Me again - SORRY :-(

[balloonandparty]

Someone kindly suggested me purchasing a template which seems a great idea, Only thing that worries me is that will I be able to change the header from say for example a snowy themed header to my own celebration header. I am really struggling to do this with the templates on actinic 9 as it is.

I am so so sorry to be a pain

[guccij]

I think you would be better to start off with one of v9's own themes. Buying a template at this early stage would be rather like running before you can walk. You still need to know how Actinic works, and the only way to learn is to keep on trying it out.

This is not because I don't think bought templates aren't good - they are, and I will probably move in that direction myself soon enough.

I just think that you have to get your hands dirty as a shop owner, and spending time doing so at this early stage will pay dividends later. Even if you decide to go the whole hog and employ a designer, the knowledge you gain now will always be useful.

Why not sign up for one of Actinic's courses? The next one is in May I think.

[pinbrook]

The idea of a bought in template would be to use it out of the box.

It seems to me that you either need to go learn some HTML and then try to modify v9 templates or simply pay someone to do the work for you. Or go on the actinic course.

I know actinic advertise that anyone can edit actinic to make it do everything and anything, in reality this translates as you can make it to as much as your skills permit.

the new themes in v9 are Hotshot, Expert and Prime. if you use one of these they are more uptodate.

if you use Hotshot for example you can use your own logo - make it 270 pixels x 59 pixels, change logo name in site options, general tab, company logo name. and off you go. Change the colours inthe theme settings, make the logo have the same coloured background as the bg setting you define.

the same applies to Expert theme

[balloonandparty]

Thanks for that.

Can I ask a question ? How did you know what size the logo is in hotspot ? Blimey I dont think I will ever get my head round this :-(

Thanks for letting me know the size though, you are fab x

[leehack]

Right click on any image in your browser and select properties, this will give you the size of any images not used in CSS, such as the logo, product images etc.

[balloonandparty]

Thank you very much.

I am sorry for asking so many questions !!!

[leehack]

You haven't even scratched the surface i'm afraid and it's why you should bail before your life goes down the plughole learning how to web design .

[Chunkford]

I feel like i'm stuck in the ubend sometimes... boom! boom!

Honestly tho Jacqui, the early signs your giving, makes me think your better off getting someone on the case. Just remember your webshop is just part of the process. You will need to spend time on order processing, fulillment, catalog maintence, marketing etc.
There are plently of people that can help, and if done properly wont hinder the running of your store like your having now.

[pnagames]

Jacqui

i would agree with the rest. Designing a shop will take a lot of your time (you can take one of the actinic designs and apply it but then you need to find out where are all the little things that you would like tweaked)

However before you go down that way, print out the user manual and the Advanced Users Guide and read them without having actinic open. the user manual will answer i assume a lot of your initial queries and then the AUG will give you a few ideas of things that you want to see in the store. after carefully read them have another go at actinic. if you still cannot majority of what you want then that would be the time to call a designer

[balloonandparty]

Thank you for all your help.

Right I have made a decision that I am going to upgrade my software from Actinic 7 to Actinic 9, I am going to let my existing horrible site run whilst I find a designer to design a new shop front for me.

One question I do have though is that I want to change my hosting from Global Graphic - Any recommendations ? Is this simple to change ? I am going to give up on this whole website business, pay someone to do it and concentrate on doing what I am good at.

[parklifeclothes]

Good choice IMO. You do what you're good at (hopefully) and get someone in who knows what they're doing and you see sales balloon!!