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====== Basic Page Layout ======
This software gives you all of the design flexibility you can possibly want. Yet, it is extremely easy to use. But sometimes it's just a little easier when you first have a little direction to get you going. So, here goes...
The graphic below shows you the basic components that are used by the software to build each page of your site. Virtually every page uses these same basic puzzle pieces to put it all together. That's because virtually every page uses the same overall template to build it. That is, the **basic_page.tpl** template. Almost all of the software's pages have this template assigned to them. There are a few exceptions, in that some pages have their own unique templates. But, we will discuss these special cases in a little more detail later on in this tutorial. For now, though, it's all about the **basic_page.tpl** template.
As you can see in the graphic below, the **basic_page.tpl** template contains the entire contents of the page. Then, within that template, you have individual templates. These include your typical '**head**' data (**head.tpl**) which you may already know is required for all website pages. Then, you have your '**header**' content (**header.tpl**), '**body**' content (displayed by using the **{body_html}** tag), and finally the '**footer**' content (**footer.tpl**).
{{:tutorials:design:basic_page_layout.jpg|}}
Now, we'll break down each section for you so you'll have a better idea on how to access the content that you may want to change. Keep in mind that this same information is used for virtually all pages of your site. So, making changes in one place will typically take affect site-wide... a real time-saver.
Here is a video to help you tie what you see above to where you would find and edit the template files mentioned above:
===== HTML Head Element =====
{{:tutorials:design:tpl_head.jpg|}}
**Head Tags** - As with any website driven by html, your templates require that you have a head element that gets parsed along with each html page. This isn't something that you can physically see on your site. It takes place behind the scenes. The head element contains general information, also called meta-information, about a document. According to the HTML standard, only a few tags are legal inside the head section. These are: