Custom templates

**angelize** · 23 December 2011, 03:08 AM

After answering the question of creating a custom template to save settings a couple of times in the last couple of days (both here at TG and on the Xara Facebook page) It has gotten me to thinking that I have a few custom templates for different things such as a custom template for Good Morning Sunshine, and one for doing seamless tiles that has a 300 pix square snapped to the center of the page and the nudging set up at 300 pix.

So I am wondering who else uses custom templates? Maybe we could turn this thread into a template swap. Whether it's business cards, cd or dvd covers, custom colors or whatever you have made a template for all are welcome.

To start things off here is my seamless tile template
seamless tile.xar

**angelize** · 24 December 2011, 04:16 AM

No one wants to share?

**Soquili** · 24 December 2011, 05:14 AM

It may be that, like me, people use the standard templates provided.

US Letter and A4 templates work for most things I do for print. An 800 pixel by 600 pixel works for most doodles and is conviently the max width for a TG attachment.

**Albacore** · 24 December 2011, 01:14 PM

I am with Frances here Bill I don't want to do things over and over again, I have many templates which are used for a host of different jobs and I don't want to go into the the Design Gallery and waste time deleting all the nonsense which are included with those files so that I can use them. I use a lot of CMYK pages which has a restricted colour palette using colours that I know work, then still using this palette I have templates for all stationary set for the printers page size (normallly SAR2 or A3+ in US), newsletters and even one for a web page but that is RGB. Most of these templates have trim marks placed on then manually on layers and it is the same for guides. All of these things and there are many more layers set up make it easy and quick for me to get on with the job. These things are quite specific to me and my job so not many people would find them useable for them as their printer drivers would be different but hell if people get into the self discipline if there are setting up a page save it as a template and save yourself some time if you might use this page again.

**angelize** · 24 December 2011, 05:26 PM

That is very interesting Peter, you are exactly right any document can be saved as a template and it will save not just your guidelines or colours but any custom settings you apply such as page size, units, colourspace, nudging, snap radi, and many many others. I have a template for doing business cards that I set up with specifications from the printshop where I get them printed. My newsletter template is very bare bones with the columns and gutters marked out with guidelines, and a name plate that contains the logo and contact info. It also contains date lines that make use of live copies so I only have to set the date once and all dates are updated.

I think this is an often overlooked feature of the program and one worth exploring. Perhaps after the holidays we will see more activity here.

**Big Frank** · 24 December 2011, 07:03 PM

yeah, i'm with frances too - there's nothing like having the right template to hand for the job, the template feature of xara is, for me, indispensable

**Soquili** · 24 December 2011, 10:03 PM

Well now we got imput from two others. What can I try to get even more input.

**Scotty** · 25 December 2011, 04:44 AM

HI,

Templates doe they save the guidelines? I ave templates for 1920X1080 video with safe zone as guide layer. would that help any one?
I could post it.
I am working with video editing at the moment.
Jim

**Albacore** · 26 December 2011, 12:32 PM

Of course they do. There is nothing really special about Templates it is just a file that is stored in a different place which makes it easier to access. Jim if you want to post it, post it, it might help someone but I think it is best for people to customise there own stuff and save as template. Biz cards have different sizes from Europe to the US & Canada, then you have full bleed and non bleed, how many different sized CD boxes have you seen and so it goes on they all have to be changed. Frances I think was trying to make this thread a sharing area which is fine and a good idea but what I am trying to say is that if Frances posts her Biz card template the first thing that most folk would do with it is to modify it suits there needs which again is fine but surely the best way is to learn how to make biz cards your self and have the layout that suits the user.

**amoore** · 28 December 2011, 05:17 PM

I've been using custom templates almost as long as I've been using Xara. The main ones are variations on Letter that have our logo color swatches plus different orientation or default units. I've also put the supplied web page templates in a safe place (in case I ever want them) and set up several custom-sized pixel unit templates to meet specific project needs. Those templates are all stored in the standard templates folder and have assigned shortcut keys. In addition, I have a series of related document and animation templates that are specific to the web banners my company places in some health information websites and e-newsletters.

I would be happy to share, but the templates are so idiosyncratic that they won't be much use to anyone else.