There are 3 different kind of templates:
- Solution templates
- Project templates
- Item templates

Solution template
------------------

A solution template looks like this. It may define solution folders and points to project templates.

<VSTemplate Version="2.0.0" ...>
  <TemplateData>
    <Name>WPF CAB Shell Application (SmartClient Contrib)</Name>
    <Description>SmartClient Contrib WPF CAB Shell</Description>
    <ProjectType>CSharp</ProjectType>
     ...
  </TemplateData>
  <TemplateContent>
    <ProjectCollection>
	<SolutionFolder Name="Modules">
        </SolutionFolder>
	<SolutionFolder Name="Shell">
            <ProjectTemplateLink ProjectName="Shell">
		Shell\MyTemplate.vstemplate
	    </ProjectTemplateLink>
        </SolutionFolder>
	....
	<SolutionFolder Name="Tests">
            <ProjectTemplateLink ProjectName="UnitTest.Shared">
                 UnitTest.Shared\MyTemplate.vstemplate
            </ProjectTemplateLink>
      </SolutionFolder>
    </ProjectCollection>
  </TemplateContent>
</VSTemplate>

When you finish working on the template you need to generate a zip file to test it. To do so:
- Select all the content in the folder (e.g EmptyShell folder)
- Send To -> Compressed (zipped) folder
- Move the zip file generated to "%UserProfile%\Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C#\Windows"


Project templates
-----------------

Project templates can be generated using Visual Studio. Using File -> Export Template feature.
The generated zip can be unzipped and used as part of a solution template with the structure explained above in Solution templates.

We can also ship Project Templates. To do so we have to put the zipped project template in the Vsi folder and create a new <Content> in the .vscontent

Item templates
-----------------
We don't use them now, but they can also be generated using Visual Studio and the same applies to Project Templates