I manage a small HOA website with VSD and I am thinking of transitioning to RSD.

The current site has about 10 main pages via a consistent left-side menu. The menu is repeated manually on all pages; so changing a button, even though it's very rare, could be time-consuming. With leaf-pages and seasonal reuse of some event pages, the total page count comes in at about 25.

We have two forms; one for "contact the webmaster" and one for an annual event sign-up page. Both forms use the Web Form Builder. I like how the Captcha images are actually readable!

We have a newsletter page with PDFs of past newsletters, and another page that hosts our legal documents; also in PDF format.

There is one "FAQ" page that has "Back", "Top", and "Forward" links that I created manually. It's serviceable and requires very few changes. But inserting a new page takes some time, just like adding or changing a button on the left-side menu.

I've been able to get away for years without going CSS because this site is very simple and the design is static by nature. It's a reference source for our homeowners and it does that job very well. It doesn't need to be a complicated two-way communication vehicle. Text content changes 6 to 10 times per year, but site structure and design do not need to change very often at all.

The hosting company provides excellent up-time and has responded to the (very infrequent) issues that I've run into. We don't sell anything on this website, nor do we plan to. We don't need to support multiple contributors either; that would most likely cause loss of focus and would end up blurring the purpose of the site in the eyes of our homeowners.

Management of the site is my volunteer effort. The cost of the software is doable, but I want to avoid any extra-cost subscriptions of any kind. No monthly bills, because I'm reducing all subscriptions, period.

I also produce the aforementioned newsletter with MS Publisher about 3 times per year. We print and mail it to each home in our community, and I post a PDF copy to our website. We're not interested in moving the newsletter to an email distribution vehicle. I'm convinced that nobody reads email newsletters anymore, because....well, I no longer do. Too much inbox; not enough available personal time. So I want to avoid sending ready-made inbox clutter to anybody else and I don't want to get into the business of maintaining email distribution lists for this little site.

I think now is a good time to refresh and redesign the site. I'd like to learn more about design, get my feet wet with CSS (even if it is only under the covers), and eliminate the duplicate elements like 20 buttons that link to the home page...(hah).

I really like the features/software that allows me to design how the site will appear on different sized screens. This is one thing that really has me excited about undertaking this conversion effort. I'd like to start work in June.

Before I download any trial titles, I'd like to hear some perspectives. How do you like RSD and her sisters, do you have one or two "lessons learned", and would you do something differently on your next site?

Also, a couple of questions:

1. This appears to be web-browser based. Can I use it on a workstation and a laptop? It would be nice to be able to update my site while on travel.

2. Are there any special browser requirements?

3. I like to be able to author my changes, test my navigation and features on my workstation, then post the whole ball of wax all at once. VSD let me do that and it was nice because sometimes a website update had to be timed with an external event, such as a Board meeting or the posting of a physical sign in the community. How is the updating of the server content managed in RSD?

I look forward to getting started with RSD. Thanks in advance!

Hey BIF,

Jump right in! Download the trial and give it a go. Be aware, there is a learning curve! It will take some time to learn all the ins and outs. Like most software. It will install to your PC. It is not browser dependent or cloud based. Should work with ALL modern browsers just fine.

CC also has a tutorial ( I can't find the link right now ) that will help you convert your current website to RSD.

I'm actually not around the forum here much any more. Just too many things going on, but there are a lot of good people here to help you get going. Very friendly!

Going responsive is the way to go! When your customers ( or members ) can access from an PC, Apple, tablet and/or cell phone then they will be happy happy!

So, take the plunge. See what you think. I think you'll like it!

RSD is not browser based, it is its own application. You can update the site while traveling, if you have a laptop, by using FTP, or if you are hosting with Coffeecup, you can use its own built in publishing feature. You can export the site and run it on your pc, or upload it to a test server.

If you have not used CSS, you should get a small book or use a learning source so you are familiar with the terms and capabilities of using CSS and HTML5. For instance, what is the different between padding and margins? What is a css class? What is a css ID? RSD is a tool to use those properties, but if you don't know what the basics are, your learning curve will be much steeper. CSS basics, are not hard to learn, but going from nothing to RSD might pose some special challenges. The RSD is not a WYSIWYG editor. For example, one can't point at the screen and say - "put my column right there." You will need to create a row, then the column that comes with the row, you might want to dived, or shift or resize through the grid system that RSD uses. The WYSIWYG editor are code laden complicated sites. RSD will produce clean code. If your site is simple, you will have no problems with RSD, once you learn some basics of CSS, and read through the introductory materials Coffeecup has produced (and their videos).

If you have been maintaining a 25 page website, you shouldn't have any problems with RSD once you have become acclimated to the grid system and the css display properties. RSD is coming out with some new features that will help maintain many pages and bring some features from VSD to RSD.

Well, thank you both for your input. And thank you too for the correction about it being an application and not browser-based. I shall have a look at it over the weekend!

In the meantime, does anybody have any CSS reading material suggestions? Extra points if it's available for Kindle or Nook (I can do either).

Add-on question: Is the feature set the same for RSD no matter where I have my website hosted?

Hey BIF, start here and go through all the links. You'll find some really good info. How'd I find this? I did a 'search' from the options bar above!

http://www.coffeecup.com/forums/search/ … amp;page=1

You can host your RSD website anywhere you want.

RSD is basically just uploading html files. Most of what it uses is CSS3 and HTML5. Most browsers are compatible with that. A few, less used, might have some issues with some new CSS3 things, like flex positioning, but there are work arounds. Firefox has a minor issue, and IE11 has a couple. Cross that bridge when you get to it.

Thank you both. I'll....er..."RTFSL" (Read The (ahem) "Fancy" Search Links).


Here's a guess about my audience:

* No more than a couple hundred readers over the course of a year's time
* 50% on some form of a tablet or phone browser
* 25% on some form of IE
* 10% on some form of MacOS browser
* 10% on some form of Linux browser
* 5% on "other". Can I allow my users to read our homeowner docs on their watches?

Other demographics (partly an educated guess, partly tongue in cheek): Of the 100%, 25% will be able to navigate any web page no matter how badly I design it, 20% will know how to code, 15% will have experience in rocket science, 10% will be better spellers than I, 7% won't be able to get past a Captcha on a form and 3% won't know that you can actually scroll downward on web pages.

Yeah, it's like that.

But I love all of my users!

I do wish to support Edge, Firefox, IE 11, Chrome, and the most common browsers on iOS and Android.