Templates?!

Today I read a few scrapbook blogs that were highlighting TEMPLATES! Now I have a few in my digi-stash and really have never used them. I'm really not sure how for starters. So today I opened up a template I have from Scrapping Sisters and selected each different colored area and filled it with a photo (which I could do with papers as well). I really didn't like that I couldn't figure out how to edit the photos....I'm sure there is a way. Otherwise I see templates as a good idea to try to follow.
template is from Scrapping Sisters #10
font is Lucida Handwriting