Permanent page elements written to template?

[Connie]

well, you did not describe your idea intensively enough to judge whether it is a bad idea or not ...

an example would make it clearer ;=)

1) the template is the place for static elements of a page and everything what you write in the editor is placed in the template as "content"

2) if you have some some slightly different, but quite static elements for the page, you could define more than one template, one with a horizontal menu and another with a vertical one for example, and add the relevant template to the actual site, one with that JQuery gallery and another one with another JQuery plugin as other example

3) the principle of components gives you the chance to add even more functionality to templates (and by this to pages) without the need to edit the template all the time
they extend the flexibility of the template and the ease of use

to judge whether your approach is common practice or uses the standard features of GS, give us an example