Hello,

Im new to coffee cup! I heard about it and wow, for someone like me who has no html/web skills it sounds great!!

Ok this is what I exactly would like to do, maybe you can tell me what programs I might need because I dont want to buy the wrong ones if I dont need them, because money is kinda tight!

Ok....

I already designed my front main page in Photoshop. I have the logo, background, ALL the fonts in place for the menus, the Twitter,FB & Youtube photo icon links ... ALL in place, its one layer! Its all on one page, basically done! ( I put the menu fonts on there because they are a fancy font that wouldnt show up because viewers dont have that exact font)

1) Is there a program & tool that "traces" around the fancy fonts and makes that tracing into a button/ link? Can I just use a tool to trace around EACH Menu Title, Each Photo Icon for FB,Twitter,etc???

* Again everything is already 100% done in Photoshop - Im just looking to making that whole thing my Front Main Page & trace around all the areas for seperate links to other pages.

2) I made a Slideshow in Aftereffects, but I couldnt find how to save it as a ".XML" File??? It doesnt save as just that exact file?

* Do I need to buy a program to re-do my slideshow in like Firestarter??? Is that basically Coffeecups version of Aftereffects? If I do remake it, will Firestarter let me save it as a "XML" File??

I will start with those 2 questions, because thats basically 99% of what I want to do: Basically make my Photoshopped Front Webpage into my Front Page and Trace ALL the font menus and photo icons as seperate links to other pages. (Then place my Slideshow in the middle right of the page)

What programs would I need to buy and tool would I need to use to do these couple things??

Thanks so much!

I think with the starting point being a Photoshop comp, you need to get HTML Editor. That means, of course, that you need to learn some html and css in order to make use of your comp the right way. Since I'm a coder myself, I don't use VSD, the drag-and-drop application from CC, so I don't know if it is possible to import the whole page comp as an image and then create image maps where you want to have your menu. Someone else will have to elaborate that. As to fonts which are not 'web safe', You could create images of them in Photoshop and place those images where you want them to appear. But if I were you, I would use that just for headings, not for the main text, the reason being that it's bad for SEO.

I don't know the programme Aftereffects, so I can't tell if it compares to Firestarter. But Firestarter does not use an xml file, just a swf file, which is flash. It so happens that Adobe and Apple have some disagreement over flash, so at the time being, all the 'igadgets', like ipad, iphone etc will not show flash contents - and the use of igadgets is increasing. Thus your firesterter slideshow will be unavailable to a lot of people out there. CC is working on creating programmes that don't use flash, but I reckon it will be a while before they appear on the market. It is possible to create slideshows just with css3, though, check out this site: http://css-tricks.com/13627-infinite-al … slideshow/

Well, for what it's worth, Good luck!

The best way to do this in Visual Site Designer is to save the PS layout as separate graphics and use the background fill, page background and insert image functions to create your page. If you use the Buttonize feature in VSD, you can use whatever font you like for your menu/links, since it will be converted to an image. Just save all your graphics in one folder then "grab" as needed for VSD.
If you have an un-flattened version of your file it would be quick and easy to do.

If you use the HTML Editor to code your pages, it would still be better to have all your graphic items separated so they could be placed according to where they fit into your code (so you wouldn't have your navigation stuck in your background, for instance).

Inger – Is 'slicing' a PS image still done? I haven't seen anything about that in a long time. I would use standard HTML and CSS, but I guess if John wanted to go straight from PSD to the Editor, slicing it up and saving for web would be better than one big image with a bunch of hot spots

John, you can find some good tutorials for adding things into a VSD site here (Eric "Rolly" is here in the forums if you have any questions):

http://progrower.coffeecup.com/

There's a very easy slideshow script there.

If your dead set on keeping that image as a front page, then I think VSD and image mapper is the way to go. The image mapper will allow you to place links on the Photoshop image any place you want and VSD will allow you to publish it.

Very cool! I am going to try these suggestions.. Ive been going youtube and ive seen videos so I think both will help. Im going to take the plunge and get coffeecup and figure it out!

Thanks everyeone

In my version of PS (CS5) I have the slice tool. I don't do much of slicing, but it can be done, yes.

I'm new to all of this, but very interested. I'm a real estate agent and fear I may not be able to devote enough time in producing a good product. I may opt to hire someone to make an agent site for me. In the meantime, I'll hang out and soak up the info.

Cheers,

Here's my current website (which is in serious need of revamping)... http://www.myagentgateway.com

SPAM

And here I am with heartburn this morning, else I might take mine with eggs over easy

It might not be spam. After all, he's right, that site is in need of a major "revamping".