DH Templates

Web Designers-I need your advice!?

So, I plan to be a great web designer in a few years...I am just beginning that journey. But my non-profit needs a new website NOW. I've gotten books on html, css...and am starting the learning process-but not ready to build a great site. If I get use a template-will I regret it? Can I make changes on a template using contribute? Where can I get a great template?

Public Comments

1. You should learn basic HTML and CSS before you purchase a template. When you purchase a template it'll be all fine and dandy until you try to modify it. Some very simple templates will give you no problem, but if you get anything that is heavily dependant on tables, be ready to spend some good quality time infront of notepad. My best advise to you is to focus on learning about tables in HTML since 80% of any template will involve templates. Also try to stay away from .PSD templates as that adds a whole new step to the web design process and you being new to all this, can only take 1 thing at a time. I wish you luck! Some of my websites http://www.procomp-sc.com (my company) http://www.paddlecart.com http://www.teacherslittlebooklet.com http://www.edc-sc.com http://www.qcs-sc.com
2. Best web design advice I can give you is to learn the language - not the product. HTML is old, use XHTML now. CSS is good - use it well, but ensure you make your side readable without it. Always follow standards and never code for one specific browser\device. Dreamweaver is a great product for site management and various other features but you'll eventually become better, faster if you learn to design sites using nothing but a text editor. As for templates, find a site you like the look of and try to re-create it (as a test of course, not to use and sell!). Once your confident in making the basic layout, you can then build upon it until your ready to show the world! Templates are great when you want things done quick. But I find that it's too easy to get stuck into 'their' ways, and eventually every site you make will look like the templates. Using nothing but your head and an editor with Photoshop will truely produce unique styles that show you how far your progressing.
3. You can get a lot of free templates from http://www.freecsstemplates.org/ Basically, you just plug in the contents yourself. In fact, by updating the contents, it may be a good way for you to learn web design/web development. When HTML first came out many years ago, many people (including myself) learned it by doing a View Source to see what others had done, and then copied and pasted the same codes on our pages to see what exactly the codes did. So now, when you are done with the site for your non-profit organization, you can play around the CSS or the HTML tags on your own just to see what they do. It would be good hands-on way to learn web design. I am a web developer by trade. Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions. And good luck to you on your exciting adventure on web development
4. The best thing about web designing is that there are tens of free resources on the net . There are even free web design video lessons on the net. U have to start with the web design process at first : 1) the type of web site (static or dynamic) 2) your audience 3) where r u going to host because if u buy a template and the hosting server does not support it where will u be ? it is a long interesting journey . I will recommend u buy the template and then study really hard.