Ventura uses this placement method to identify and track page elements. You can attach a frame to a paragraph, but that paragraph exists within a frame. At all times, any page element in Ventura knows its precise location in relationship to its frame rather than a paragraph. Since frames are placed using physical coordinates, rather than by their position relative to items placed earlier or later in the document, they provide a much more flexible way to store page elements. A template is a collection of formatting commands applied to a document.
Word uses templates.
Like the other examples we've cited, this is not necessarily a bad way to do things, but it can create an enormous amount of overhead in terms of creating a consistent look and feel to a document. Since a template is intended to be applied to a document, then adjusted as necessary, it really only serves as a jumping-off point for document formatting. Styles in a template are almost more of a suggestion than a command. Once a document based on a template is saved, the link between it and the original template is severed, unless you reapply the template. A style sheet is also a collection of formatting commands.