I made a copy of the Article Details Standard Template with other name, then I edited it and removed the ASP code for "author" and DNN returned me back the following error:

Error: Unable to load the Article Details page.
DotNetNuke.Services.Exceptions.ModuleLoadException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at EfficionConsulting.Articles.ArticleDetailsTemplateBase.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) --- End of inner exception stack trace ---

It seems to be related to the Article Details Template Base that is invoked in the Standard Details Template.

Editing in the same way the lists templates does not give me any error.

Any idea?

For now, please set, visible="false", on the Author control rather than removing it. I will modify the code for the next version to ensure it verities the control exists before acting on it.

I've now changed the code so that Detail templates will not require any particular field to be included in the template. This change will be included in version 4.1.