Instructional Links

GETTING STARTED

1. download / install / open

2. logo

3. pages

4. mp3 player

5. flash image display

6. flash buttons

7. Zooom menu (animated icons)

8. themed background image
    ( index page )

9. themed background images
    ( template pages )

10. themed image
    ( transparent image )

11. vertical slidemenu

12. horizontal dropmenu

13. bottom links / copyright

14. static icons

15. search form

16. photo gallery

17. contact form page

18. catalog page

19. faq page

20. bookmark button

21. optimizing your web pages for search engines 

22. publishing your web site

23. insert the optional scroller

22. add site wide content boxes

 

OVERVIEW

Welcome to the 'getting-started' instructions. The instructions are designed to be short and to the point, utilizing screen captures and text. Some of the topics include a links to online video as well.

** Note for Dreamweaver Users

When you first open your index.htm, or flash_intro.dwt page, you may receive a warning from Dreamweaver:

Click OK to continue. Do not modify the flash scripting in any way. The flash scripting uses a very special 'flash detection, and javascript detection' process. Dreamweaver will not recognize the scripting

** Time Saver

The instructions are listed in a specific order, to help you build your website quickly and effectively. Building your website in sequence, should hopefully save a few hours.

** File Organiziation

To make the most out of the available space on the page, the instructional 'screenshots' were taking while working with Expression web, but please don't worry if you are using Dreamweaver or FrontPage. Specific information for these 2 programs is included in the instructions as well. Anything specifically related to Dreamweaver, a screenshot will be included. The template is designed from the 'ground' up, to work in all web editors, with specific components embedded into pages located in the ( Library ) folder. All versions of the template use components loaded from pages the Library folder. The only difference between Dreamweaver / Expression web & FrontPage is the file extension used to define the "page":

Dreamweaver uses the ( .lbi ) file extension

Expression Web / FrontPage use the ( .htm ) file extension

As far as we're concerned these are 'both' types of pages you can edit. It is still important that you download the correct version of the template from your members download page. Dreamweaver templates will not update correctly if edited Expression web / FrontPage  and visa versa.

** Basic Build

For a basic site build, you may not need to go into the 'Site' folder, or the 'Templates' folder, you will be working with the existing pages in the main folder, the optional pages in the 'optional' folder, and the Library pages in the 'Library' folder. However, I would recommend that you do update the landing page 'flash gallery' message and descriptions.

** Locating Files

Another reference I'll mention is the 'Folder List/Local Files'. Expression web and FrontPage display the 'files' and 'folders' of your website, in a window pane, located on the left side of the program interface. The name used for this window is 'Folder List'. You can turn the Folder List 'on' or 'off' by pressing the ( ALt+F1 keys on your keyboard ) - ( when turned off, the design window expands to take up the extra available space ). It's best to always keep the Folder List in view, or turned on. Dreamweaver has the same thing, but with a different name, Dreamweaver used the term 'Local Files' for this window, and it is located under the ( Files / Files ) tab, or press F8 on your keyboard to view this window. When making reference to this window pane, I"ll be using the term "Folder List/Local Files", as in ( example: locate the {optional} folder in your "Folder List/Local Files" ).

The template uses an organized folder structure.

  • "root" is the main folder of the site, here you will find the 10 main pages, the getting started page, and 4 folders
  • "Library" contains the Library pages ( which in turn, contains the global components of your web pages )
  • "optional" contains the additional page layouts for creating new web pages
  • "Site" contains all the  'guts' to your website, including graphics folders, flash folders, styles, scripts and scrollers
  • "Templates" folder contains the master dwt pages ( dynamic web templates )

** Naming conventions

The instructions include quite a few references to specific files located inside the sub folders located in the 'Site' folder. Any time we reference a folder name in the instructions, the folder name will use the ( Courier Bold ) font style, and the page or file inside that folder will be referenced in a ( bold italic ) font style. The entire "path" is enclosed with a { }
As in this example from the Flash landing page instructions:

 {Site / flash / images / gallery / image_09.jpg }

the example above, tells us to locate the file "image_09.jpg" located in the "Site / flash / images / gallery" folder of the website.