Now you know about the templates, how do you get hold of them?
Some members may be familiar with the techniques of downloading from a website, but others may not, so I have tried to make the process as simple as possible.
Step 1 – Go to the template download pages
All of the templates are displayed for you as thumbnail images and in a slide show form on the download pages.
There are two pages – one for templates with navigation at the top and one with navigation at the left-hand side. Use the menu at the top of the page to choose the page to view.
View the images – use the slide show button if you wish – it will open in a new window.
When you have viewed the templates you can make your selection of the template you wish to use. Ignore the strange ‘Latin’ text: it is just there to show you where your text will go.
Step 2 – Download your selected template folder
Click the colour description of your chosen template. This is actually a link that will find the template files and allow you to download them to your computer.
Windows
A box will open asking you whether you want to open or save the folder:
Click Save.
In the next box choose where you want to save the folder (in this example, the desktop):
Mac
The folder will normally download to your desktop.
Step 3 – Unpack your folder
The folder that you just downloaded contains all the files you need for your website. You will see that the folder ends with ‘.zip’ – this is computer-speak for a folder where all if the files are compressed and packed together to save space. Before you can use them you need to unpack (or ‘unzip’) them. This is what you do:
Windows
Find the ‘.zip’ folder in your chosen location (unless you saved it to the desktop use My Computer or My Documents). Right-click the folder and choose Extract all from the pop-up menu. The file compression wizard will open – if you leave the selections as they are and work through the wizard the folder will be extracted in the same location.
Mac
Double-click the ‘.zip’ icon – the unpacked folder will appear on your desktop to give you access to the files. You can use Finder to store the folder in your preferred location.
You are now ready to begin work on your website using your word processing program.
What next?
Part 3 – Using the template