigner highlights that beginning tag and the end tag. This makes it quick and easy to locate/cut/copy small or large code blocks and paste them elsewhere without making any mistakes.

phpDesigner Screenshot

phpDesigner is also very handy for storing and organizing code snippets.

Because phpDesigner also uses different colors for different HTML elements, I seem to be using this editor now 99% of the time.

Conclusion

If you have been using object orientated editors to edit web templates which were not created with that particular editor, and they don’t seem to be look right after saving, now you know that code bloat is the reason.