Free iWeb downloadable templates

I'd second that emotion.

-Corey

2 proc G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

I have three "themes" you could use for the Freestyle template, but until Apple makes this easier for everyone, you're not going to see new templates or themes for existing templates.

It's possible to overwrite the graphics in a template quite easily right now. And it is possible to build new templates, but it's very tedious and time-consuming at best.

I have all this stuff documented here including three themes I built as an experiment for the Freestyle template:
http://web.mac.com/sboben/iWeb/11Mystics/

...either on the iWeb Themes page or the iWeb Templates pages

What kind of theme were you wanting? If it's not too much effort I might be willing to build it for you if you allow others to use it too - meaning I get to post it on my site with the others 🙂

And let me know which template layout you like the best - i.e. travel, freestyle, kids...

What we do for a new theme is simply change the graphics - everything else stays the same, i.e. fonts, font colors, navigation menu, and layout of content. Many of these things you can change once you select the template and begin making your site, but some things you cannot change. In the Freestyle template you cannot change the navigation menu text at all (which I hated) so take that into consideration.

What I would do is take the template you like best and then make new graphics that fit the theme you want - i.e. patriotic, motorcycles, nascar, gothic, dog, cat, music, movies, whatever.

If you have graphics you like already, I can adjust them to work with the iWeb templates etc.

SB

Something I've always thought was cool was the Star Trek LCARS interface 🙂

There's also ways to create shapes and then keep them close in a Pages document for copying/pasting into iWeb. Buttons and things that would go along with the theme. For example, you could have a highway theme with different street signs that people could put their own labeling onto. Toss in a few "standard" signs (Yield, Stop, etc.) and there ya have it!

I had a look in the iweb app package, you could add your own templates, but it looks like a lot of work for one's self. Don't know if third parties will be too interested either as it doesn't look to me to be a case of a simple plug-in.

Ah both of those are great ideas... Trek is a given and the street sign idea could be really cool. Might have some time to tinker there. If a really good designer wants to collaborate let me know. That's what we should be doing 🙂 I'm hoping to get a full template completed with fully commented XML so it would be easier for anyone to go in there and change fonts and colors if they wanted.

The tricky thing is tinkering with the layout in the XML - something I'd rather not do because it's extremely time-consuming and confusing. The street sign theme could be easy - no fancy layout necessary, but the Trek theme might.

Like I said, I'll tinker and if anyone already has a great Trek design they'd be willing to share, I'd be willing to put it into template form. Just make sure you're not stealing the design from someone else (!!!) I know they've done some nice work like that on wincustomize.com.

I'm not what I'd call a good designer, but I can definitely help out with the shape creation for either theme. I like using shapes because then you can change the graphic to any color and fill within iWeb.

Awhile back, I even grabbed a complete list of public domain fonts created to "look" like the official fonts used in road signs. I'll have to find those 🙂

Good work sboben, Im glad to see somebody getting some new style templates started. Im like everyone else, I dont want to have the same looking website as everyone else.

These are some good ideas
patriotic, motorcycles, nascar, gothic, dog, cat, music, movies, whatever.

I am looking for a very cool birthday party theme for my little girl
and a good pet theme. I sure there are many other great ideas

Keep up the good work sboben

Yeah I like the idea of creating a template - the base pages - and then creating a bunch of supporting images the user can use to make their pages look any way they want.

You wanna try the Trek theme? We could design the six base pages, plus maybe some additional ones for differnt types of content and then you could work on the shapes that would bring them to life. I can create the template with the chosen fonts and base colors etc.

?

If so, let me know which fonts you found and I'll start looking at typical Trek interfaces to mimic 🙂

If this works well, we could find an efficient way to make a bunch of these without too much effort. Maybe we just post a note to the forums saying, "Next theme is XYZ - start making your objects for inclusion now!" People could submit their images to be included in the theme and when it's ready, we just bundle it all up in a zip file and let people at it.

Could be fun 🙂

Another idea would be a Baby Pink theme. They've got Kids Pink and Kids Blue but Baby is just Blue. Some people think it's missing a pink version, and it wouldn't have to be any more than just the same basic theme with pink elements instead of blue.

Luckily, I found the RGB values for Trek awhile back. They're stored in my color picker, so I can make a chip chart (do you have iWork?) and send to the address on your webpage.

Also, you could start a group for us to post ideas, progress reports, file examples, etc. to. That way we can keep all suggestions/solutions/workarounds in the group's archive (how long does a group keep info anyway?) because these roll off eventually.

I'll get some initial shapes started, too. It'll be fun to see it happen!

Wow I love your enthusiasm 🙂 First, realize that my site isn't all that special... I changed some graphics and colors and fonts, but it's still pretty "iWeb"ish. I like the magazine-style text so I use that a lot and I think that gives the site a more popular look. You can do that too and suddenly you look like you know what you're doing 😉 Don't tell anyone I just gave away the big secret har har.

Okay as far as the next project... give me a few days cuz my mom is in town and I'm helping her find a new house for her and my dad. I don't have a lot of time at the moment. THEN, I have like five projects already on my plate eek!

1. I have a blank template nearly complete that I wanted to distribute for everyone. This is a TRUE blank page. No hidden required text boxes and no nav menu.

2. I have a paid job in the works

3. I wanted to get at least one full set of XML files tagged for everyone (Freestyle template first)

AH! :-O LOL

So a quick question - if I have reworked one of the templates, is there a way to save that as a master rather than have to rearrange everything each time I add a blog entry?

I'm not sure I follow you entirely - a template technically "is" the master. Are you talking about altering the layout within a template so that when you add a new page, your rearranged layout appears automatically? It think that's what you're saying.

It is possible to alter the layout within those XML files - that's where the layout is defined. However, I haven't even gotten to tinkering with that piece yet. This is the complex piece because it requires that you know the exact coordinates of the text boxes, images, and other object in the template.

The thing that makes it most confusing however, is that the definitions for everything in that XML file is specified in more than one area at times. This is most likely because of the nested nature of the object properites, i.e. a text box has a position on the page defined by (say) objectstyle1 but the text within the box is defined by paragraphstyle3. You can track down everything you need, but it's like a wild goose chase at times. LOL

If I misinterpreted your question, let me know and clarify what you meant.

SB

No that was the question. I've altered the layout of a blog entry and have to make the same alterations each time I add an entry. It's become automatic, but it would be nice to somehow save the changes.

The above mentioned site ( http://web.mac.com/sboben/iWeb/11Mystics/Home.html) does a great job at explaining how to alter templates. I'm not sure I want to undertake it though.