Is it a headache to customize a purchased web design template?

[Galaxy99]

I really like to seek advice here from all of you here who has experience of using purchased (flash/non-flash) web design template? Do you have good experience or nightmare when it comes to customize it if you are not a sound html/flash programmer.

1st of all, I like flash, sorry for those flash hater fellows here. I have limited knowledge of flash and html for sure. But at least I know a tiny bit from ebay.;). I love one flash template design and like to purchase it for about $66. I want to customize the design (not the picture and text) a bit (adding one or two extra catagory to the porfolio flash section). I am worried that if I can't do it after purchase, then I will get stucked...

Thank you.:)

[lingham]

flash templates - unsure of never tried
non flash - simple enough to be honest

[inthedeck]

I really like to seek advice here from all of you here who has experience of using purchased (flash/non-flash) web design template? Do you have good experience or nightmare when it comes to customize it if you are not a sound html/flash programmer.

1st of all, I like flash, sorry for those flash hater fellows here. I have limited knowledge of flash and html for sure. But at least I know a tiny bit from ebay.;). I love one flash template design and like to purchase it for about $66. I want to customize the design (not the picture and text) a bit (adding one or two extra catagory to the porfolio flash section). I am worried that if I can't do it after purchase, then I will get stucked...

Thank you.:)

I am in the same boat. I have been researching pre-build designs, and was wondering what it takes to make them work. One of the sites I have researched provides help, but you have to buy the template first. There is a free one, to download and try...but, there's no instruction...so, I haven't the slightest idea.

Let me know, if there's some more information out there, that anyone is willing to share.

[ssim]

I am having someone write a new site for me. In the meantime I had looked and bought some software called Site Grinder. If you can build anything in photoshop this is a great piece of software. You put your different web pages on layers and then it builds all the necessary code for you.

[Galaxy99]

I am having someone write a new site for me. In the meantime I had looked and bought some software called Site Grinder. If you can build anything in photoshop this is a great piece of software. You put your different web pages on layers and then it builds all the necessary code for you.
Thanks for sharing, ssim. I will look into it. A quick look, it seems not support flash... I really like the effect of flash though...:oops:

[milleker]

Once you learn some basic basic HTML its not that hard. Lots of trial and error. Be sure to save your edits often!

[Bubble]

if you don't know how to edit Flash, don't buy it because you will not be able to edit the file. I would recommend to buy html template at monstertemplate.com They are easy to edit (if you know basic html)

[johnasmodeus]

If you don't know Flash, it will be a very large headache.
Flash files are made in a similar way to motion graphics - if you've ever seen Adobe AfterEffects, it's something like that. Only more complicated, because you need to use Flash's special programming language, Actionscript, as well. In addition, you can't just go in and tweak a Flash file and resave it. Files need to be re-rendered after each change, meaning if you don't have a copy of Flash, it will be more or less impossible for you to make any changes.

Unless, that is, the people who sell the template to you were good enough to write a back-end control panel into the Flash movie, which they very well might have done. But I doubt it.

You may want to take Bubble's advice and stick to HTML. It shouldn't matter, since the star of a photography site should be the photography anyway, not the flashy interface design. Good luck.

[milleker]

Just as a sidenote - flash is designated as a .swf extension. This is the rendered file as Jonas said. The original pre-rendered file (in which you must make your changes) is a .fla file and it must be edited and rendered in Adobe/Macromedia Flash. Especially for navigation elements it would not be hard to edit it to your color and text needs, but for the price of the program you're better off sending that one out to a web designer to change for you for much cheaper.

Flash is a very fun language by the way, I highly recommend it!

[inthedeck]

Here's the site, where they have tons of templates, in Flash, and Plain HTML.

www.hypertemplates.com is the site...and they have tons of info. once you buy the template. I have no idea how good the help is...as I have not bought one yet.

[Galaxy99]

Editing flash does sound scary as I have no experience at all with flash. Maybe I should get a html site then learn how to tweak simpleviewer flash (free) add on my gallery... What do you all think? Does it difficult to tweak simpleviewer, such as making the snail pictures bar in the bottom instead of piling up at left?

Thanks.

[cosworth]

Screw editing. Use Porta to make your gallery then {embed}{/embed} the swf file in your html which any wysiwyg editor can help you with.

[coreypolis]

Editing flash does sound scary as I have no experience at all with flash. Maybe I should get a html site then learn how to tweak simpleviewer flash (free) add on my gallery... What do you all think? Does it difficult to tweak simpleviewer, such as making the snail pictures bar in the bottom instead of piling up at left?

Thanks.
piece of cake compared to what you wanted to do. Just edit the .xml file, theres even a FAQ on how to do it at simple viewer.

[milleker]

Simpleviewer does look easy, I use a flash component (SlideShowPro) to make my basic shows, Coppermine photo gallery for the big stuff.

If you have Photoshop CS2 (or Lightroom) they have a bunch of gallery templates already that are pretty easy to edit. Perhaps you could check that out.

[liza]

I'm buying a website template and am hiring a talented college student to customize it for me. The only problem I'm having is choosing the template. There are so many great ones out there! :)

[coreypolis]

I'm buying a website template and am hiring a talented college student to customize it for me. The only problem I'm having is choosing the template. There are so many great ones out there! :)
look into www.creativemotiondesign.com (http://www.creativemotiondesign.com) I know quite a few with them and they are great, and you can do the updates yourself, and getting them to alter the tempalte is cheep and easy. They have some of the better templates that I've seen.

Stay away from Blu. Livebooks is really pricey, Big Folio is pretty good, and winkflash is pretty basic

[milleker]

I'm not trying to take money out of the mouths of the template sellers, but as far as the template goes, they're pretty simple. Don't steal template designs, but if you find one you like you could make one that is similar, but more 'you'. Learning a few hours of BASIC HTML will be all you need. Not only will it help you build your own site, you will get the experience to edit it without fear later down the road. HTML is comprised of some strict rules, but really there are only a handful of commands to master.

Just a thought.. Ya know we're always here to help if you decided to go that route and needed it!

[liza]

look into www.creativemotiondesign.com (http://www.creativemotiondesign.com) I know quite a few with them and they are great, and you can do the updates yourself, and getting them to alter the tempalte is cheep and easy. They have some of the better templates that I've seen.

Stay away from Blu. Livebooks is really pricey, Big Folio is pretty good, and winkflash is pretty basic

Thanks, Corey! I'll check them out. :)

[Bubble]

look into www.creativemotiondesign.com (http://www.creativemotiondesign.com)

broken scripts everywhere. How professional is that? :rolleyes:

[coreypolis]

broken scripts everywhere. How professional is that? :rolleyes:
I don't see any. They're great to deal with and I know quite a few that use them with no problems

[ssim]

Thanks for sharing, ssim. I will look into it. A quick look, it seems not support flash... I really like the effect of flash though...:oops:
There is another option called pdstoflash that you can get that does support it.

[tfitz]

I just purchased a flash template and have begun working on it. I am also a software engineer, so I may have a leg-up on this, but I think an astute person should be able to get things going with a little up-front reading.

So far, it's been fairly simple, as long as you have a book that explains Flash; otherwise you will be hunting and cliking around for a long time.

Give it a shot, IMO, Flash sites look much better. For proofs and photo purchases, you can link you flash site into a backend like smugmug or Pbase.