Since it's quiet, perhaps it's tutorial time.
This first one is a template-to-SYI tutorial. We could also use a template-to-Turbo, and template-to-third-party tutorials.

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Save your Template

You've found a free template on this forum, have created a template at one of the many form-filler sites, or you've received one from a designer. First and foremost, save your template to your computer. Archive that copy and don't edit it. That way, you will always have a clean working copy to return to if too much editing (or using the wrong editor) should clobber your template code. Create a copy of the code for editing.

Notepad
On a Windows PC, the best way to save your template is to use Notepad and save the code as a plain text file. You can save the template with a ".txt" extension or an ".htm" extension. Both are plain text files and you can rename from one of these two extension types to the other without affecting the content of the file.



However, if you click your filename to open the file, a ".txt" extension or file type will open in Notepad (the best place for editing the code), whereas the ".htm" extension or file type will open in your browser (the best place to see what it will look like). If you save the file as ".htm", you can always right-click the file name on your computer and "Open With" Notepad instead of allowing it to open in your browser.

Where is Notepad on your Windows PC?
    Start > Program Files > Accessories > Notepad
Find it and make a shortcut on your desktop so it will always be convenient.

RagTag
An alternative to Notepad is RagTag. RagTag is a small free Windows PC program that allows you to edit ".txt" or ".htm" files in the same manner as Notepad. Unlike Word, it won't insert illegal characters that can corrupt code. It has a popup preview button that will allow you to see your work in progress in a browser window, so you can conveniently edit and preview as you go. The program also has shortcut keys for adding HTML codes and has a scan mode to check whether your HTML tags are in order.

    Link

Template code can be copied from the page offering it and can be pasted into the RagTag editor. From there, it can be saved as a ".txt" or ".htm" file.

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To use Templates in an Auction (eBay's Listing Editor)


One way to use most templates, whether from a designer or from a form filler tool, is to paste the code directly into the listing editor.

1) Since there are two ways to start a listing (Simple or Customize), be sure to start with the Customize option.

2) Then you will see the two-tabbed editor. Click the HTML tab to add your code.

3) Flip back to the Standard tab to see your template, where you can continue to edit your text.




Auction Photos

If your template has photo placeholders, you can replace those with your own online photos in the Standard tab or the HTML tab. You can also add your hosted photos even if the template doesn't have photo placeholders. If you don't want to use photos inside the template, then you can usually delete the photo placeholders in the Standard tab.

Your photos must be hosted online, since outside visitors cant see anything in your personal computer. More info here on photo hosting and photo codes.

To add photos in the Standard tab, you will need to view each online photo in a browser window by itself.

• In Internet Explorer, right-click-copy the image in the browser, click your cursor into eBay's editor, and then right-click-paste the image.


• In Firefox, carefully drag your cursor to highlight just the image in your browser, right-click-copy or use the top edit menu to copy, click your cursor into eBay's editor, and then right-click-paste or use the top edit menu to paste the image.

To add photos in the HTML tab, you will need to know the address or URL of your photo. Many image hosts will give you either the image code or the direct URL of your image. If they give you image code, it will often look something like this.

The red code links back to their site and isn't necessary to display an image.
<a href="http://www.myhost.com/homepage.htm><img src="http://www.myhost.com/image.jpg"></a>

Or it might look something like this complete image tag.
<img src="http://www.myhost.com/image.jpg">

Either can be added directly to the code in the HTML tab where you want the photo to appear.

If your template already has photo placeholders, then you can simply change the placeholder URL to the URL of your own photo. In general, you will be looking for code that looks like this in your template:

      <img src="http://www.myhost.com/image.jpg">

Replace just the URL portion (the red code) with the URL of one of your hosted photos. You can see from the other sample image codes that you can usually extract your direct URL from those codes.

Links and Buttons

Some of the codes and templates will have links to your other eBay pages. Designers will usually edit those for you, but if you pick up a sample template or form filler, you may need to edit those yourself. The only way to edit those is directly in the HTML. Typically, those buttons and links lead to your eBay pages, so you may only need to change the user ID in them to your own eBay name.

In some cases, there is a placeholder or image for a link, but no destination code. There might be something like "URL to your page" as a placeholder. To obtain the destination address for a link, go to the page you want linked. Copy the destination address from the top of the browser and paste it into the link code where advised by the placeholder text.


Want to reuse that template?

eBay's listing form has the ability to save templates for you. They will save not only the HTML code of the template itself, but will also save your category, title, start price, shipping, and other auction details. So when you finish creating a listing, on the final page, you can opt to save it as a template just before you list. Then when you start a new listing, you can recall that template and change the price, shipping, and other auction details, as well as editing the text and photos within the template.

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