Darleen, since you are new to auction templates, I thought I'd start you on the simplest of the simplest methods. I assume you are using Internet Explorer 6 or 7 or Firefox as your browser so that you can take advantage of eBay's listing editor toolbar.

The templates I have listed are fairly small and simple, and are designed to work as "Inserts". On the listing form, eBay "Inserts" allow you to save snips of code that are up to 4000 characters in length. These small templates are only about 2000 characters, so they fit quite easily into "Inserts".

Create an Insert

1. Start with a new listing. The first step is to select the "customize" listing page with all options.

2. When you get to the listing form, notice that the description editor has a droplist for "Inserts" in the editing toolbar.

3. From the droplist, select "Create an Insert". A popup window will have a slot to name your insert. Call it something like "Auction Border". Then paste the template code into the little code box they provide and click "Save".

You have now created an insert and saved your template on eBay's server. It will be available to use whenever you start a new listing. If you would like, you can simply abandon the listing you opened by closing your browser, or by using the back arrow to get out of there. Or you can proceed to the final listing page and cancel there.

Use an Existing Insert

1. To use an insert, you will need to select the "customize" option when you start your new listing.

2. Go to the description editor and start with an empty editor screen. From the Inserts droplist, locate your saved Insert.For this example, I named my template "Background".

3. Click on your Insert, and it will automatically appear in your description editor. You should see the actual border. If not, be sure you are on the Standard tab.   

4. Now you can type or paste your text directly into the template and use eBay's editing toolbar to style your text. Be careful that you don't backspace from text into title, or you'll lose some of the prestyled fonts. However, if you do erase the styles, you can simply use the enter-key to break your titles away from your text and can style them again using the toolbar.

5. Proceed as you normally do with your listing and be sure that you have deselected eBay's Listing Designer option that is right below the description editor.

Go ahead an pick up one of the template codes and give it a try. If you have any problems, just give a holler.

As many of you know, I can usually be found on the help forums and run a lot of test auctions, but don't normally buy or sell on this ID. Well, after all these years, I found that I don't have enough selling feedback for some of the test auctions I need to run. So I've created a large one-time batch of cheap and easy basic templates.

The template code for each set is right there in each auction to copy/paste, and there are instructions for using templates at the bottom of the auction. I'll be mailing a paper archive copy at end of auction. So, whether you are a designer who simply needs a code structure, or a seller who likes to have a wardrobe full of templates, please take a look.

Here are the first few sets:







Collect all the other templates in the Basic Borders series

A few people have mentioned that they can't post a newly created stylesheet to their blogs.

I suspect eBay has added some filters to prevent people from adding HTML codes to the stylesheet area. Since brackets are required for HTML, it sounds like eBay is taking the easy path and is filtering out brackets.

That should eliminate all the miscreant codes that have been finding their way into stylesheets. However, it looks like eBay didn't think it through because some of the stylesheet codes include legitimate brackets.

So if your stylesheet won't post, scan through the code and look for the five lines that start with:

html>body

Eliminate the entire line in all five places. It will have a small effect on the appearance of your template, but it is the only way to get past eBay's filters for the moment.

When eBay fixes the problem, you can put the unaltered stylesheet in place instead.

For those of you having difficulty, let me know if this solution works for you.