planning in progress...

[shiato storm]

keeping it simple is what I'm trying to do. currently drawing up a layout/plan in photoshop then trying to implement that in some way in dreamweaver...here's a basic idea of what I'm after. its going to have a black background with content aligned to the centre, this one's a text page

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/9...outtext3ty.jpg

everything stays the same apart from the central box in the middle which will either contain text, like a front page/news/info, or a gallery for which I plan to be thumbnails of sections i.e. landscapes that then lead to pictures, like this and trying to work out how to add a breadcrumb trail too)

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/4...gallery1ip.jpg

central section - I'm guessing will be a frame (? - still learning the terminology for it all) - I'm toying with either having a scroll bar on the side for the text, and having the whole page static or alternatively allow the central secton to stretch as things are added. There's lots of ways of ding it but i believe a css can be made to handle most of it with one for text pages and one for graphics pages. again theres still a few things to figure out but thats the basic idea of it...the top image will change depending on which section you are in and on the front page changes randomly from a selection...

now all i need to do is actually build it!!

[BroadbandPlacey]

yeah your option for the middle section can either be an iframe like i have (pretty similar design)

http://www.inadaze.co.uk

or you can have the text extending the page.

if your going for the iframe you need to give it a name (e.g. "iframe1") then every link you put on the menu or the page MUST have a "target" tag (e.g. target="iframe1") telling the browser to open the link in the iframe not in the main page

iframe are a little unpopular (as are all frame) but i quite like them and find them quite useful.

[BroadbandPlacey]

oh it looks very good btw

the more sites you make the better you get - if you need any help with it add me msn broadbandplacey at hotmail dot com

[shiato storm]

thanks Bbplacey, i like the way yours is nicely presented. I think for the pages where there's text I'd like to have it extending downwards.

[Funkstar]

i like the look of it a lot, very nice.

Peronally i would stay away from frames and iframes in particular. How about using semi dynamic pages?

You could have the common header and footer as includes so you only have to store it once and any changes are reflected over all pages.

[shiato storm]

now, that sounds impressive but when it comes to html/css/web building in general I'm little more than a novice!
a site-wide css is sort of what I was thinking about, with a more specific one for the gallery section where I intend to have one of those bread crumb trail type thingys...not sure how to set one up tbh but i figured if I sorted out how I want it all too look then worry about how to actually make it happen after was the best approach...
i think for the most part the pages are pretty static (contacts, about and that sort of thing), but things like the news page/front page and gallery which will be updated fairly regularly...so I need to figure out a style for the front and work out how to make updating/adding to the gallery easy.

any advice gladly taken!!

[BroadbandPlacey]

well by far the easiest way in the long run is dynamic content in the form of php and mysql databases... as i have done. It basically means you dont have to edit html each time and you just add an entry to the database (which you can do as a html web form if you want) and then the 'news' page for example calls the latest ten entries added to the database.

BUT - if youve never done html particularly before its probably best to stick to that for the first website you build just to get used to it. HTML and CSS are enough of a handful for the first time.

[shiato storm]

php...well if it makes it easier to update then maybe need to think about that at some point too...

[shiato storm]

ah nuts... stuck... can't seem to get this thing right. can anyone suggest ideas on how to get the layout set so its uniform across the site? I've made an image of it all but so far what ever I have tried just doesn't work...

[GDVS]

Have you considered using a content management system? You may not get the absolute flexibility you want (not without the knowhow to change the script to your exact needs) but you will certainly find it easier to manage than making new pages all the time.

I'm a big fan of Joomla but making a template is (to put it bluntly) a bit of a sod, too many CSS classes. CMSimple is dead easy though and if you can get the look you want on a single static page then you can do it in CMSimple and gain the advantages of a content management system without needing to know the ins and outs of it.

[Stoo]

iframes? Nooooooooo! Blimmin' fugly things...

[Dav0s]

not to be a spoil sport, but i really dont like that site

the text looks ugly, font looks just like times new roman, which seems like no effort has been taken to choose one (although it may have)

the different red/white/grey lines look make the site look incnsistent

as above, iframes are terrible things, use css

i hate sites which do not utilise the width of my page, those with 24" monitors dont want their money wasted due to bad web design.

main text in white box is pretty unreadable

on the plus side i like the top banner (apart from the font)

[noah]

i hate sites which do not utilise the width of my page, those with 24" monitors dont want their money wasted due to bad web design.

i think you might be in the minority there, although i'd love a 24 incher

i'm of the other camp, i'm certainly no expert but my site imo needs to be able to be viewed easily by 1024x768 as that's what most me friends have on their laptops, and i think a large proportion of the net too.

[BroadbandPlacey]

if you pay for webhosting you get stats from the people who visit your site

i know im best designing my website suitable to be viewed on firefox on a PC @ 1024x768

back on topic, shiato what's causing you problems exactly? if you have something already then linky and explain what you want it to do and what its not doing.

[shiato storm]

not to be a spoil sport, but i really dont like that site

the text looks ugly, font looks just like times new roman, which seems like no effort has been taken to choose one (although it may have)

the different red/white/grey lines look make the site look incnsistent

as above, iframes are terrible things, use css

i hate sites which do not utilise the width of my page, those with 24" monitors dont want their money wasted due to bad web design.

main text in white box is pretty unreadable

on the plus side i like the top banner (apart from the font)

get a small monitor and use the space wisely then
I'm planning on having the layout simple as possible and let teh images do the talking as it were...thats what its for afterall!

[shiato storm]

if you pay for webhosting you get stats from the people who visit your site

i know im best designing my website suitable to be viewed on firefox on a PC @ 1024x768

back on topic, shiato what's causing you problems exactly? if you have something already then linky and explain what you want it to do and what its not doing.

i've got a temporary solution at the moment whilst I fiddle things around with a mate. basically using coppermine to display images currently - as that can take paypal - and then build the rest around that. its no way near the final version but its a start at least, I expect it to go through a couple of revisions in its life as things evolve and as I get better at things...!
http://www.lightoverwater.co.uk/
I'm not sure the paypal stuff is fully working so I'll be interested to see what happens if and when it does. still, people can always contact me direct via email as given there.

i suspect I'll change away from the mass volume pictures display as I'd rather have the main part of the site show a more select display of only the best works etc. but I was covering an event as the official photographer at the weekend so have made a rowing part (in slight haste!) to the site. As things develop I can always change to a more powerful way of doing it with full e-commerce stuff as and when required. I have bags of space on the server and I'm able to have limitless mySQL directory-database- folder-thingies (not quite sure onthe technical terms) so I can chop and change things about as I feel. Once I've got a good front page and style up I'll be able to put the current gallery in as a sub-link within the gellery section proper, if you see what I mean...?
there's a couple of links at the top that show what I'm sort of after and I also made this a few days ago as a layout plan: