DMX/Actinic: Where to start?????

[antibrand]

Hi guys,

I need some advice on where to start customising our actinic site, our regular website uses a pretty simple template

http://www.recoverworld.com (seen here)

Whats the simplest process for changing one of the pre existing templates which our live shop is currently using, to our "branded" style?

http://www.everecords.org.uk/acatalo..._LABELS_1.html

I have kinda updated the shop homepage (in a cowboy fashion), but every time the shop is updated it goes back to the original template.

Please help as Im very confused on where to start.


Cheers,

Carl.

[anti]

A little support please???

Is this purely a user forum, or are actinic staff on here too?

Still need some advice

[MNWF]

Carl,

I think the issue that you're wrestling with is a fundamental one for a web designer starting with Actinic. Don't lose heart though because once the penny drops you can make very quick progress. I hope these pointers will help get you underway:-

- The HTML pages served by an Actinic site are like jigsaws constructed from several component pieces of HTML. These components come from Actinic templates (NB not the same as Dreamweaver templates) and from Actinic variables (NETQUOTEVARS). These variables are either themselves defined by other Actinic templates or can be set within the Actinic software (e.g. under Design | Options, Design | Text or View | Business Settings).

- Install the Dreamweaver Extension which shows you within Dreamweaver how an Actinic-generated web page is constructed from templates.

- Have a good look through the Actinic Advanced Guide and also the online help section - both of these help understand the variables and templates used as the source for the various parts of the pages. Particularly look at the way that product and section pages are built from an overall layout template and use "body" templates as placeholders which in turn use "line" templates. Which template is used for which part of which page is controlled within Actinic under Advanced | Template Manager.

- I'm sure other people may have different ideas, but I would recommend this approach to custom-designing an Actinic site to the standards of your current site:-

* create your overall design layout in Fireworks or Photoshop and slice it up for the various graphics, buttons etc that you need to use in your site.

* select a "clean layout" within Actinic which most closely matches the layout that you want (it doesn't matter if it's not a close match).

* modify the overall layout templates (Act_Primary.html for pages whowing products and Act_BrochurePrimary for other pages) in Dreamweaver, applying your own graphics, tables, logos, CSS, etc. to build the layout that you designed in Fireworks/Photoshop. You can see the effect as you go within Actinic's preview panel, but more reliably by previewing the page/site in a browser. Once you've modified these overall templates, the site is a long way towards looking like you want and the whole thing becomes less daunting.

* it's now that you need to start editing the other Actinic templates so that the Actinic-generated pages appear exactly as you want, and this is where you need to understand the source templates and variables.

- Actinic's one-day course for designers is useful as it's based entirely around using Dreamweaver as the design tool, and it takes you through the design process to a certain extent.

Best of luck - I hope this is of some help.

Mark

[jont]

Similar thread from OP http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=16316