# On your wp, template or html?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 12, 2002, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567 "2002-06-12T02:31:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/1 "2002-06-12T02:31:13Z")
On your webpage, do you use a template or HTML?
If you used a template, did you ever find one you like? Was it easy to modify w/ html?
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### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/2 "2002-06-12T09:27:24Z")
HTML, hand-coded in WordPad and checked by the W3C validator.
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### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/3 "2002-06-12T13:52:23Z")
Templates. Oh, so _many_ templates!
But XML editing is coming! Then it’ll be Aspen CDS and local schemas. Yeah!
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### Author:  [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/4 "2002-06-12T14:05:34Z")
I prefer to code in pure HTML using HomeSite. Although I will frequently cannibalize a previous web page as a sort of template.
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### Author:  [@JessEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessEnigma)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/5 "2002-06-12T18:54:31Z")
HTML. It’s not particularly pretty because I can’t do very advanced stuff, but it works.
jessica
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### Author:  [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/6 "2002-06-12T23:39:35Z")
A template I made for myself using HTML, SSI, and CSS to make things consistent, yet easy to mess with when I feel like it.
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### Author:  [@cercaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cercaria)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/7 "2002-06-12T23:57:32Z")
I usually hand “code” an HTML document in TextPad, then use that finished, refined page as a template to make the rest of the pages for the site. I can’t use generators. They make me feel dirty.
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### Author:  [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/8 "2002-06-13T03:40:09Z")
Oh, check my wp if you want to see one that I did using mostly template, w/ a little html.
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### Author:  [@VDarlin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VDarlin)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/9 "2002-06-13T03:51:21Z")
Haven’t done it in a couple of years, but I’ve always used HTML in notepad.
~V
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### Author:  [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/10 "2002-06-13T06:43:16Z")
Ummmmmm [sub]FrontPage[/sub]
Please don’t hurt me!
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### Author:  [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/11 "2002-06-13T12:19:53Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Dragonblink \*
> \*\*Ummmmmm [sub]FrontPage[/sub]
>
> Please don’t hurt me! \*\*
But you’re not using a FP theme which are so obvious (and hideous). I don’t understand why people hate FP so much. It CAN be ugly, but I don’t use the uglies so my code tends to be a little cleaner.
I use FP all the time, but have never used their themes. I also use CSS so I can keep my own ‘theme’ but change the colour, text size, font etc, with ease. A simple change in the CSS file and I can get a whole new look.
I also try to keep all of my HTML (if not perfect) at least lined up in each page and then use a bulk text changer so I can recast pages hundreds at a time if needed.
I do dick around with the HTML as much as using the WYSIWYG editor. Mainly I use WYSIWYG for bulk text and HTML view for playing around with the classes and table formats.
I also find the ‘include page’ option a major timesaver, rather than handcoding the ‘header’ onto each page I include it at design time and when I change it, it automagically propogates through the web.
I don’t like ‘bought’ themes, mainly because I find them a little too graphic intensive and with the crap on my site, there is no point in waiting for nice ‘themed’ pictures to come down when all you want is the basic crap.
So, I thought up a theme (or two to be honest) and use them throughout the site.
Now was that TMI or what !?!?
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/12 "2002-06-13T23:42:03Z")
HTML. And like Why a Duck, I also cannibalize my previous web pages, but less as a template than that I’m too lazy to type the same codes in page after page.
I don’t understand how to add my own pictures, backgrounds, and file downloads using templates, so it’s actually easier to code things myself :rolleyes:
My favorite method of learning new html is to find something neat on someone else’s page, then use “view source” so I can find out exactly which codes they used to do this. Unfortunately, learning Java this way isn’t working out nearly as well.
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### Author:  [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2002, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-your-wp-template-or-html/113567/13 "2002-06-14T11:37:51Z")
A bit of both. I handcoded the majority of my site (vim all the way!), but to update the news on my page I wrote a few scripts (in Ruby) which update my front page and news archive.