Any NEW Templates in Updates? Looking for Christmas/Thanks Giving Templates

Question

For a newsletter.
Haven't done any updates for a while. Last update was iphoto to see what new templates they had. Seemed fine, you can still print but know I guess you can have them made for $1.99, but that is a different topic.
Thanks!

Answer 1

By Universal Template I mean one which includes the formatting we want, but is not tied to the graphics so much. One which has the paragraph styles easily named, set or renamed (so the pages can be shared with other publications) and the Character Styles the same. Captured pages would include all varieties needed for a newsletter/resume/document of any kind, all in one Universal Template.
While unpopulated for graphics (yet makes it easier to place your own due to formatting) one can easily change the look and feel of an entire set of documents by accessing and altering one document. To be honest the only changes one should need to make when beginning or saving a template is what order the pages are in. When saving a resume template one can start with a collection of the various styles of resume letters. When saving a Newsletter template one can concentrate on those pages which pertain to newsletters.
Currently some newsletters have six pages, some have eight or nine and one even has ten. (Redwood is the most complete). The Extreme template is perhaps the most adventurous in that it uses a variation of shapes for columns, pages and photos. It includes a Magazine Cover so you can see how easy it is to include different starting popints for your use of the document.
When I created the Rounded Corner Photoframes there were thirteen in each of two templates (portrait and landscape), and most were identical with variations of the photos being used. That's some being used for right and left sides of the sheet. I have made an experimental one which included 27, trying to account for all variations of columns and uses. (I have several dozen unfinished products and experiments I cannot release yet because I don't know the direction Pages is going to take in the next version.)
If you look at the Apple templates they are almost all identical within their formats (newsletter, brochure, letter) with the only variations changing being the graphics used, the fonts, and the layout of margins all determined by the topic of the example document. In short, they are examples of newsletters and such that you can create and by being such readily avilable examlpes they have become pretty much copied and reused by those in a hurry.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it has become limiting in how many are being shared. It's a complicated process to create a template for sharing They begin to look the same when they all start from the same starting point. I have decided to concentrate on the graphic resources that one can populate a blank document with. To do that I must have a Universal Temlplate that people can start with. One that I can include with the resource packs so you can have a decent idea of how those resources can be used.
I started that with the PagesPlus magazine concept released two months after Pages first came out. That's when I realised there was going to be no real market for templates within the Pages user community. It would never be as vibrant as the community for Keynote themes.
I think an important part of that is that people do not create a template and then build a document. They build a document. I doubt if people are actually creating templates (build pages, separate them, capture them, save template) as much as they are buildign documents they are using. Once you work on a newsletter for a specific month or topic, the chances of you reusing it may be quite slim. The chances of you sharing it as an 'empty' (meaning populated with generic text and generic photos) template that people can reorganize and populate with their own stuff is even slimmer.
I'm not saying that there aren't a pantheon of useful templates for Pages. I am saying that there is a severe lack of creative templates for pages. It comes from all the steps involved in making it usable by others without showcasing only your own talents and content. The goal behind the Universal Template is to give people a more anonymous starting point to begin those creative templates.
Pardon my ignorance, but I'm curious what you mean by a "truly universal style of template". Do you mean a template localised for various languages?
Localization for languages is something most people cannot take the time to do. This is necessary for identifying the various elements used (mostly the paragraph styles, and examples used in the basic template design. Words such as 'Family' or 'Photo'.) but it is unnecessary for the basic 'feel' of the template, and the intuitive understanding that this is how it you should use it. After creating a template based on two simple types of layouts, but created for two different paper sizes (all of a sudden blossoming to four different templates) I realized that Apple deserves a rgeat deal of respect for the amount of work that obviously goes into creating a product for several dozen languages, each containing 66 different templates.
Kudos to your team, Apple. (Now make it so we can set up the pages we can use, lock them in place, and let our text flow through as we complete our masterpieces.)
Message was edited by: Gerry Straathof
Message was edited (again) by: Gerry Straathof who wishes he could smell better. Uh... spell...