"followed a template" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It usually refers to using a documented formula or pattern. For example, "She followed a template to write the perfect business letter."
Looked at in this light, Zodiac could be seen as something approaching a hommage from a director who made his name with a film, Se7en, that followed a template that the Zodiac killer laid down.
When the UK and Pakistan announced on Monday that they had each carried out lethal drone strikes against their own citizens, they followed a template sketched by Obama over the past seven years – one that critics have warned risks greater destabilization and legal abuse.
Every so often an article appears that follows a template so ingrained it should be a madlib.
They include amNew York, a free tabloid financed by the Tribune Company, which began publication in October, and which follows a template set forth in Boston and Philadelphia in recent years by Metro International.
He says it's deja vu all over again: Today's Bly report follows a template established by the Mogford Report, issued a few months after the March 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City refinery that killed 15 people.
The cabins, while stylistically particular, follow a template: a common room and open kitchen on the first floor, an open porch out front and a group bedroom above.
The model for his energy revolution follows a template from previous initiatives on vaccines and agriculture: bring in some billionaires, the private sector, match fund by governments, and solve the world's biggest challenges.
It is football rather than cricket that is the national sport, and the most popular television programmes still reflect working-class culture, whether they are soaps, quizzes or entertainments that follow a template straight out of clubland.
Portland's new law, which passed the City Council in March, follows a template set by a handful of other cities, and Connecticut, in the last seven years.
