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Are there any online examples of reusable Master Page or Project templates - that completely decouple complex layouts from content?

Many of the examples I have seen show a single template document, that all of the content gets copy/pasted to.

  1. Standards or best practices of how to structure the use of Front, Main, and Back Matter Folders; Styling Folders; Package and Class folders; Image Folders; etc.
  2. Perhaps specific examples of structured folders and files for research papers, programming books, Legal Pleadings, ... that all have their layouts decoupled from content.
  3. Just online links are fine - for examples and best practices.

Short Explanation:

Master templates allow sections of documents to "inherit from" and share properties with the rest of the document, (glossary entries, consistent footnote numbers, etc.). And, these Master Templates, (projects) - would be reusable for other projects - because they would completely decouple layout from content.

Content Management and Software Engineering share these development patterns.

elika kohen
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    Welcome to TeX.SX! I'm not sure what you mean by “master page”. – egreg Jan 23 '18 at 23:00
  • Some related questions that might be helpful: Classes and packages – what's the difference? and What is a template? and also Style/class tutorials. – Alan Munn Jan 23 '18 at 23:41
  • Seems weird to ask this as though there's some question about it. Isn't this the entire point of LaTeX? Admittedly, you can do a lot more than just what this describes. That is, LaTeX's raison d'être is the separation of content from format. That's the idea: content includes semantic mark-up. The class and, optionally, package(s) determine the format. It's like asking whether it is possible to get a seventh generation i5 chip to implement this cool feature of pocket calculators which lets them do multiplication & division, as well as addition & subtraction. Those who ask missed the concept. – cfr Feb 08 '18 at 00:14
  • @cfr - Of course it is plain that TeX is a layout language. This is just a request for examples, website resources. Nothing more complicated than that. – elika kohen Feb 08 '18 at 03:44
  • How much have you used LaTeX? Because I think the best advice is to read some of the introductory resources for beginners. You're asking for example of LaTeX implementations of word processing things and it just doesn't make any real sense. I guess by 'folder' you mean 'directory'. But I don't know what that has to do with anything else you're asking about. As long as a file is in the search path for its type, it'll be found. If it isn't in the search path, add the path or move the file. If you are reusing stuff, put it in the appropriate place in your personal tree or local for 2+ users. – cfr Feb 08 '18 at 03:59
  • And TeX is not LaTeX. I said that LaTeX separates format from content. TeX doesn't. It's a layout language, but that's different. The idea of that separation is the essential idea of LaTeX. That's not the same as something's being a layout language. TeX is a layout language, but it is not based on that idea of separation. – cfr Feb 08 '18 at 04:02
  • @cfr - I removed all references to either TeX or LaTex to avoid the distraction. I also removed references to "Master Pages". Thanks for the help. – elika kohen Feb 08 '18 at 04:05
  • @Johannes_B Come again? – cfr Feb 09 '18 at 00:50
  • The thing is, you're asking whether LaTeX can 'completely decouple layout from content'. But that's the whole point of LaTeX. Indeed, LaTeX does this to an extent not possible in any word processor. How many word processors provide format-agnostic mark-up for emphasising text? None I've seen. And that's just one (quite minor) example. You are acting as if this is some great innovation you've found elsehwere, but LaTeX has always done this. That's what it is for. That's what class files do. That's what style files do. I don't see the problem or, therefore, the question. – cfr Feb 09 '18 at 00:54
  • Perhaps the confusion is caused by the ubiquitous 'templates'. These are generally poorly designed and not recommended. The copy-paste approach is OK, I guess, for a one-off document. But I wouldn't use it for anything else. Instead, I use class and style files - some standard; some custom. I have a class for course packets, a class for feedback on assignments, a class for module feedback, a class for producing a module report, a class for creating Mumford-style handouts, a class for writing papers, a class for creating slides etc. All parasitic classes, but all custom. Is this what you mean? – cfr Feb 09 '18 at 01:00
  • @cfr No coffee and some really strange autocorrect. Deleted the comment. – Johannes_B Feb 10 '18 at 13:20

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LaTeX documents, use plain text and commands to set up the final output. From day to day, you learn more things and you can have easier and better ways to make your output more beautiful or better (in any way). Any document you have created can be consider to be a template for your next job or for someone else's job.

When you reach a point and get over the stage that you just want latex to "work" and just give an output that you consider to be good or ok for your taste, you get to the next stage that you want to be able to reuse and to automate things... This way, you start to use newcommand for some procedures that you will repeat, new packages that provides commands or effects or whatever you need... This means you really working with a template and may be you not even know this.

After that, you may reach a stage that you have defined your own commands, or .sty files or even your own documentclasses (.cls files) that you can use for yourself or share with others too.

So, in the sense that every document can be used as a template (that may or may not work for you) and with the definition that I found about master pages:

using my own words:

master pages are a specific layout that you can use in a document that gives you the ability to use your own content inside this layout that (this layout) will give a somehow specific feeling (could not imagine this... I read it!) on the whole document or page or where you use these master pages...

So:

Every working code in latex (and friends) can be consider as a template (or a master page if you prefer) and will give a "feeling" to any content you will use instead of it's original

PS: If you use kile (and other editors I suppose) it comes with some minimal templates on LaTeX or XeLaTeX etc... These can be considered as master pages too...

koleygr
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    Some front ends for TeX come with templates. One such, for OS X/macOS only, is TeXShop (which is part of MacTeX). – murray Jan 24 '18 at 01:23
  • @koleygr - +1. Thanks for pointing to Kile. This part is helpful. – elika kohen Feb 08 '18 at 04:13
  • @elikakohen The thing is the templates should be minimal. Because anything substantive - at least, anything you want to reuse - shouldn't be in the template. It should be in a class and/or package. So a dozen templates would be identical except for changing one or two words on the first line or two. That is, there shouldn't be anything for a template to do. You're asking the wrong question. You're looking in the wrong place. You're trying to treat LaTeX like a word processor. If you want a word processor with fancy templates, use one. Use LaTeX if you want LaTeX's (more powerful) approach. – cfr Feb 09 '18 at 01:03