Getting a sexy look to the site, not an amature look

[David Bromley]

Hi
I am about to go with Actinic Catalogue and make my commercial site e commerce.
I am running trial sofware at the moment and am trying to get a better look to the template.
On many of the Actinic sites they have a nice look, but in the sample template pages they are all a little dull and square edged.
I want info boxes on the side bars, and buttons where text is in the side bars. Basicly a propper feel and look.
Are people using HTML to adjust, Dreamweaver ect. Or am I just not trying hard enough.lol
Mnay thanks in advance
David

[jont]

Hi,

before going with Catalog check out the features in Business - the upgrade is often worth the extra cost with the added features.

As for the design the beauty with Actinic is that you can rip the templates apart to create your own look and feel a million miles away from the standard templates. Dreamweaver is great with the Actinic plugin to show which template is creating what part of the page.

Best to start with a clean simple CSS theme to your site and chop that accordingly. You can use CSS to create rounded boxes, menus and a "proper feel" as you require

[janeread]

I have been having similar thoughts to David about my site:

http://www.healthandgoodness/acatalog/

but I don't really want to devote time to learning how to adjust templates etc.

Can anyone recommend someone to do this sort of thing? and any ideas as to how much it would cost?

thanks

Jane

[David Bromley]

Hi Again

Your site looks quite good, I am stuck on on basics like getting the images down the right ect.
Am I just being dim................

David

[janeread]

Oh Joy I can help someone with a reply!

In the product details click on the layout tab, then use the droupdown menu to chose image on the right

hope that's a help

Jane

[I-CC]

Examples and details at: http://www.4suredesign.co.uk/acatalo...templates.html for the outsource option

[janeread]

well, I've had a look at this site and I'm mystified. It appears to have a shopping cart but I can't see anything that I can buy! It explains what it odes but not how much it costs. Am I missing soemthing?

jane

[I-CC]

Total different examples: http://www.4suredesign.co.uk/acatalo..._Examples.html

Service details: http://www.4suredesign.co.uk/acatalo...e_Details.html

Broad range of examples: www.auto-connect.co.uk, www.theflyingpiguk.com, www.4suredomain04.co.uk, www.koolkingdom.co.uk, www.warwickgifts.co.uk, www.exsatek.co.uk, www.356-911.com/acatalog, www.4suredomain01.co.uk,
www.4suredomain02.co.uk to show diverse scope of what can be done..

[janeread]

but what's the cart for?

[I-CC]

It is built in Actinic v7 fully to start with the cart remaining for when our new set of ready to go templates are completed, as all originals were exhausted in purchases, i.e. a limit is set on how many times a RTG is sold, so when they are back online with new designs, then they will be downloadable as before via the Actinic DD process/checkout system.

[David Bromley]

Hi

Maybe I am not explaining to well.
I mean on the side bars, on the left I have my page lists, in words. and on the right I have a band of colour,or I can turn it off to be the same as the back ground.
But I want info boxes ect........

Eeeekkkk....

Thanks to everyone so far..

David

[I-CC]

We generally design a sites main look and feel, i.e. columns, side areas, top areas and footers within a text editor or dreamweaver.

Once the design in general is how we want it to look for the end resultant Actinic site, we then drop the html into a text editor and slice the HTML up into component parts, bits for the Act_Primary, bits for the Act_Body amongst many other templates. Once the main element is done, it is then down to the central section layout templates and the products to tie it all together, so yes DW can be used, but you need to slice up the resultant HTML into at the very least header and then footer elements to provide your look and feel (with side panels) around the central (actinic changing and controlled) area.

[BaldrickUK]

I have been having similar thoughts to David about my site:

http://www.healthandgoodness.com/acatalog/

but I don't really want to devote time to learning how to adjust templates etc.

Jane

Jane, I think your site looks good. Nice clean layout easy to read, if anything change the Online shop logo to one of your own.

BTW Support@techno- your site isn't working I couldn't get in today even on the bare URL

[janeread]

thanks for the kind comments.

I feel that I've unintentionally hijacked this thread from David so can we get some help for him?

[wjcampbe]

@jane - I had the same thought yesterday, so I emailed David to try and clarify what he was asking for. Waiting for his response.