hello new need some help

[dust]

Hi all, im fairly new to actinic ive just taken over the maintaining of an actinic based site, and ive been given the task of redesigning it.

I wondered if anyone could give me some pointers about how to get started integrating my own design or tweaking a current template?

I am fairly fluent in html and have a design in mind, ideally i would like to be able to build the design in html and integrate the actinic wher needed, any help would be appreciated.

thanks in advance

[Mike Hughes]

Probably the best help for this is in the advanced user guide which you can download from here:

http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/downloads.htm

Mike

[simonwar]

The worlds your oyster ....

Dust,

What i recommend...... may not float your boat..... but its an option.

1. Have a look at Actinic Themes and see if anything looks workable. Yes, i know they are horrible and amateurish, but trust me you can sex them up and learn a lot about Actnic in the process.
2. Design your visual look in a graphics package, e.g. Corel, Photoshop, detail to your desire, sketchy or thorough.
3. Ask yourself, how am i going to get that crap Theme to look like my site i sketched out

It isn't as hard as you think, just do one thing at a time.

1. Start with your header graphic, then modify the header template in Actinic with its detail and hey presto, new sexy header on all pages. [modify Act_Primary.html, do it in DW, but upload the Actinic extension, it helps a bit]

If you do this you wil learn enough to inspire you do keep on modifying Actinic templates.

Digress this and keep the questions coming. If your good with HTML you'll piss it, Simon.

P.S. If you try the other way and try to integrate Actinic into your pages, i think your on to a loser, there is extensive quantities of templates everywhere. To track them and position them correctly would be a nightmare and i suggest unnecessary.

[AJReading]

Hi Jamie,

I do believe you have taken my old job. You allready have my MSN address so contact me directly if you require help with anything, im more than welcome to give you a hand.

A.J.Reading

[ChrisMarsh]

Oi , Yer, he stole my job too Tsk. Im sure he'll have endless fun with Geoffs comedy routines.

Chris Marsh

[dust]

thanks, that should be enough to get on with for now. i'll let you know how i get on.

and andy i'll give you a shout on msn cheers mate

[jont]

1. Have a look at Actinic Themes and see if anything looks workable.

Start with a clean CSS based theme as these tend to be the easiest to modify with a lot of the superfluous fluff being removed already.

I always start out with the Act_Primary.html template (the main overall page layout) and at the bottom of the page create the design that is required.... then copy into the new layout at the bottom all the various Actinic codes (NETQUOTEVAR's) - regularly save and preview under Atinic to ensure all the Actinic stuff is working correctly. Once the new area of the template is working carefully delete out the old layout at the top of the page to leave just your own layout with the codes copied across.

Once the Act_Primary is working how you want you can slowly work through the other templates - primarily the Act_ProductLine which displays the product layout is the next big template to tackle.

HTH

[AJReading]

Jont has a good point.

I always find a clean css actinic template that best fits my design and work from there, most of the modification would take place in Act_Primary.html.

I find it easiest that way

[dust]

Thanks for your help so far, this is great, im beginning to understand how actinic works now.
My next problem is that i want to edit the content in main page, i have located where i need to edit, i think its NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLISTTOP but i cant find a file called this.

please help thanks.

[Bruce]

Hi,

NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLISTTOP controls the optional location of the child section links and displays the list of child sections in the catalog. This is supressed if View | Design Options | Sections, 'Location and arrangement of section lists', List placement does not include 'Top'. The templates in which this NETQUOTEVAR display are Act_Primary.html, Act_ProductBody.html and Act_SectionLine.html

Kind regards,