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When we talk about planning with templates,we mean standard operating procedures we've learned or been trained to use for solving typical problems and as a starting point for solving novel problems. These structures contain variables relevant to an activity and current variable values that affect a problem or have been chosen in a problem-solving instance. With templates we can configure domain-independent planning algorithms, making them applicable to many different problem domains. By making the template explicit for the user in the form of a GUI, we can facilitate mixed-initiative, user-centric systems that help maintain awareness of complex and dynamic situations, share information across the network, and solve problems incrementally and iteratively.