The days turn into weeks, and then the weeks turn into months. Blogging become a chore. You realize that you are spending most of your time trying to format your posts so that they look professionally done.

Then you hire a writer, and then two. Soon, you have a team of writers sending you posts every week, and you’re now spending all of your time editing and formatting those posts to look the way that you want them to look on the blog that has become a labor of love.

The problem is that all of this editing and formatting has taken away all of the time that you used to have for what you loved to do the most – write.

WordPress is a brilliant invention, and has made it possible for more and more people to have amazing websites, with beautiful themes. However, there is still the matter of the content area, which still needs to be formatted for pictures, ads and well-spaced content.

Formatting Your WordPress Content with a Template

A while back, I described to you how you could automatically insert an ad into every single post using the In-Post Template Add-on for WordPress.

This works brilliantly if you are starting with a new blog – but if you’ve already been inserting ads into your posts, it’ll go back and re-insert a new ad and completely mess up all of your old posts.

Don’t worry – there is another solution that is even better. By simply editing one of your standard WordPress PHP files, and then creating a style sheet, you can create your very own carefully formatted content template that will appear every time you click “Add New” in WordPress. All your old content will remain untouched.

Here’s a sample of all of the formatting work that I have going on in my own blog.

I’ve got a header image that needs to be carefully sized, with padding around it and left justified. I’ve got the “more” break, followed by my in-post Google Ad. Then, throughout each post I have additional images that are sized to suit and right justified. For the most part, I’m ashamed to say, I’ve been doing all of this manually – including all articles that my writers send in.

Here’s what such a post looks like when it’s published.

As you can see, the formatting is a little tricky because in one area I have the image left justified, and in the next section I have the ad right-justified. Then all additional images are right-justified as well. I like this setup for my own blog because it’s easier on the eyes and flows well. You may have your own preference for your particular WordPress blog.

The first step to create your template is to back-up your functions.php file (you’ll find it in the root directory of your theme), and then open it for editing.

You’ll see a bunch of code in here – all functions currently used by your current blog theme. You’re going to insert a new section between those functions. Find the end of the first function, and then insert the code that I’m going to detail next.

Now, I have to give credit where credit is due – I actually got this idea from David Hansen over at Smashing Magazine, who wrote an article on this back in October. In this case I’m going to expand on his idea by showing you how to tweak that template for things like ads and pictures.

add_filter('default_content','custom_editor_content');
add_editor_style('editor-style.css');
 
function custom_editor_content( $content ) {
 
$content = '
 
    <div class="content-col-side">
 
<img class="alignleft size-full " style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" title="placeholder" src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/imageplaceholder.png" alt="content template" />
 
 
     &nbsp;
 
     </div>    
 
    <div class="content-col-main">
 
    Insert your introduction here
 
    &nbsp;
 
    </div>
 
    <div class="content-google-ad">
 
    <span id="more-98442"></span>
    <div style="float: right;">
    Enter Google Script Here
    &nbsp;
    </div>
    </div>
 
   <div class="content-section-two">
    Here is second section content
    &nbsp;
    </div>
 
    <div class="content-image-three">
<img class="alignright size-full " style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" title="placeholder" src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/imageplaceholder.png" alt="content template" />
    &nbsp;
    </div>
 
    <div class="content-section-three">
    Here is third section content
    &nbsp; 
    </div>
 
    <div class="content-image-four">
<img class="alignright size-full " style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;" title="placeholder" src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/imageplaceholder.png" alt="placeholder" /></a>
    &nbsp;
    </div>
 
    <div class="content-section-four">
    Here is third section content
    &nbsp;
     </div>
   ';
   return $content;
}

Notice how the alignment actually works best using the image alignment built into your theme style, and in the case of the Google Ad, you should use the second div with the style attribute to align where you’d like it to go. It just works best. However, as far as sizing, padding and placement, you’ll need to create the css file.

Here’s the styling for each section defined above.

body {
   background: #f5f5f5;
}
 
.content-col-main {
float:right;
width:70%;
padding:1%;
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
background: #fff;
}
 
.content-col-side {
float:left;
width:210px;
padding:1%;
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
background: #fff;
}
 
.content-google-ad {
float:right;
width:20%;
padding:1%;
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
background: #fff;
}
 
.content-section-two {
float:left;
width:70%;
padding:1%;
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
background: #fff;
}
 
.content-image-three {
float:right;
width:210px;
padding:1%;
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
background: #fff;
}
 
.content-section-three {
float:left;
width:70%;
padding:1%;
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
background: #fff;
}
 
img { /* Makes sure your images stay within their columns */
   max-width: 100%;
   width: auto;
   height: auto;
}

You can use either percentages or pixels for sizing. I prefer pixels for images, but it really comes down to preference. If there’s too much space between the pictures and text, just tweak the content percentages a bit until it looks good.

After you’ve saved your .css file, open up a new post and you’ll see that your perfectly formatted content template is already in place for you.

All you have to do is click on the image and upload the one you want to use, and then fill in all of the content areas. It really is as easy as that. Everything is automatically aligned and placed where they need to go.

All right-justified Google Code or images are already there – all you have to do is update the content. The time it will take you to put together a post with all of this already done for you will drop by a huge factor, guaranteed.

Updating all of the images on the template is as simple uploading the pictures that you want to use to your blog using the media upload tool, and then clicking on the image and pasting the URL to those images in the “Source” field.

Of course you’ll want to update the title and alt tags as well. As you can see here in my test article, writing an article is now just a matter of filling in each of the content areas. I can’t tell you how sweet it is to be able to just concentrate on writing, knowing that all of the proper formatting is already in place to make the article look its absolute best.

The final result? Here is my first test article using the new WordPress content template. All images and ad code is inserted, aligned and spaced perfectly.

If you didn’t know any better, you would think that nothing at all has changed on the blog. The formatting looks identical to the way it looked when I slaved over them for an hour or more. Now, all of that effort and trial-and-error formatting is already inserted right into the WordPress content template.
So now all that’s left is sitting back and doing what you’ve always loved to do – writing.
Does this WordPress Content template lessen the load on your own blog? Do you have any other formatting tips that people can use in their own templates? Share your thoughts and insights in the comments section below.
Image Credit: Shutterstock

Brainstorming your ideas visually helps with clarity and allows you to connect ideas and interlink them together. That’s where mindmapping took off. You might know zilch about it, but even age old habits of doodling your ideas is better than a blank page. But you don’t have to draw aimlessly because MS Word offers you a few free templates to structure your ideas and sharpen your thought process.

Let’s fire up MS Word and take a look at 8 free Office.com templates that help you generate ideas with Microsoft Word. You can use the search field to get to the template if you have a specific term; you can drill down the categories; or you can follow the links below.

Story Map Templates

The Story Map template looks suitable for writers who are trying to outline a plot. Alternatively, it can be used by students, as intended to plan out a narrative. But it can also be used to plan out a team role-play for a given situation when you are trying to connect a solution to the underlying problem by assigning specific roles to team members.

Process Chart

This is a very simple step-by-step chart that can be used to describe the flow of a process. You can use the process chart to break down a complex event into a sequence of smaller action steps.

Event Map

I have tried using this Word template while plotting the idea for a short story – and it worked. Along with the Story Map template, the Event Map can be a useful tool for beginner writers.

Spider Map

The Spider Map is a little like a conventional mind map. The large central circle represents your main idea, and the branching linear lines can be used to jot down the subsidiary ones. The description says that you can use the spider map to investigate various aspects of a single topic or just to organize their thoughts about a subject.

Umbrella Chart

To be frank, I haven’t figured out a way to use this MS Word template effectively yet, so I have yet to find out how versatile this graphic organizer is. The description says that you can arrange the details of any subject or topic using this visual aid. What I have learnt is that the umbrella chart can be used to represent a core idea and the subordinate ideas around the spokes.

KWL Chart

Using this simple columnar template, you can easily track what someone (or you) knows (K), wants to know (W), and has learned (L) about a subject. It’s a very handy aid for studying and also if you are trying to research something. Wikipedia has a more detailed explanation on its use, and as it says the KWL template can be used to reduce repetition by leaving out prior knowledge and focusing on the W (wants to know). Based on this, students can concentrate on what exactly they want to learn or how and where they want to learn it from.

T-Chart

Every issue has two sides and this template helps you to examine both sides of the same coin. The T-chart is a graphic organizer that can be used to look at different viewpoints and broaden your view on an issue. Anything that can be broken down into two opposing views can be stated using the T-chart.

Fishbone Diagram

The Fishbone diagram came out of Japan (not surprisingly). Also called Ishikawa diagrams, they are somewhat advanced idea organizers in comparison to the others we have on this list. This diagram analyzes the relationship between a cause and its effect. You can use it to drill down into the root cause of a problem by organizing a complex cause-effect event into categories. The Fishbone diagram is widely used in quality control.

The templates are mere tools. Ideas and brainstorming effectiveness will depend on how well you put them on paper or on the screen. But MS Word and its gallery of templates give you easily downloadable files that can be turned into idea organizers in a flash. Customize the templates by changing the text labels and/or adding to the sections.

Are you a brainstorming kind of guy? Tell us how you go about it and tell us especially if MS Word is on your list of tools. What do you think of these brainstorming capable templates?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

We will start off with FreeLayouts. When you arrive at their site you will see templates for normal websites, blogs, as well as MySpace. Click on MySpace Layouts in the main navigation menu and then you will see more specific sections.

The sections are CSS< XHTML, 2 Column, Fixed Width and eleven different colors as you can see below from the screenshot.

Here are some of the free MySpace templates that were displayed on the homepage while I was checking it out. Notice a lot of themes surrounding holidays.  Valentines Day that just passed and St. Patrick’s Day which is coming up.

You can click on preview to see a close up view of what the template really looks like. That will bring up this window:

You can click on the Get Code button to retrieve the code you will need to integrate the template like so:

Simply highlight the code and paste it into your About Me section of your MySpace profile to get started. I clicked on the box, hit control A to select all of it, and then control C to copy it and finally control V to paste it where it needs to go.

You also have the option of setting up an account and creating favorites that you can refer back to.

The next website for free MySpace templates we will be looking at is called MySpaceLibrary.

I scrolled down and chose layouts and started browsing around what they had to offer.

Looking around they have a little something for everyone. I found sports templates, music templates, geeky templates…seriously if you use MySpace you will be able to find something here!

After finding the template that you like, click on the link below it that says Click to view large and get MySpace codes.

That will take you to this page:

Just like before, if you want to use it copy the code and paste it into your About Us page on MySpace. To view the template click on the preview button below the picture of the image. That will show it to you like this:

The last site we will be checking out is called MySpaceSkins.

Scroll down when you get to the site and you will see the templates. The first section is called Girly MySpace Layouts followed by grunge, fashion and beach layouts as you can see below:

Click on one of the layouts or on a More [Category] MySpace Layouts button to see more related layouts. After selecting a layout you will see something that looks like this:

You can grab the layout code as we have before for the other sites but here we have some other choices like customizing the layout with their online MySpace profile editor.

or adding a custom Google search box on the page.

If you have other sites and resources hook us up and leave the URLs in the comments!

The best resource, in my view, for learning graphic design is Robin Williams’ classic, The Non-Designer’s Design Book. She outlines the basic principles of design: proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast. What you learn from her book can be seen in well designed templates that come installed in programs like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, and Apple’s Pages and Keynote. While in a pinch, you could pull up these design templates and use them without much customizing of the layout, but it would be better to recognize the design principles used in these templates to help make your projects unique. The basics principles of graphic design are not as difficult to understand as you might think.

So launch Microsoft Word, Pages, or any program using professional design templates and let’s use the them to recognize basic design principles.

Font Styles

When you examine professional design templates one of the first things you might notice is that there are usually no more than three different fonts used in a document or design piece. Many newsletters, for example, make use of the classic and readable Helvetica or Helvetica Neue font. A designer will use the same one or two fonts, but will will change the size and style of the font for different parts the document. Regular Helvetica Neue font style may be used for the body text, while a slightly larger size of the same font, in bold style, will be used for sub-titles and pull-out quotes. Highlight the texts in templates and make note of the names of fonts that are used. Typically they include Helvetica, Courier, or Baskerville, with a variation in size and style of the font (e.g. bold, all caps, italics.)

Proximity

The next element you will want to notice in design templates is how items and information are grouped together. As Williams points out, “When several items are in close proximity to each other, they become one visual unit rather than several separate units.” For example, in this business card, information is separated into groups, instead of scattered all over the card. This makes the information easier to read.

Repetition

Well-designed documents also use a repetition of elements, as we can see in this newsletter where three images are cropped and aligned together for effective repetition. Again, as Williams points out, “You can repeat colors, shapes, textures, spatial relationships, line thickness, fonts, sizes, graphic concepts, etc.” The effective use of repetition is pleasing to eye and it can communicate important content in a design.

Contrast

Notice also how the designers use contrast to make layouts graphically appealing. The large PortagoITC TT font used for the nameplate of the newsletter below is in near stark contrast with the Helvetica Neue used for the body font. We also see how the designer used a strong red graphic fill to make the nameplate stand out. The idea behind contrast as Williams explains, “is to avoid elements on the page that are merely similar. If the elements (type, color, size, line thickness, shape, space, etc.) are not the same, then make them very different.”

Alignment

Probably the easiest basic principle of design to recognize in templates is alignment. Body text of course is usually always aligned to the left. But notice how other elements (images, boxes, titles, and information) are aligned with one another. “Nothing should be placed on the page arbitrarily,” writes Williams. In the postcard below, the alignment of elements is very evident. The image of the house is aligned with the green box. The street name and price of the house are both centered, and the contact information is grouped together under the photo of the real estate agent. The arrangement of these elements helps the reader move his/her eyes from one element to the next.

There’s nothing wrong with using templates to produce documents, but when you understand the basic elements of design, you can customize templates and make them unique for your individual purposes.

So how aware are you of basic design principles in the work you do? What online and book resources have you learned from?

People would have loved these types of sites 10 years ago! Some of them even have Flash templates also for free. We will take a look at 3 of the best sites for downloading and finding free web templates. We will run through what they offer, the quality of the templates and how easy they are to modify!

The first site we will cover is Free Website Templates which you can get to from here.

When you arrive at the site you will see some pretty nice free web page templates on the homepage including the template of the day. You will see links to download the templates as a zip file or to preview a mock up website using the template you are looking at. Hit preview and experience the template before downloading it.

You can click here to view the site preview and get the big picture of what I am talking about. I clicked on the preview link for the featured template and this is what I saw:

Continuing on I checked out some others which are exquisite!

When I downloaded the template as a zip file this is what it comes with:

You will see an images folder that has all your images, a PSD (Adobe Photoshop file) of the site, the HTML and the CSS files. Below you can see an example of the HTML. It is very clean and highly customizable.

Next up is Free Web Templates accessible by this link here. They offer some templates for a fee but click this link to see just the 3000 odd titles.

Once you get to that page, you can click on a category. I choose High Tech and this is what I saw:

Clicking on the title of the image will show you the templates homepage. For example I clicked on the first one titled metamorphosis and saw this:

If you click on the bottom link that says click here to download templates 8966 you will be able to download a zip file containing the source files like so:

There is no PSD file for this site though but you do have individual images like the last site. So you should like the overall template if you are choosing from this site. If you need to HEAVILY modify the graphics it will be harder but not impossible. If you just want to change text and some header graphics you should be fine.

I tried many different sites and these two had the nicest easy to use free web page templates. The first site makes it much much easier for real deal customizations by providing you with the Photoshop PSD file so you can really modify the look and feel of your new website.

If you have other sites offering up good free web page templates drop them in the comments!

For a long while, you needed to use Microsoft Word to design and print media resources using one of hundreds of Avery templates. But Avery also now provides two free standalone applications, called DesignPro (one for Mac and one for PC users) that includes all its templates and the design features for putting together and printing media projects.

If you want, you can design your digital printing project in say Photoshop, save it as JPEG file and import it as an image file into DesignPro. In this article, however, I will give you an overview of designing a label project in DesignPro for Mac.

• Start a new project (File>New) in DesignPro. Select the type of media project you want. Search for the type of template you want to use. You’ll probably want to make sure your local office supply store carries the media stock for the template you’re using. Or you can order the stock online.

• Double-click on the pre-designed template label you want to use, or select a blank design. Now customize the template. For many projects, like labels, I suggest using strong bold fonts (e.g. Arial Black, Helvetica, Baskerville) with a 10+ point size. The design features of DesignPro are not nearly as advanced as what you can do in Photoshop, but most for jobs, the tools are sufficient. The application includes tons of clip art and vector shapes, and you can also import existing image files from say iPhoto or anywhere else on your computer.

• Now here’s the tricky part. You can select to print the same text and design on each label, or you can choose to have different text and/or design for individual labels. If you choose the latter, you’ll have to select each individual label and copy and paste in the design and/or text you want. There’s no way, as far as I can tell, to select five labels at once and paste in the design or text. If you select the first label and create a design, it will be applied to all the labels that come after it. But when you click the All Same – Off button in the tool bar of DesignPro, you can further customize individual labels.

• There’s also an option to use Mail Merge in DesignPro with your contact data in Apple’s Address Book or Mail application. But for some odd reason, this mail feature merges all the contact data in those applications. You can’t select individual contacts to merge with those data applications. So it’s better to create a comma delimited (CSV) or tab delimited (TSV) spread sheet of your contacts and import it for mail merge in DesignPro.

• After your labels are set up, you”˜re ready to print. I suggest first doing a test printing on regular typing paper before using more expensive Avery media stock. When you’re ready to print, make sure you have selected the appropriate media stock in your printer’s dialogue box.

If you have any questions about using DesignPro, drop me a line in the comment box.