As part of the development framework we are creating here in Iceberg I wanted to create a base web site that developers could use as a starting point, with themes, master pages, and some default properties set in the web.config file to use our database and membership engines.

My initial thought was to create it, and then have them copy/paste it to start a new web site, until I came across the "Export template..." feature in visual studio.

Basically what it does is package a project or item so it can be reused, exactly what I wanted.

Let's test it... first I create a project

And I added a few items, just to not let it the same as the default project

Then I go to File, Export template

You are presented with this self-explanatory dialog box

You click next, then finish, and that's it... you can add a new project and select this template as many times as you want (You can set a custom Icon and a Description if you want, play a little with this options if you like)