Do you recomend Actinic

[robby]

Hi all, I'm new to the boards. I've not bought actinic yet and was wondering if you had any comments on how easy it is to use and if a novice could do it.
Or if I should get a designer in. Anyone any ideas of what i should expect to pay.
Thanks

[paulbeckett]

Robby

I would say it helps if you know some basic html. Otherwise I have found Actinic very very user friendly.

If you know basic html (I really mean basic - I knew a few terms and how to structure e.g. <td> always needs a </td>) your skills will develop as you develop your site.

The use of templates is excellent as you can create new templates and isolate your changes on one page until you are happy with it. Then make all other relevant pages use your new work.

These forums are also great as you will find loads of useful stuff in the archives - or loads of friendly people to point you in the right direction.

Paul

[webyourbusiness]

Hi all, I'm new to the boards. I've not bought actinic yet and was wondering if you had any comments on how easy it is to use and if a novice could do it.
Or if I should get a designer in. Anyone any ideas of what i should expect to pay.
Thanks

download the trial and play for a while... nice actinic sites are easy - very nice ones take time, or experience...

[vernonmpurcell]

Any good

This is the best forum I have ever come across
The amount of knlowlage is unbeliverbale

[pinbrook]

nice actinic sites are easy - very nice ones take time, or experience...

its all down to time, experience and budget.

you can put something quite clean together in a short amount of time if you have some basic html.

or you can pay a designer and a coder to put together a very cool site for you.

To get something very nice you need a graphic designer for the concept and you need a programmer to implement the design.

Do a search on the internet for "acatalog" to see other actinic sites for inspiration

[webyourbusiness]

perhaps I should have clarified what I mean by nice?

Pleasant sites are easy - so are ugly colour combinations...

taking actinic beyond the templates takes HTML knowledge and EITHER patience, or a designer...

[David Eldridge]

Custom template designs preformatted for Actinic

If you are unable to create a design for yourself,
you may want to take a look at www.buythisdesign.com
these are Custom template designs preformatted for Actinic

You can contact me directly with any questions

David Eldridge
david@actinic.us

[jont]

taking actinic beyond the templates takes HTML knowledge and EITHER patience, or a designer...

That's the beauty with Actinic - you can use it straight from the box to create an online store or if you have the knowledge or wish to hire a designer you can take it apart and create a bespoke site.

I would happily recommend Actinic having tried the so-called-competitors offerings out there.

[dickunderwood]

Hi all, I'm new to the boards. I've not bought actinic yet and was wondering if you had any comments on how easy it is to use and if a novice could do it.
Or if I should get a designer in. Anyone any ideas of what i should expect to pay.
Thanks

Hi,
I tried a few different shop programmes out over the past few months and tried them all. Actinic was by far the easiest yet most comprehensive (and expensive). I was so impressed I bought a copy about two weeks ago and, so far, it's been everything I expected it to be.

[dscontroller]

Hi Robby,

You won't do much better than Actinic and more to the point, there is a plethora of help from some very clever and experienced site builders on this panel.

Unfortunately, I'm not one of them.

I purchased Actinic Developer just about twelve months ago and have built a few sites without altering very much (didn't know how!), but after reading the help and comments all this time, have now started altering the basic templates with Dreamweaver help.

The one thing about the sites I've built with Actinic is - 'they all work well'.

David

[johnnypict]

I'll echo some of the thoughts of others here.

This is the best support site I've encountered. The guys here know their stuff and there is always someone willing to help you out.

I started off literally filling out the theme boxes. A couple of weeks had me understanding the package and drafting a site. Now a couple of months later and with help from some of the experianced peeps on this site, I've added a few wee bits and pieces. My next stage is to get some of that html knowledge, have a think about design, (i need to) and then take things a stage further.

Check out the 'How we design with actinic' thread in the any other business forum. Lots of good opinion there.

I not only have a working site up and running but it's fired me up to take things a stage further and I'm learning loads thanks to this site.

John

[Luddite]

I'd echo everything said here. I knew, and still know very little about HTML when we had our site built for us. Our site was built by someone on this forum (he seems to have disappeared now though) and we used a local graphic designer to make things abit prettier. This mean't we were able to get a nice looking site up, running and doing business within about 4-6 weeks for not very much money.

The downside to doing this is that you miss out on learning how Actinic fits together, making basic changes without this knowledge can be difficult. However as lots of other people have pointed out, this forum is a great source of help, as are the guides in the downloads section on the actinic site.
So whether you use a designer or DIY largely depends on how quickly you want it up and running and how good you need it to look from word go.
Hope that helps.

Nick

[frustrateduser]

I'm gonna add my bit here too.

I agree, actinic is by far the most user friendy package, and like is mentioned above, the help on this forum is outstanding. I tried , but frankly could get my head around it!!

Go Actinic without a doubt

Regards

Neill
(frustrateduser is just a name!!!!)

[procheck]

Before I add my two cents, I want to say that I recommend Actinic.

Having said that, it's not that easy for a novice to setup. There were a few days when I was setting this up that I was happy that I had my experience to draw upon. If you have the time and are not on a strict deadline, then take the plunge yourself, otherwise get help. Stick to the basics at first which will make it easier on yourself.

I once had a very easy catalogue to setup which was also very useless as far as product selling was concerned. Actinic does this very well. Also that company provided no after sales support. Actinic & this community provides very good support & your questions will be answered.