Remember, this is a J! 1.5 starting point for your template, just as Paul’s boilerplate is a starting point.  There’s no fancy template framework, grid system, or anything that isn’t present in Paul’s template.  It’s the same thing with some Joomla! goodness attached.

For those that are interested, someone is working on HTML5 overrides for Joomla templates.  I briefly looked at it but didn’t implement them here as I have some questions on the semantic implementation of the ‘header’ and ‘section’ use in the overrides.  The overrides use them for the different J! articles, blogs, etc.  Everything I’ve read indicates ‘header’ and ‘sections’ elements should be used differently but I’m not 100% convinced either…so I’m going to make that your decision to implement.  For more information on the ‘section’ element, read here, information on the ‘header’ element read here.

I took an hour and converted my old test template “Usability” using the boilerplate.  It was easy, quick, and works flawlessly in IE (though I haven’t tested in IE6 yet).  I didn’t take the time to strip out the old CSS overrides from the Blueprint framework but the boilerplates’ are still used.

Download the Joomla 1.5 optimized version of Paul Irish’s Boilerplate here

Download the HTML5 version of Usability here.

Thanks to:

• Paul Irish’s HTML5 Boilerplate (of course)
• Brian Teeman (The first time I heard of the setGenerator() method was from his blog)

Now Free!

After a long hiatus, I am finally releasing a Joomla 1.5 template! This template is the representation of how I feel a Joomla template should be:

(1) Specific to a type of use
(2) Simple
(3) fast loading

Thus I call this template “Usability”! There aren’t many bells and whistles. You should have the freedom to decide what javascript library to use, what modules and special effects to include in your site (and there’s plenty of extensions out there to build upon this design!), so I made sure this template doesn’t get in the way.

An HTML version comes with it too!

To be fair, I did include jQuery for a user requested feature (which was implemented at the last second). However, I have enabled the jQuery “NoConflict” mode so it won’t interfere with any other scripts you are currently running. Don’t want to load the library at all? No problem! Just turn it off in the template parameters and you’re all set.

Template Features

Speed

This template is really fast. There’s a minimal use of images, a nicely spliced CSS file, and really no 3rd party scripts to slow things down.

Support

What’s so cool about that? Integrated into the template administration area is BiD’s getSatisfaction support area! What does that mean? You can issue a support ticket now right from your Joomla administration. You don’t even have to visit this site again! From the template manager you’ll also have access to the latest BiD news, keeping you up-to-date on template updates, new releases, support tickets, etc. Cool eh?

Styling

There are a handful of module styles to choose from and easy-to-use template parameters in the Template Manager (so you can toggle stuff you want…like the color of the template). There are 3 colors to choose from.

Standards

Everything validates. Ok, so maybe that’s not really a ‘feature’ but I thought I’d mention it anyway. The CSS code is commented and uses my own, modified version of the Blueprint CSS framework.

Included is the Joomla 1.5 template, an HTML version, and a layered PSD

->Download the template now