The purpose of this chapter is to reveal and teach everything there is to know about the template system. It describes both the template language and the way the system handles the template files. People previously unfamiliar with Exponential templates should be able to collect enough information in order to understand the following issues:

• What a template is and what it is not
• Template types (page layout, node and system templates)
• Template structure
• The template language
• The main template (the page layout)
• Template variables available in the page layout
• How basic template tasks can be done
• How information can be retrieved from the Content Management System
• The template override system