Templates are layouts available to users when building new HTML, xHTML or XML pages. The code that makes up a dotCMS template looks very much like standard HTML or XML code. The only difference between Templates and HTML is that Templates include *Containers which act as server side includes. The Containers placed in the Templates define the areas on an HTML Page that permissioned users will be able to contribute content to and how that content will be displayed. Templates provide a webpage layout and link the Containers to the HTML page.
Below is an example of a dotCMS template that combines HTML/CSS with the velocity that parses or includes the code from the container.
*Please see the documentation section on Containers for more information.