Create a website from a WebMatrix site template
This walkthrough shows you how to create a new website based on one of the WebMatrix built-in site templates.
What you'll learn
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The website templates that are available in WebMatrix.
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How to create a simple website based on the Starter Site template.
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Browse to the default page that is created.
What you'll need
To run the steps in this procedure you must be running Windows XP SP3 or a later version of Windows. You'll also need to have WebMatrix installed. For information about how to install WebMatrix, see Microsoft Web Platform Installer.
Choosing a Template
To choose a template, open WebMatrix, and in the Quick Start page, click Site From Template. If you already have WebMatrix open, click Site From Template on the WebMatrix File menu.
Website templates include pre-built pages and files for common types of websites, which you can customize to create your own site. You can pick from a number of different templates:
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Empty Site. This template creates a bare-bones site. Use this template if none of the other templates suit your needs, if you want to import files from an existing site, or if you want to build your site's functionality from scratch.
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Starter Site. This template gives you a site with a professionally designed layout and a user login system.
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Bakery. This template creates a site that includes a database of your products and ways to display them, and it includes an order-processing system.
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Photo Gallery. Use this template to create a site where you can upload and display images. The site includes a user login system.
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Calendar. This template creates a website where users can create and share personal calendars. If they want to share a calendar, they can choose which users they want to share the calendar with.
Select the Starter Site template, and then click OK.
Creating a Website Using the Starter Site Template
After a few seconds, the site has been created. WebMatrix displays it in the Site workspace:
WebMatrix creates a default web page for a site based on the Starter Site template. To see what your website will look like on the Internet, click Run on the WebMatrix ribbon to open the website in the browser on your computer.
Note Make sure that your site has a default web page such as default.cshtml or default.html before you click Run for the first time. The first time you open a new site in the browser, WebMatrix tries to run the default page for the site, and if there is no default page, the browser will display an error.
