Website templates. It’s
one of the most controversial products in the Web development world.
In this article we’ll look at the strengths and
weaknesses of Website templates. We’ll take a close look at what it can do, and
what it can’t or shouldn’t do. And, through this process, we’ll compare Website
templates to its counterparts HTML and CSS.
This article is sure to create debate …and a lot of
additional email for me! But I wrote it with the intent of informing novice Website
templates users about this technology. At the least, this article should allow
you to communicate with prospective clients the reasons why a project should or
shouldn’t be done in Website templates.
A Bold Statement
HTML and CSS will never be able to do what Website templates does. With that statement alone some
people have launched their mail client, but before you compose that bitter
email, allow me to explain this statement.
Let’s take a look at the strengths of Macromedia’s
multimedia vector product, Website templates. Then we will examine its
weaknesses and finish with a comparison of the HTML/CSS tandem.
What does Website templates do that HTML and CSS can’t?
Freedom
Website templates provides a
degree of freedom of development that’s not found elsewhere. Website templates
allows the designer to place objects anywhere they like without having to worry
about absolute/relative placement, box model problems, inconsistencies across
browsers, z-indexes, tables-in-tables-in-tables, sliced up graphics or screen
resolutions. In Website templates, you simply place the object where you want
it on your canvas and move on. Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty,
we’re free at last!
Seriously, this advantage is not to be taken lightly. As
designers, this is what we’ve been wanting since the beginning of the Web: the
ability to design without limitations being placed on us by browsers or
programming languages. With Website templates, you no longer need to worry about
which browsers your page will render correctly in and which will choke on it.
Your page renders the same way – correctly -- in all browsers.
Greater Interactivity
Website templates provides an
interactive environment for a more involved multimedia experience. We’re not
just talking about rollovers that swap colors or images, which, by the way, are
a piece of cake in Website templates, where they can even include sound. We’re
talking about the bigger deal here.
Website templates allows you to incorporate sound into
your pages via mp3 and wav files, allowing you to use, for example, speech or
background music. You can also directly import digital video into Website
templates, which allows you to easily demo products or just show off the
family. It’s true that Website templates is not the
only way to include video into a Web page. There are other tools, such as
Windows Media Player, Real-Player, and QuickTime. However, the Website
templates player plug-in penetration is now at around 97%. Compared to Windows
Media Player plug-in at 59%, Real-Player plug-in at 56% and QuickTime player
plug-in at 41%, Website templates is streets ahead.
Ok, so maybe you’re annoyed by music and video in
Websites. No problem! Just don’t add it. But at least you have the option to
incorporate these elements on, for instance, client sites if you use Website
templates. HTML/CSS simply don’t offer the option.
Greater Control
Website templates’s vector rendering processes give it
the ability to adjust the entire display size based on the browser size and, in
doing so, keep your images and text clean and unpixelated. This will become
more of an advantage as people begin to more frequently surf the Web from
sources other than desktop computers, such as PDAs, mobile phones, car displays
or wrist-watches.
Improved Integration
Website templates allows you to
integrate any multimedia file format into your site. For example, bitmap image
formats (such as, GIF, JPEG, PNG, PCT, TIF), vector image formats (including
FreeHand files, EPS, Illustrator files), and as previously mentioned, sound
formats (WAV, AIF, MP3) can all be imported into a Website templates movie.
Easier Font Handling
With Website templates you have the ability to embed any
font you wish and have it display in the client browser regardless of whether
they have the font installed on their machine. You no longer have to convert
fonts to images in order to maintain the font for display on varying user
systems.
Replicate Frames
Website templates can replicate the behavior of frames on
an HTML Website in that it can maintain in a fixed position certain parts of
the Web page, such as the navigation buttons, as other parts of the screen
scroll.
Stand-Alone Movies
Website templates allows you to
play movies as stand-alone presentations called projectors. Projectors are Website
templates movies that come complete with an embedded player -- you don’t even
need a Web browser to play these Website templates movies! You can burn Website
templates projectors to CD-ROMs or DVDs.
No Reload
Website templates gives you the
ability to display data as part of an ever-changing process without having to
reload or refresh the page! That’s right -- the data can change without even so
much as a flicker from the browser.
Ok, so we’ve covered the advantages of this technology.
Now, let’s look at the weaknesses of Website templates.