Ant

This is the type of site I like: http://www.silver-creek.com/ I like it because of it's graphic nature. It's interesting yet simple. HOWEVER I have to click on one of the bottom 3 graphics for updates, news etc.. The front page doesn't SCREAM a message to the viewer immediately..."hey we just got this in, or April 5, casting clinique etc..." Whereas a site like this:(maybe not a good example but... ) http://www.eveninghatch.com/ has some NEWS on the home page that is urgent or warrants immediate attention. I guess I'm torn between the 2 options. Maybe I can have a small blurb about some URGENT info on the home site with a MORE option that brings the viewer to a page with full details? BTW if I cant post links I apologize. Please remove them. Ant

The website I'm designing is for a fly fishing shop. The shop does not have an online store. The point of the site, as I see it, is informational.What they offer, services, classes, new products etc.. You cannot buy anything from the site. Mostly because the owner is too lazy to have a pop machine, keep track of inventory etc etc. So my question is concerning the home page. Should I handle the content on the home page so that it covers NEW PRODUCTS, SHOP NEWS/UPDATES etc immediately, or should I keep the front page simple and make the viewer click on a graphic that says "shop NEWS" SHOP UPDATES etc that will bring them to another page that outlines new products the shop has, upcoming events, news etc.. I like a site thats clean and does not SCROLL forever with countless images and text on the homepage. BUT I also think it's more effective for the homepage to immediately show the viewer SOME details of say a new product,(with a description) or an upcoming event/news so the viewer see's it immediately without having to click on an image to get to it. Hopefully I explained things well. What do you all think? Thanks Ant

Allright, thanks again.

Thanks Andrea. Is the way I'm doing things the "norm"?

Any thoughts on my question? Thanks Ant

Thanks Guys. I got it working. I have a question about file handling. I have my files on a server, ONLY because I need them there so I can preview them with PHP funtionality I have copies of those files (not the supporting graphics) on my desktop. SO when I work on the local files all the images are missing. Personally thats a pain. I hate not being able to see the completed page. I edit the files on my desktop USING DW and then drag and drop them onto the server. I preview them through a bookmark on my browsers. Is that the best way to do things. If I wasn't using PHP, I would create a folder on my desktop with ALL my files, then when i was done I would load all the files onto the server MINUS the original ROOT folder. I think I can work on files that reside on the server through DW, but I'm not sure how that actually works. The last time I did that, DW asked if I wanted to IMPORT(or something like that) the supporting graphics. However i never knew where DW was storing those supporting files. Either way it just seemed to get complicated when i did that, especially with the file paths, etc. Thanks Ant

So even thought the HTML for my footer is no longer on my index.php page, my linked css still effects the linked PHP that has the html for the footer in it? I assume the statement that "the HTML for my footer is not on my index.php page" is correct ? Ant

OK. I got the example that Stefan outlined in the tutorial to work. Whats weird is both files are .php My original index.html is now index.php. HOWEVER it also includes javascript and HTML ALONG with some PHP code thats a link to an external PHP file. The external PHP file is just PHP. Is that right? So the extension PHP, covers files that have HTML, JAVASCRIPT etc. AND some that are JUST PHP?? How do I add my originally planned CSS style for my footer to my "footer include" PHP file? Can I just link it inside the PHP file? That doesn't seem right. Ant

Thanks Falken. I am watching part 2. The first part really showed how powerful it is to use the php include. That addresses my design needs perfectly. So, would only the pages that use PHP need to be renamed .php? Or should I just go ahead and name all my HTML pages that I create .php to prepare to possibly use PHP on all the pages? Ant

Falken, thanks. I'm not sure why, but it seems all the things I WANT to do with my FIRST website build is not as simple as CSS/HTML. I have chosen a path for my design and that path seems to be the most complicated. Every turn I make keeps adding another scary language (PHP) Thanks Ant

I am about to begin laying out all my pages for a redesign of an existing site. My plan,(as I thought it was done) is to take my home page and use that as a main template for every other page. Right now my main idea is to have a navigation at the top with a 2 column layout beneath. The left column is my main content area. The smaller right column is going to be used for NEW product highlights,etc I want the new products right column to appear on the majority of my other pages. My question is, how would I update the right column to reflect recent updates if they appear on multiple pages? I cant imagine I would have to change each page individually. I cant figure out how CSS would help me with CONTENT. I understand how I can use it to do overall changes to the fonts,color, etc of the site.... but content??? Actually now that I think about how would I change say, the logo in the header. I realize i could just change the logo and use the same name, but... What if I wanted to add another DIV to the right column on every page? Thanks Ant

Tried that. THANKS again! Now I need to figure out how what I just did can help a potential client upload photos. I assumed there was an interface (login) for clients to go along with this gallery. Kind of like the cushycms site demo shows. Ant

Eric, THANK YOU!. That worked. I see what you mean. Now I have thumbs that are 200 x 200 and some that are 200 x 100. So visually they do not create a nice grid. If I do not do it this way, that means I need to open each image and make them all say: 500px x 600px. However, what happens if I get images that are supposed to be wide landscapes. say the native size is sent to me as: 700 x 300 I guess theres no way around that. Unless theres a way to show a thumb as 200 x 200, but when it's clicked on it actual shows the TRUE dimensions of 700 x 300. Although, that means the thumb will cut off some of the image etc.. Ant

Ok. I got it to work by uploading all my files to a live server. I ditched the MAMP. My next problem is the thumbnails are all 200px x 100px But not all my images are that size proportionately. When i remove the dimensions in the css the thumbnails load in the native size of the photos..HUGE. Is there a away to tell the css to use the images at their original size but make them thumbnails. So some thumbnails would be 100 x 100, some 200 x150 etc. I don't think a percentage would work because some of my photos may have huge native dimensions and others small native dimensions. I know at some point I need to create a minimum size for all the photos so that when they are clicked on they never exceed "x" width etc. SO i will have to open each one and prepare them in PS. I don't want to create a thumbnail for each image. Thanks Ant

Thanks Eric. I'll see if I can get it to work on there.

If I use a live server can i just HOUSE all my files in a folder called "temp_site" or something like that which doesn't match another folder on the server with the live files/website? I assume thats a safe way of testing things without screwing up the live website? Ant

Thanks Eric. I like the examples. Any idea why my images are not showing using the MAMP? The

Allright I have gotten pretty far and was able to set up a MAMP and use the dynamic drive photo album from here: http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex4/php-photoalbum.htm Everything was going well, except I cant get the images to load. I have the "format" as shown in the DEMO on the site, but all I have are "?" where the images should be. BTW I have this same question circulating on that site. I figured it couldn't hurt to pool 2 different sources. My problem is I'm getting this error in the activity window of safari for the 5 photos: http://localhost/myimages/salmon/IMG_7130.jpg cant connect to host I thought the local host should be on port 8888. My other files load and work fine PER THE ACTIVITY viewer in Safari, THEY show: (localhost:888) http://localhost:8888/myimages/salmo....php?id=salmon 0.3kb Why are the images that are not displaying showing a link referencing "localhost" I tried turning on websharing in my OSX Preferences but that didn't work. Thanks Ant

Eric, heres the correct link: http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex4/php-photoalbum.htm What I think is the 4th file I need has a spinning icon. I checked the source and I don't see a file thats linked with that field. Yes I want the photos to expand when I click. So, some Javascript type galleries offer a way to upload additional photos? If so I assume it needs to be done by a web designer and not the client. Is it the PHP type gallery that offers EASY client side changes? I'm still trying to understand the difference between these: PHP, Javascript, MySQL... Ant

Falken, thanks for the server answer. I created a test folder on the server where I will place all my test files and see if I can get any of these options working. So far this one, http://www.dynamicdr...-photoalbum.htm, seems to be missing the 4th necessary file. That one was easy because it was only a few steps to get going. I'll see if I can find another site that offers something similar for me to try. Eric, will the javascript based galleries allow me to add to the galleries myself without re-uploading everything? I think the present site is using something like Jalbum. But I guess you cant just add photos without redoing the entire gallery. Ant

Guys, thanks. I will look into the links. Meanwhile, don't I need a server to upload all the necessary files to view my design when using things like PHP etc. If so how do you guys handle that? So far I have just previewed my HTML, but have not uploaded anything to the server. The site I'm trying to REDESIGN as a means to learn all this, is live on a server that I have access to. Can I use that server as my test platform? I assume I can use it to upload temp files, and create a temp site? Whats the RIGHT way to do that? How do you guys use server side scripting(not sure that's the right terminology) when designing a site that uses it, and PREVIEW the design ? Every question I ask opens up the pandora box of web design wider. thanks Ant

I now have a headache. This is the first sentence I read when I went to CMSMS: "CMS Made Simple helps experienced web developers...." I laughed. It seems I have to download the files and then upload them to the server etc..to even begin trying to figure out how it works and placing it's functionality on my sites layout? Check the requirements with that of the server, setup a MYSQL database, and steps 2-20 which are all foreign to me. Guys, i'm just joking and making fun of myself. I'm not downplaying the help you all offered, I appreciate it. I just don't have the knowledge to implement anything from the CMCMS site. Maybe the http://www.zenphoto.org/ is easier. ONE question. If I was to LEARN any of these options, how would I know how to setup the gallery on my site, when I don't have the site live on a server. Don't these systems have to work on the server ALONG with the site to be functional and begin creating the layout of the gallery on my page? Ant

Shelf, thanks I'm reading up on it now. Falken i will look into your links as well. Are these systems preferred over standard html/css because they allow greater control, and visual design options? Ant

Before I venture on and try and research the different options available to me to create an interesting photo gallery, what are some things I should avoid. What I don't want to do is create 2 images (thumbnail/fullsize) for each photo on the site. I know I can do it that way and use the css/html I have learned, but that seems very archaic for a lot of images and time consuming. What I'm looking for is a page that will show categories of photos, which when clicked bring up all the photos in that category as thumbnails, and an option to enlarge then scroll through them. I know there are what I call 3rd party software that create them for you, i.e coffeecup etc. I know I can do it in Dreamweaver/Fireworks,Javascript (which i have not learned yet) but again I'm not sure if that a good idea. As a beginner is there somethings that I should avoid? Is using software like coffee cup cheating and bad practice? Thanks Ant

Thanks Wickham. Any thoughts for this: "The one problem I'm having, is when I preview it in different browsers,from dreamweaver, the initial look of the nav bar is slightly distorted. When you click on it, it sort of SNAPS into proportion and looks correct. Ant