Post templates with form fields and field assignment.

Idea
I’d like to suggest something that I think would really benefit regular WordPress bloggers. I’m actually a little surprised that something isn’t already available to do at least part of my request.

For starters, many popular blogs will post a reoccurring type of post that requires the same format every time with small changes. Like features, or round ups. There are already a few plug-ins that can create post templates, but from what I’ve found, all of these do nothing more than copy a post, and paste it into a new post. One must still look through all of the text, and find what needs to be replaced and manually replace it.

I’d love a post template feature in wordpress, that will allow me to select any previous post and create a template from it. I’d like to then be able to go through and select specific words, links, images, text blocks, in this post and assign form fields for each with an ID for identification purposes, and then have the value of the form replace the item in the post that was selected. I should also be able to assign a “new form field” or point to a form field that I have already created earlier in the same template.

Then after generating the full form, when I create a new post from said template, rather than looking like a new post, I should be presented with a page filled with form fields corresponding to the ones I assigned when making the template. The media uploader will be needed here as well.

Example
Lets say I have a blog that has an interview series. Every week I interview a person with the same 5 questions. And the post has an image of the person, a description list (name, location, etc.), a brief paragraph description, and the same 5 questions.

Now I create my post template and tell the template that the image is needed and its 200×200. I would also need two form fields for “Persons Name” and “Persons Location”. I would need a form field that was a text block where I could write the short descriptive paragraph. And finally I would need 5 additional blocks for each answer to the question. These blocks would be named based on the question. Finally having the ability to assign values to many different words based on a preset value, I can also assign the title to be auto populated based on the “Persons Name” field I created.

So now my form has inputs for the image, the attributes, description, and answers, and all of this can be written in fairly quickly rather than having to copy an older post, rename it, sort through all of the article’s copy to find each element that needs to be changed. And then repost. This template will automate the copying of the post, and then replace every necessary element with the simple form. I cant tell you how many times I’ve copied a post, and thought I changed everything, only to find out that I missed the person’s name once, and now this new post shows the last posts name until either I catch it or a comment alerts me. Still embarrassing either way.