I'd be soooo grateful for your help here!

I've found a few suitable templates on the web which I've downloaded to my desktop. I don't have Dreamweaver (do I really need to pay $399 for it??!!) which I understand is one of the most popular applications for customizing templates.

Now, I'm a complete novice....how on earth do I customize this template? Do I use Word, Publisher....???? Any tips & advice would be most welcome!!

Thank you!!

Hi Morag, I'm assuming you mean website templates? I strongly urge you to get someone to help you (pay for help that is) if you have no idea what you're doing as it will show when you try to publish the website. Or take a course so you can learn how to do it yourself. There is a lot to learn, it's not something you're going to pick up in 5 mins. And invest in some books as well - there are some excellent books on html or how to use Dreamweaver and similar programs.

And I urge you to make sure that when you do work with web templates that you use a program designed for it - not Word, not Publisher but a true web publishing program. At the very least MS Frontpage but Dreamweaver is very good and worth the money.

I use Dreamweaver for all the web work I do - I've been working on websites now since 1996 and learnt on my own site, paying someone to come and answer all my questions and show me how to use the program at that time.

An alternative would be forget the templates you've got and look at setting up a blogsite instead. There are thousands of free templates available and you could slowly learn to edit/make changes over time and you wouldn't have to know or learn html to actually have a published site online very quickly. I recommend Wordpress as that's my favourite platform but Blogger is good too.

Hi Kathie, thanks for your reply.

Yes, sorry, I do mean web templates. You've hit the nail on the head about my lack of experience showing through - that's my main worry. That it could put potential clients off if my own website looks amateur!

If I do decide to outsource the webside design work, how much should I budget for it? I know this could be similar to 'how long's a piece of string', but it would be good to have even a rough estimate for a professional website!!

Many thanks once again.

You can also start off using something like this:

http://www.coffeecup.com/free-editor/

or the full version which is $50.....

Download the template, upzip it and open it up in the editor and just see how things work to learn. Templates are great for getting ideas for the framework... you never want to use them as is (since a zillion other folks probably are too).

Once you start playing with it, you'll learn what the various tags do and be able to change things on your own.

k

Ah, that's maybe where I went wrong....I downloaded Coffee Cup free site designer yesterday which came with a few basic templates. But I see that I need the HTML editor - I guess it's worth a try.....

Thanks for that SFSupport....wish me luck!!

You can also check out http://www.nvu.com/ which is a free, fully functional web authoring tool. As far as your template is concerned, can you open it up and view it in a browser? If so, download NVU, and see if you can open up the template.

I assume that you purchased a template so that the only changes you would need to make are text content. If so, you should be able to accomplish this via NVU.

Please keep us updated.

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Jeanne
NowAssistingYou.com
Virtual Assistant :: Web/Blog Design & Hosting :: Writer

You've already rec'd some really good advice here.

Customizing templates is definitely a highly skilled exercise - you need to have at least a basic understanding of HTML but would do even better with a more well rounded cache of knowledge including PHP (although not totally necessary to make it happen!) and design.

You asked about how much it costs to delegate the customization of a template and there is quite a range, based on the skill and experience of whoever you hire and the complexity of what's being done to the exisitng template - I've seen it invoiced for anywhere from $150 for a simple blog template with just a few tweaks to $500+ for a highly customized template integrated into the existing website's design.

Good luck with your new project!

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Thank you everyone for your extremely helpful replies. Jeanne - thank you soooo much for recommending NVU; I've been playing around on it all afternoon and I actually have something that could pass for usuable!!!

Tess, I've just found the archives of the HTML Sessions 1 & 2 which I've printed off to read this evening. I think one of the most important things as a VA is keeping abreast of technology / software etc. I've got a client at the moment who's asking me about Roman Cart / Aweber / Constant Contact etc and it's a foreign language to me! The internet has so many resources, but it's difficult sometimes sorting out the wheat from the chaff!!

Hey Morag - will we be seeing a site soon?

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Jeanne
NowAssistingYou.com
Virtual Assistant :: Web/Blog Design & Hosting :: Writer

Yes, indeed you will!! I've spent the past few days writing all the content and will be putting it together over the weekend when I have some free time (isn't it typical that when I have something to do for myself I get a rush of work from a client!).

Also, I don't know about everyone else, but I find I can't 'write' directly onto the pc - I have to sit down with a pen and paper and brainstorm it out that way!!!!