DH Templates

I want to learn how to make my own website templates. Where do I start?

Public Comments

1. learn HTML and CSS - google that plus "beginner". Loads of tutorials available.
2. First, you need some image editing software. (Photoshop if you have it/can afford it or GIMP -- http://www.gimp.org/ -- if you'd like something more affordable.) If you're just starting out and want to practice you could also try paint. Then you're going to design your site. I've provided information in this little tutorial: http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c20/Sandroalexander/howtomakeawebsite.jpg Now, you're going to upload those images and go to this site: http://www.quackit.com/html/tutorial/html_layouts.cfm Now replace the following text with your images :D [ should be replaced with <. and ] should be replaced with >. Make the table width 700. After border="0", add align="center". For the header, replace the header text with [center][img src="LINKTOYOURHEADERIMAGE"][/center] For each item (Item 1... and so forth), replace the header text with [center][img src="LINKTOONEOFYOURTABS"][/center] . Do this for each tab. Now, LAST PART, above main body, you'll see: td style="background-color:#eeeeee replace that with background-image:url(LINK TO YOUR BODY IMAGE); And you're done! If you want to do it with CSS, use this great tutorial: http://www.subcide.com/tutorials/csslayout/index.aspx If you'd like to mix those ideas, you can make a site like the one I'm working on here: http://cgrin.angelfire.com/tt.html (feel free to steal the page source). To do that, right click and click on "view page source" or "source". Then you can play with it using subcide.com above as a reference!
3. The easiest way for a novice to build a web site is to start with a web template. Web Templates can be customized and you can use the layout but swap the graphics etc.... this will get you comfortable with basic HTML design and an HTML editor (like Dreamweaver). Here are some resources for free or inexpensive templates that are easy to edit and manage. Webmaster Templates - http://www.webmaster-templates.net Free Web Templates - http://www.freewebtemplates.com/ Web Design Elements - http://www.webdesign-elements.com Free Website Templates - http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com/ Free Layouts - http://www.freelayouts.com/ Free Templates Online - http://www.freetemplatesonline.com HTML website templates can significantly ease the burden of designing and creating websites by providing webmasters with a ready-made web layout, structure, basic graphics, and color scheme. The templates can generally be edited and customized with any HTML editor. The biggest advantage for webmasters using ready-made templates is the amount of time that can be saved.