Yay! Finally completed my first website... any feedback appreciated

[Ness]

It's been a while in the making. I never thought I could of designed and created a website alone but I did! I did have a few hiccups with soholaunch, but couldn't have done my site without it.

Let me know what u think...... (any feedback, bad or good, would be appreciated).

www.raptinbliss.com (http://www.raptinbliss.com)

Thanks guys ;)

[kidsparty]

I think your site looks great. Really artistic.

And … it's simple to use.

I think you are really clever. I wish I could work out how to make mine look better!

[Ness]

Thanks! It's nice to see another aussie on soholaunch. Good luck with your site too.

[Mike Morrison]

Nice job! Any objection to me adding your site to our featured sites page? :)

[Ness]

Thanks Mike, and yes, I'm more than happy for it to be added to the featured site pages. :rolleyes:

[Mike Morrison]

and yes, I'm more than happy for it to be added to the featured site pages.
Didn't think you'd object, but figured I'd check anyway. ;)

You're added! (http://info.soholaunch.com/index.php?pr=Community&tabnum=2) :)

[livelife]

Hi

It looks like there a few of us from Oz using this forum!!!!!!!!!

I really like your websie, the colours and how everything is set up.
I am trrying to build my site and have some problems.

I really would appreciate telling us how you started.
You obviously made your own template. Did you strt from scratch
or did you use any of the soho templates and modified it?

Did you use soho's text editor? How did you designed the menu
and how did you place it where it is? Does one have to know html to design
a site like that? Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks
Barbara

[Ness]

Hi Barbara,

Thanks for your compliments. I must tell u tho, it was HARD work! I've never used html or frontpage for that matter, so I had to learn from scratch (lots of help menu research and google research). I created my own template in Microsoft frontpage, using tables to keep everything where it should be. I didn't use the soholaunch menu system, I created the links I needed in Frontpage.

I would of liked to of used Soho's text editor, but every time I opened it all of my IE6 windows closed on me! i did post a thread asking for help but never received a reply! So I just did practically everything in Frontpage, except for the shopping cart and the forms.

Don't get me wrong, I could not have done anything even close to this site without soho launch, I think it's a really powerful tool. I just found that I didn't like any of the templates, and to create your own, you do need to have some very basic html knowledge, and you need to read the soholaunch manual very carefully.

Let me know how u go, or if u have any other questions... I understand how overwhelming it can be!

Vanessa.:)

[Ruben]

Hi vanessa, If you don't like any of the default templates, you can take a look at www.sohotemplates.com :-)

[Ness]

Thanks Reuben. I did look at those templates actually! But I really had a specific design/layout in mind, so that's why I took so much time to learn how to design my own template. I think if I used one of the sohotemplates, I could of completed my website in a day or two, instead of a month or two!! Nevermind.

Thanks again, Vanessa. ;)

[Ruben]

Let me know if we (soholaunch or sohotemplates) would be able to support you in any other way to provide you with the layout/design you need. you can PM me if you are looking for anything specific.

[livelife]

Hi Barbara,

Thanks for your compliments. I must tell u tho, it was HARD work! I've never used html or frontpage for that matter, so I had to learn from scratch (lots of help menu research and google research). I created my own template in Microsoft frontpage, using tables to keep everything where it should be. I didn't use the soholaunch menu system, I created the links I needed in Frontpage.

I would of liked to of used Soho's text editor, but every time I opened it all of my IE6 windows closed on me! i did post a thread asking for help but never received a reply! So I just did practically everything in Frontpage, except for the shopping cart and the forms.

Don't get me wrong, I could not have done anything even close to this site without soho launch, I think it's a really powerful tool. I just found that I didn't like any of the templates, and to create your own, you do need to have some very basic html knowledge, and you need to read the soholaunch manual very carefully.

Let me know how u go, or if u have any other questions... I understand how overwhelming it can be!

Vanessa.:)


Hi Venessa

I actually started looking more and more at FrontPage. There are tutorials on the net so I suppose one can learn it. I have one question though. Can you upload a page created in FrontPage to Soho? How do you do it? I didn't think that you can do that and also add things in Soho if pahe is created in FP. :confused: :confused: :confused: Please elaborate.

My provider is Webcity and they allow to install FronPage extensions but you have to unistall Soho if you want to do that. I'm confused.

Cheers

Barbara

[Ruben]

Frontpage uses a complete different 'type of codes' to create a website than Soholaunch does, even creating a template with frontpage is 'not possible' thats why they are not compatible. I would suggest using the template builder inside soholaunch.

[livelife]

Hi Ruben
Thanks for your comments. I asked the question about FrontPage in Soho because Venessa clearly said that she designed her page in FrontPage. I really would like to see her comments.
Regarding soho. It is disappointing that several functions in the text editor were disabled in the latest version which really limits what you can do.
Do you know anything about it?:(
Barbara

[GingerCat]

I like the way you managed to make your site NOT look like a standard soholaunch site. Is the top menu one created by you using html or have you doctored up the soholaunch menu system?

[liam22]

It's been a while in the making. I never thought I could of designed and created a website alone but I did! I did have a few hiccups with soholaunch, but couldn't have done my site without it.

Let me know what u think...... (any feedback, bad or good, would be appreciated).

www.raptinbliss.com (http://www.raptinbliss.com)

Thanks guys ;)

Wow! Your site is great. The colors are very soft! goodluck.

[sinclair]

What I did was start with a Soho template that had some of the basics that I wanted. Then I opened the index page in FrontPage and then edited it until I got what I wanted.

It took a while for me to figure out what the .css was controlling as I had no previous knowledged of css.

Going back and forth from FrontPage (editing in FrontPage, zipping it, uploading it in Soho, changing to the newest version of my template, then viewing it in Soho, then repeating to tweak the design - over and over and over again) is very time consuming. Mostly this was because of my lack of experience in all of this. But I have been using FrontPage for years - but mainly using templates.

I just kept reading these forums and trying things out until I could get it to do what I wanted ....

Oh, and calling Cameron of course! He is the greatest help!

[sinclair]

That raptinbliss.com is very well done. The blankets look fantastic!

[livelife]

OK. I understand
Do you know of any good and fee websites where one can learn Frontpage?
Thanks
Barbara;)

[Ruben]

I would start learning Dreamweaver instead if i was you. im sure you will be glad you made that choice at a later stage. but thats just my opinion. :-)

[Ness]

Hi Barbara, sorry I took so long to get back to you. It really would be too hard for me to explain how I designed my site in frontpage and made in compatible with soholaunch. I really am a novice at all this and my advice might lead u down the wrong path! It took me three months to get my website to work (although I have three young kids and my time on the PC is confined to late at night).

As I mentioned, I structured my site with tables. Certain cells that I wanted to contain forms/products etc from the soholaunch page editor, had the code: #CONTENT# inside the cell (I read these sections in the soholaunch manual about ten times: Custom template design guidelines, The design process, Special variables, Required files, How to upload). Most of it I didn't understand but I got enough out of it to get it to work. I would also recommend sticking to soholaunch templates, unless you're willing to put in some long learning hours of frustration. Sorry Barbara, just don't want to give you the wrong idea about designing your own site. Hope any of this helps you.

Gingercat: my menu was done through frontpage just using hyperlinks, but note that they have to be coded in a particular way to be compatible with soholaunch (see Linking to Site Pages, under the heading Site Templates in the soholaunch manual).

Sinclair, Liam22: thanks for your positive commments!

:)

[Ruben]

for anybody who needs a little bit help changing a template or getting started with a basic setup, you can use our free templates to look how things are done.

http://sohotemplates.com/index.php?action=browser&catid=27

[sinclair]

Yes, I agree with Reuben about choosing DreamWeaver if you are just starting out. It is the industry standard for webpage design.

But I am very fast at learning software (been a heavy software user since Apple IIe! - that tells you how old I am!) and have found DreamWeaver not as intuitive to pick up. I guess I was weaned on Office products and find them extremely easy to learn and use and get quickly to the task at hand.

FrontPage is not a good choice for power html developer, but perfect for WYSIWYG folks like me. A lot of the design community got turned off of FrontPage at the beginning because it created a mess on behind the scenes (and still does somewhat) and because it was much more limited than latest version.

If you use any Microsoft products, then you will find FrontPage easy to learn. If you are not going to be doing a lot of webpage design (besides just editing templates) then FrontPage is fine for that.

I have found that just using the FrontPage Help files and going online to Frontpage website is all I need. And is free. But I have always been good at self-teaching.

Good Luck

[djdubuque@gmail.com]

It's been a while in the making. I never thought I could of designed and created a website alone but I did! I did have a few hiccups with soholaunch, but couldn't have done my site without it.

Let me know what u think...... (any feedback, bad or good, would be appreciated).

www.raptinbliss.com (http://www.raptinbliss.com)

Thanks guys ;)


SITE IS DOWN!!!!:uh:

[Asiadeep]

Err..yah it is down man.

" This account is temporarily unavailable.
Please contact your hosting provider"