How to customize the look

[luka]

I'm new to Actinic and have got a v6 Trial.
It seems great but i can't seem to get the customization levels that are achieved in some of the examples.

Is there a simple way of integrating stylesheets and modifying themes and templates to gain more control over the look of the site.

Must admit my asp and cgi are pretty weak but am quite handy with dreamweaver and html dhtml etc so Actinic appeals beacause it takes some of the work away, but consequently feels quite limiting in producing a custom design.

Does anyone have any tips and tricks on how people are getting around this?

many thanks

Luka.

[garyhay]

Search my previous posts as I answered this a wee while back

http://www.grampianwebwizards.com/bl...site1/rrr.html

http://www.grampianwebwizards.com/co...3/wizards2.htm

A couple of examples

[pinbrook]

you don't need knowledge of asp or cgi to customise templates, just html (or Dreamweaver)

[luka]

Thanks gary and jo,

I've looked at all your previous replies and have found some useful stuff.

Looking at the examples you gave me, its exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to do. but how do you integrate it into ctlg?

But also lookg at your jewelery site, I can't find NETQUOTEVAR tags etc. did you link to products and sections manually?

that blank page you showed in one of your replies? can a page be build around that and imported?

With regard to the examples is it possible to create a template (theme) in DW and import it into catalog and how will it be affected by catalogs design options?
Do you need developer for that?

Lots of questions I know, but help would be greatly appreciated.
Basically I'm on the verge of buying catalog or developer, but am wondering if something like StoreFront 6.0 for DW or eDatCat shopping cart might be more flexible.

You guys seem to be doing a great job of customizing Catalog so I'm keen to hear your opinons.


Luka.

[garyhay]

Looking at the examples you gave me, its exactly the kind of thing I'm trying to do. but how do you integrate it into ctlg?

>>You need to build your site look and feel as you wish then use the parts Actinic requires to generate the shopping cart contents.

But also lookg at your jewelery site, I can't find NETQUOTEVAR tags etc. did you link to products and sections manually?

>>NETQUOTEVAR is replaced when the site is published

that blank page you showed in one of your replies? can a page be build around that and imported?

>>Not sure what you are reffering to

With regard to the examples is it possible to create a template (theme) in DW and import it into catalog and how will it be affected by catalogs design options?
Do you need developer for that?

>>You can do this with Catalog. Developer is for desgning multiple sites

Lots of questions I know, but help would be greatly appreciated.
Basically I'm on the verge of buying catalog or developer, but am wondering if something like StoreFront 6.0 for DW or eDatCat shopping cart might be more flexible.

>>Suggest you search on Google and see how many Actinic sites you get before any others.

You guys seem to be doing a great job of customizing Catalog so I'm keen to hear your opinons.

>>Actinic also has great User2User support with guys(girls) like jo always willing to help

[pinbrook]

customising themes is something you grow into!!

Gary has the good idea of searching Google, use acatalog as keyword, you will find all kinds of catalog sites there.

As long as you are proficient with Dreamweaver off you go..just be cautious in the first instance of the netquotevars. try commenting them out before removing them completely, keep backup copies of everything you do...then hack it to death!!

I personally think the actinic themes suck so take great pleasure in ripping out everything actinicy in the design, I keep the functionality intact though!

[luka]

Again thanks to Jo and Gary for prompt replies,
things are much clearer now.

Have also read the Designing with developer giude and started looking at Actinic Assist extension for dreamweaver.

one question though.

Gary mentioned designing the site look and then inserting tags required by catalog.
Cdicken mentioned in a previous post that customization is achevied through editing the actual templates within actinic.

Whats the score here and what are the issues in importing gary's solution into actinic.

thanks in advance,


Luka

[garyhay]

luka

Suggest you download the V5 Developer guide from the actinic as IMHO it has a much better walk through of what is required to create a theme or site from scratch provide you can use Fireworks??

Gary mentioned designing the site look and then inserting tags required by catalog.

Cdicken mentioned in a previous post that customization is achevied through editing the actual templates within actinic.

These transpire to be the same thing.