jazzing up

[kessock]

I am wanting to jazz up my website a bit as I think it is way too drab.
Anyone got pointers for me.
I don't mind trying to do it myself but would need something a bit more than the available templates.
Please give your views.
Thanks.
Mark
www.kessockmodels.com

[RuralWeb]

Ditch the frames for a start.

[kessock]

Frames

Hi,
How do you mean "ditch the frames".
I am no prgrammer so a bit more info would be good.
Thanks.
Mark

[RuralWeb]

The huge disadvantages of frames has been discussed many times so any redesign should plan not to use them. Depending on how your site has been designed will dictate how you get rid of them but applying a new theme would be a good start - upgrading to V8 and using one of the newer themes available would be even better.

[Duncan Rounding]

Am I missing something? I didn't notice frames on the site.

To jazz things up you could initially, as Malcolm mentioned, try using a different theme. Backup everything first of course (including a complete copy of the site1 folder).

[RuralWeb]

I didn't notice frames on the site

there are frames on the site I am looking at

[wjcampbe]

Yes, this sort of gives it away

</SCRIPT></HEAD><FRAMESET

[RuralWeb]

As does /TITLE><META NAME="ACTINICTITLE" CONTENT="Frames" which the use of means that all your title tags are exactly the same throughout the site

[RuralWeb]

The poor site setup is a pity as you have obviously spent alot of time building the content pages - which are all very good. All you need is a nice template with consistant navigation to go round it and get the site optimised for the SEs by not using frames.

[BadBoyHouse]

personally i'd recommend visiting a few template websites like http://www.templatemonster.com/ to get a few layout ideas.

then once you've got a layout that you like grab hold of a photoshop website tutorial which will tell you how to create a site. try re-creating the site layout you picked from the template site and go from there.

i always use template sites for inspiration when creating a website.

[Duncan Rounding]

Am I missing something? I didn't notice frames on the site...

Oops - I think I should go back to bed and start again today - and it's not even Monday!

[kessock]

Thanks.

Thanks for the input guys.
However I reallr REALLY am a novice and have no formal training on this and find it extremely time consuming, and also even more mindboggling to try and get my head around the technical stuff you are referring to.
As you can tell I am really hoping to find a simple and as inexpensive as possible way of sorting this.
Referring back to frames, I have simply made the site from the templates in Actinic so really don't know how I have made the frames.
Are frames a bad thing?
Thanks again, a tiring southerner.
Mark.

[RuralWeb]

Are frames a bad thing

YES do a search on the forum they have been discussed at length. The easiest and cheapest way is to pick another theme - this should solve most of your problems as they are related to the theme you are using.

[kessock]

Theme

Hi again,
Thanks for that.
Best I get it sorted.
Is the or are there frameless themes as standard within Actinic, and if so which.
Thanks for all the help.
Mark

[Duncan Rounding]

Most of the themes in Actinic are non-framed. In fact only a few in the 'Specific Designs (Non CSS)' use frames at all. Try some in the 'Specfic Designs' such as Best Seller or Smart for example. Backup well first.