Ideas on how to build a system to construct a template without code

Half the point of the Site Builder system is to make alterations available to those who find looking at code to be a scary thing.

So I need ideas as to how to open the power of templates to them.

Right now you can call a list of stuff with:
and it will get a list of audio files in the system. I have this part working.

What I'm looking for ideas on is: When the user who asked to make the list doesn't like the way the output arrives.

The solution is:
and you can make it look like whatever you like BUT...... you need to look at code to make customized_template.tpl

Need other ideas. The only one I have right now is dragging the available components around in an absolutely positioned box, but thats going to play havoc with the flexible nature of the skins.

Other suggestions please.
updated by @michael: 12/22/16 11:55:59AM

I am not sure if this will ever be truly possible, or maybe I am thinking along the wrong lines. The simple truth is to get truly custom people with have to understand at least some code.

One thought could be look at how the panels are laid out, currently you can only have up to 3 columns through this tool, but the system supports 12.

My advice would be signup for a free trial on www.squarespace.com to see how they handle this sort of thing, it may give you some inspiration.
updated by @garymoncrieff: 12/22/16 11:55:59AM

I'm happy with the panels for now. Maybe later we change it to allow for more columns. Haven't seen many 4 col layout skins around. Suspect it would bunch up the controls for the widgets a lot.

Its the "do i want this list of images one above the other with the 'title' and other info showing, or just the image itself floating next to each other with some padding around them." that's the question I'm trying to tackle.

Might need to leave it up to the skin designers to build the options then the end user just chooses skin option or default option.
updated by @michael: 12/22/16 11:55:59AM

Yeah this might have to be left up to the skin designers, what you could do is include examples of templates with the Slate skin.

One usability feature I think might help is when entering the template name it would auto show a list of available templates as you type. Bit like when you start doing an @ reply etc.
updated by @garymoncrieff: 12/22/16 11:55:59AM