I used Notepad++ and Visual Express to edit mine, and yes it was a very tedious and exacting effort. The thing to appreciate is that we CAN use templates. I don't think most DNN users understand the power that gives us. It's crazy valuable for us.

Glad you worked it out.

What I do, and may help, is delete everything from the recycle bin. Pages in there are also in the template. Then I go slowly, especially if the portal you are templating from has lots of pages. The reason is that a single character missing or out of place will stop everything. Sometimes, I have to do the editing a couple times from a fresh 'master'.

You can also check the site event log to see if it has a clue. In my case, I would get a number of pages created, and then the process would stop, so I know which line number to focus on in the template.

I hope santa brings you insight!