When you receive your web template
package, extract the entire zip file into a folder
you create. It doesn’t matter where you extract
it to or what name you call the folder, just as long
as you remember where you extracted all the files to.
 As
always, we recommend that you use a good zip / unzip
utility such as WinZip, PowerArchiver, or Winace. If
you prefer otherwise, it’s up to you.
Here are the 8 initial steps to take
in order to set up your web template successfully:
1. Open your favorite web editing
software in order to view your template. We highly
recommend using a WYSIWYG editor such as Microsoft
FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver. If you don’t
have either, you could go to www.download.com and search
for a free yet powerful web editor that you could use.
2. When the template is open,
begin by typing in your text in any top and side bars,
copyright notice on the footer of the page, and begin
to write the main text of your page. These templates
come with pre-inputted text so you get an idea of where
to start typing.
3. Now when the text is all
complete, begin by inserting your require images into
the template by using your favorite graphics program.
We highly recommend using Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia
Fireworks or Paint Shop Pro. Again, it’s up to
you however, make sure your graphics program is easy
to use and creates good quality images. On the actual
template, your images would usually fall into the top
logo bar or the main text space where your visitors
would adhere to them more. And again, it’s up
to you but make sure your images are not too large
and are in line with the pages layout. Templates Resource
offers great rates on template customization, implementation
and other services.
4. Don’t forget to save
your page into a folder you have allocated. It is recommended
to not save it into the templates directory because
it’s best to keep your directory of templates
clean. Just save it into another folder. For example
it could be c:\myweb and so you would save all your
newly created pages into this folder.
5. Once your first page is
complete, it would be time to create other pages to
link up to the main page. I.e. contact, about, products
etc. Well the ‘short-cut’ to doing this
(and is what most web designers do), is firstly by
saving the first page you then erase your text from
the first page from the area you’d like to change,
and add the new information treating it as a different
page however you keep the titles, navigation bars and
footer all intact. (It’s advisable to link up
all your navigation bars first even if you haven’t
created the page for it yet so that when you do duplicate
more pages, you don’t have to sit and edit every
one).
So once you have created the new page,
remember to change the title of the page in the HTML.
i.e. change the words between the <title></title>
tags. And then finally you save the newly edited page
as a new name. Repeat this process with all your pages
until you have your entire web page set up.
NOTE: If your website has 10+
web pages to edit, it’s best to use a web editor
that has a function that shares specific objects in
the page. Macromedia Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage
are highly recognized for their ease of use in this
matter. For example: Frontpage also has a ‘page
insert’ device that allows you to insert the ‘page
insert’ into the space you’d like. For
instance, the navigation bar ‘page insert’ from
the page with the actual navigation toolbar you created
earlier is placed inside. FrontPage will know to open
the page in that very spot so even if you had 200 pages
with that page insert tag, you only would have to edit
just the one ‘original’ page and that would
edit all of its inserted tags on every other page.
(You can ‘insert’ as much as you want on
the same page to make your editing a breeze).
6. Once your web page is added
with your text, color, images and other devices, you
then should take a final look at the folder you created
to make sure ALL the files are in there. Also be sure
that you save your images in a sub-directory called
‘images’ so that you keep your website
well organized.
7. Then using your web host
(Yes you need a web host in order to publish your web
site on the net. If you don’t have one there’s
hundreds on the net you can choose from or if you just
want to quickly test your page out, you can either
preview it in your web editor or browser, or use your
internet providers free web space they would have given
you, to preview how it would look on the live on the
internet.
8. Always be sure to back up
all of your work. The more places that you back up
your files, the better!
9. And that’s about it.
Congratulations! You now know how to create your very
own website!
NOTE: Remember Templates Resource
is always ready to assist you in your Web Design
projects. We have experience with websites created
in .ASP, .PHP, and several other languages as well
as custom design or basic implementation.
We offer a variety of useful resources
for all of our members including Articles, Tutorials,
webmaster resources and more!
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