What is a project template?

Project templates enable you to capture and re-use the structure and content of existing projects, including project pages, custom tracker fields, and workflow definitions, to speed new project creation and standardize lifecycle processes.

Project templates allow you to create and configure new projects quickly, enforce organizational standards, and facilitate process improvement.

To create a new project, you can use any project template created by any project administrator.

Note: You can also create a new project without using a template.

The template name and description appear on the Templates tab of the Projects list, accessible from the navigation bar on your My Workspace page. If your site administrator has made it possible to preview the contents of project templates, click the name of a template to see what's in it.

A template can include the structure of the original project without any of the content, or it can include both the structure and the content of the original project.

"Structure" means the folders and sub-folders in the original project.
"Project content" means any work items you or any other project member have created as part of the project. For example, when you create a tracker artifact to manage a piece of work, that tracker artifact is part of your project's content. Any documents you upload to the project and any wiki pages you create are part of the project's content.