A multi-phase rendering process generates a document (such as a Web page) using a template (e.g. HTML) containing embedded commands for inserting content into the document. At least some of the commands have phases associated with them. The template is rendered by executing all commands having phases in a specified range of values while leaving any other commands unexecuted, thereby producing a partially-rendered template. The partially-rendered template is then rendered by executing the remaining commands, to produce an output document. For example a first phase may insert relatively static information into a Web page, while a second phase inserts dynamic information at run time.