I had a template designed for my site. Brought it into coffeecup - and put the pieces together - header, footer and sides. Started with the header and got it to the width I wanted - 740 - made the footer to match and then put in the sides.
Except that a line that runs vertically through it all does not line up.
The designer does not speak or write good English and says that the images need to be resized - but isn't that what I did when I made the header and footer 740 wide?
appreciate any suggestions
Nan

hiya nan,

I think the designer is saying you need to resize the images themselves rather than sizing them in a box in VSD. Changing sizes in VSD and other web developer programs doesn't really change the size of the graphic, only changes the viewable size. Even if you have small boxes on your site like a small thumbnail sized box the image that loads in that box is still the size of the graphic you tell it to load.

To explain this situation better, picture this. A graphic starts out at 1000 h x 1200 w. You put that in VSD and you put it in a box and resize it to 300 h x 740 w. But in reality when people load your site page, it still loads the 1000 h x 1200 w graphic even though it looks like it's only 300 h x 740 w. This actually makes your site slower when you do that because it is loading the bigger images rather than the small sizes you're thinking it will be when you resize the box. I hope that makes sense.

To really get your graphics to be 740 w you would open them in a graphics program and do a Resize, have it resize to Pixels and have it constrain the size so that it maintains the size ratio that it has already. This way you only have to put 740 in the width and it will automatically size the height to keep the size proportionate to the original setup.

If you need help just hollar I can resize them for you if you like.

thank you Jo Ann - I will try that. Obviously this is my first site.
I also received an index.html file with the template images and was wondering if that should go into files on my coffee cup site.

Nan

yes it should go inside the image folder (be sure NOT to put it into your main folder so it doesn't overwrite your main index.html)

What that is is usually a 0kb size file that doesn't really have any use other than it keeps people from being able to browse your site pages as an index of your files. Without it someone could type in the URL to just the image folder of your site and then see a list of all the files inside it. This stops that from happening for your image and other folders, it's a good idea to have that inside most of your main folders (not your program generated ones unless they are image folders).

What I did was take and make a copy of that file for mine and stuffed it on my computer in a few places so that any time I create a new folder on my server I can just upload that file easily via Direct FTP and my files are safe from browsing eyes. Not saying it can stop them from getting to them if they really want to, but at least they can't see a list of all the files this way. It's a good practice to be in, and many systems already include it when it creates files and folders for sites. Some of the CC software already adds this also so check first to see if there's one in there before adding it.

Other than that, hope all is working well for you

Not use I understand the differences of the folders - I have just been creating everything in coffeecup and then saving - don't know what folder I'm saving to - and then uploading to the internet. I'm going to go back and take a better look at all this.

Just to make sure I understand. I need to put the template pieces together in a graphics program and then add the copy to it. Then as one piece insert that into the coffeecup program?

What will I save that one piece as .jpg? It will be a large and long piece - that will work?
Thanks.
Nan

when I am in coffeecup site designer - and go to add file - it will not add the file that came with my template that is index.html
Nan

Hi nan,
Visual Site Designer makes a index.html file, so I would think there is no need to add that one your trying to add. Just save your project and VSD will make all the nessesary html files using the images you have used. It will place all the images into a folder called files, and upload this folder during your upload process. I take it your taking the images from an html website and making the new website in VSD by using the images from the other website , am I correct?
Do you have a link to the test site uploaded so we may take a lok at what you have so far?

I'm not sure how to show you the site - it isn't live.
The difficulty is that the template does not line up vertically - the header will be cocked out from the sides.

I have not had a chance to follow Jo Ann's instructions and take the template into my graphics program, put it together and add the copy - and size there. Then I suppose you the insert or add picture function in VSD and move the entire thing to VSD - does that sound right?

Thanks.
Nan

Hi nan,
I may have misunderstood, are you using the html editor or Visual Site Designer? Could you possibly take a screenshot of how it looks?
and if your using a CC theme which?

I am using VSD - but not one of CC themes. I had the theme designed - and so what I have from the designer is a template in .jpg pieces - header, footer, sides. I use the WYSIWYG, don't know html

What I have done is brought them piece by piece into my site and put them together but they will not line up. I have spoken with the designer who tells me I am not sizing them correctly. According to my page properties they are sized correctly.

In Jo Ann's response she says it needs to be put together in a graphic program - sized there, and then imported into the VSD site. I haven't had the opportunity to try that yet - just thinking it will be a large piece to import.

here is the unfinished site: http://www.ChineseZodiacLoveGuide.com

thanks for your help.
Nan