Moravc is right. The first reason we have to be here is to get worksheets that help our students learn and practice English as a second language. And we have to respect their taste, or they�ll look at our ws and ask: �another of your slips of paper?� with a bored face. (That happened to a colleague of mine and she was quite disappointed.)

When I first logged in here, my students were bored with my way of presenting material but after a few weeks they looked disappointed every time I went to class without �one of my slips�. They love the games, the colors, and the variety of purposes, exercises and approaches. They learn faster now, and they do enjoy learning.

I also download the plain ws with valuable content, but to tell you the truth, I add colors, clipart and frames before taking them to class.

And as Julieta said, it doesn�t matter if your layout is beautiful or simple. It�s yours, and it has to be respected.

I agree with you that many worksheets have similar layouts. When I first saw the notebook template, I thought it was a picture and looked everywhere on the net for it. But when I downloaded a ws with the layout I realized it�s made with word shapes, and it�s quite easy to design them.

My �old template� consists of 4 or 5 boxes with pictures at one side (or in the middle, wherever they fit). People who say they like my ws don�t mention my layout (because I don�t have one), they say the wss have a clear explanation on a grammar topic (I try to make it as simple as possible), some examples and lots of exercises to practice, and sense of humor.

I have teens and adults as students, I don�t teach children. And they love colored wss. They say the clipart help them recognize and memorize the vocabulary content. A picture says more than thousands of words. And I try to make the content fit in a single page (to protect nature and save ink). Sometimes it takes hours to adjust the content, the layout, and to make them fit in a single page. Would it be fair if someone � instead of spending the same effort as I did � just erased my content and inserted his? I don�t think so.

Of course we have to be fair but we also have to use common sense. I agree with you that the content is the most important, but I consider an additional pleasure to prepare the layout. I do have fun doing it. Sometimes I feel proud of myself after preparing a ws, but it doesn�t get many points. Who knows what makes a person download one ws and not the other? I have some clues but not the answer, and I�m not worried about.

Concerning to ranclaude and silvy, I consider their layouts definitely more beautiful than my worksheets, so it�s an honor to have mine compared to theirs. And I won�t even dare imitating Tatiana�s or other members� layouts here, they are artists and I�m only a teacher.

If you look at the first top downloads you�ll see that the layouts are similar, but they are not the same. When a layout is so similar that the squares, the circles, the exercises, etc, are in the same place, is it a copy or a coincidence? I don�t believe in coincidences�

I understand your concern, and I do agree with you, but if we remove all wss using non-authorized clipart, we�ll lose most of the ones we have here. I myself have used Garfield found with Google search and I�ve seen many wss with Disney characters, the Simpsons, etc. Will we erase all of them? Definitely no, they are very useful and our students love the characters. I don�t like the Simpsons, but is there a family tree more recognizable than theirs?

Concerning to Phillip Martin, he has ads in his site, so he�s making profit with our visits there. And he probably gets more with spreading his clipart all over the world, so he�s being paid. Another member here with the same name announced that everyone can use his wss as template. It�s his right, but no one is obliged to do the same. We spend hours preparing a ws to share here and each one has the right to decide the line dividing  what he wants to share or not.

I see that you disappointment is caused for things beyond layouts. There are many things that I don�t understand here and others that I understand but don�t agree with. As you said, it�s the way things go. But when I put the pros and cons together I see that the pile of pros is enormously bigger, so I just accept the others.

Is it fair to benefit from someone else �s skills/hard-work to draw using (non-profit) clipart for (non-profit) purposes without asking/mentioning/paying for?