I am an extreme newbie. I am a small business owner, but about all I know with websites is how to click on them; not how to build them. I am sorry if I am repeating a previous question on the forum, but I have been unable to find an answer based on my template - VSD search.

I was going to use a person to re-design my new sight, and purchased a template last year. I now have a college student working for me and we had laid everything out (manually on paper), based on the template, and then were going to give to someone that would put it together. But, instead, I am about to buy VSD and let my student go to town.

Since I have already purchased the template and we have designed the site around that layout, can we use/modify that template layout? Or, do we need to use one of your templates or start from scratch?

It doesn't matter form our end, I jsut don't want to start down one path and hit a wall and have to start all over again.

Thanks for any input -

Hiya Tortoise,

The main question here is, where did you buy the template? Is it a template created for VSD? If not then the answer to your question is no. VSD needs specifically built templates that are specifically for VSD alone. It cannot use templates created for other programs or basic HTML templates. Unfortunately you may need to make a new decision.

Might have to either decide to purchase a new template from CC here or purchase instead the HTML Editor to create the website with. If you're a total newbie to site building then the HTML Editor setup may be too much for you to mess with learning curve wise unless you plan to learn the language. VSD would definitely be the way to go.

The only other option here would be to basically use your purchased theme as a guide rather than a plug-in theme. Using VSD you would need to basically set it all up from scratch and just work your way around duplicating the look you want. The theme you purchased will have all the images and text styles etc. that you're needing so half that battle is already taken care of, just the design of the theme itself is what would take some time.

Once you have a page setup themewise (no real content or just bogus content in it) you can then use that page to duplicate new pages so your theme is consistant.

Bout the best you can do with a theme that is purchased for anything other than VSD.

If you purchased a VSD theme then you're set to go. Hope that helps and sorry if it brings bad news. Hope you didn't pay a lot for the theme or better yet, I hope your chosen web builder is versatile enough to work around it with the options I mentioned above. Good luck on it either way

Hello Jo Ann -

Thank you, that is exactly what I was looking for. I just didn't want to spend time thinking I could use the purchased template, only to find out later why we encountered problems. By no means am I ready to go to the HTML editor and VSD is the option for us!

Luckily, I did not pay alot for the template, but VSD sounds so simple, that it should be pretty simple to mymic the layout we were working on. After all, the design/layout of the content seemed to most of the work for us, so I am hoping the VSD will make application for what we have layed out in our heads/on paper a snap.

Also, a BIG thank you for this advice -

"Once you have a page setup themewise (no real content or just bogus content in it) you can then use that page to duplicate new pages so your theme is consistant."

Good idea to build a set layout to work from so that all other pages are consistent. That will save us time of 'a learning experience'.

Wish us luck as we embark on ths new journey! My current site was done by my ex partner, but cannot adjust because I don't know what is going on. This way, I will retain knowledge and control over my own site!

Thanks -

Glad it will work out for you, should be a fun experience (and frustrating too along the way I'm sure hehe), but I think in the end you'll be very pleased with VSD. Lots of users here for that program so just ask away should you guys hit a problem or need help on something and someone that uses the program will usually answer your questions pretty quickly. Enjoy!

Btw:

Current (soon to be OLD) site: www.liquifileservices.com

New site (hopefully REALLY soon) - general layout with template I purchased: http://www.liquifile.com/new/

Luckily I am a boring accountant, so it is really nothing flashy.

Whatever gets your site up how you like it is all that matters

By the way, don't forget to take a look at the Themes that are here on CC that are created specially for VSD. They might have something that is to your liking and they are very very inexpensive. Even if it's not "exactly" what you want, for the cheap prices you might find something "close" to what you want that will give you a starting base to work with instead of totally from scratch too. There are a lot of them to choose from so you never can tell what might be there for you Just make sure it's made for VSD not the HTML Editor and you should be set to go if you find one

Hi Tortoise,

Just for fun, I remade your new website (more or less) with Visual Site Designer. You can watch the result here: http://www.johnvanhulst.com/liquifile . You can download the (new/different, cause now VSD) theme files and the complete website here: http://www.johnvanhulst.com/liquifile/setup . It took me about 3 hours including the graphics, so if you like/use it, you owe me a bottle of whisky !

Cheers, John

Tortoise-
Welcome to VSD. As you see, the support here is outstanding. John is an expert with VSD, so consider youself blessed he did a template for you. I like the new look, keep building!

Thank you, Tim....