We introduce a visual specification language for spreadsheets that allows the definition of spreadsheet templates. A spreadsheet generator can automatically create Excel spreadsheets from these templates together with customized update operations. It can be shown that spreadsheets created in this way are free from a large class of errors, such as reference, omission, and type errors.

We present a formal definition of the visual language for templates and describe the process of generating spreadsheets from templates. In addition, we present an editor for templates and analyze the editor using the Cognitive Dimensions framework.