How do you guys do it?

[Bert de Haan]

I'm about ready to throw in the towel.  I see all these great looking website you guys have made and I can't seem to get anything meaningful done.  On some themes my company name comes in small letters but I can't find any way to increase the size.  The slogan runs right off the page but I don't know how to make it wrap.
I added a header but it wants to sit right where the logo is so I can only see part of it.
It's starting to tick me off.  I haven't said a bad word yet but I'm getting close.

[Dominic Maricic]

Hi Bert,

Learning how to work with the site takes a bit of time. We always recommend guys start of by entering in their content which gets you familiar with the system. Then move on to the aesthetics.

For theme 3 you'll want to go to Themes->Configure and uncheck site logo, name & slogan. Then create a block in the header which will give you full control over the font and image size.

[Michael Merino]

Bert it does take time. Play with it as much as you can, you can't really hurt anything. If you find that it is not your thing, let me know, I have built several sites for other inspectors.

[Bert de Haan]

Hi Bert,

Learning how to work with the site takes a bit of time. We always recommend guys start of by entering in their content which gets you familiar with the system. Then move on to the aesthetics.

For theme 3 you'll want to go to Themes->Configure and uncheck site logo, name & slogan. Then create a block in the header which will give you full control over the font and image size.

Ok.  I'll try that.  Can the size and shape of the blocks be adjusted?

[Bert de Haan]

Bert it does take time. Play with it as much as you can, you can't really hurt anything. If you find that it is not your thing, let me know, I have built several sites for other inspectors.

Thanks for the offer Michael. I'm going to "play" with it for a while.  If someone else builds it for me I can't make changes very well my self. The learning curve is so steep to make it a bit discouraging.  I hope you guys are right that this will get easier.

[Michael Merino]

Hi Bert,

Learning how to work with the site takes a bit of time. We always recommend guys start of by entering in their content which gets you familiar with the system. Then move on to the aesthetics.

For theme 3 you'll want to go to Themes->Configure and uncheck site logo, name & slogan. Then create a block in the header which will give you full control over the font and image size.

Ok.  I'll try that.  Can the size and shape of the blocks be adjusted?

The size will adjust according to what you put in the block I believe. But, be careful or the block can make the site move out of the borders.

[Dominic Maricic]

They have a max width & height and like Mike said it will auto shrink if you have less info.

[Bert de Haan]

They have a max width & height and like Mike said it will auto shrink if you have less info.

I have no problem with the auto shrinking but I want it to auto expand.  I made a block with an image and text.  In order for the text to sit next to the image rather than underneath it, I entered them into a table.  It shows up great in the content area but in the header area the block doesn't get wide enough so the words wrap around to the next line so the words are below each other. 

[John M. Hetz]

Bert:

I have been told that patience is a virtue. I am still working on that and I encourage you to keep at it. It will come to you in bits and pieces and the satisfaction you will get one of these days when you look at what you have created will be worth it. If you are anything like most of the rest of us you may never be totally satisfied with your site but your point about not knowing how to maintain your site if you don't build it says it all.

Anyone who visits these Forums is willing to help and Dom is always there, willing to help when you need it. He always responds to my pleas in a timely manner and believe me he has more of that virtue mentioned above than I will ever have. Keep at it.

John

[Bert de Haan]

Thanks John.  I have heard about patience.  Something doctors have isn't it?
You are right about the helpfulness of the people here.  I have not noticed one person who is snarly or miserable.  Just the same, I do feel kind of silly having to come with questions all the time. 

[Dominic Maricic]

Bert, definitely ask away. It helps others out there who might have the same question too. I see you're playing around with different themes which is good. One thing you can do other than a table is right click on the image, click image properties and set it to left align which allows the text to appear on the right. The limitation on theme 3 was that the header + image on the right < 800 pixels as some people still have 800x600 pixel monitors (thankfully less and less).

[Randy Swartz]

I know how you feel, Bert.  I'm about ready to throw in the towel also.  I am somewhat "computer literate", but this website building stuff is too much for me.  I NEED to get this website done!  I am having trouble with EVERYTHING!  Content, blocks, menus...you name it.  I can't even get the fonts to do what I want them to do.  I need some help.  I do want to do this myself so I can at least do some editing later, but I'm laying on the floor gasping for air.....

[Michael Merino]

Thanks John.  I have heard about patience.  Something doctors have isn't it?
You are right about the helpfulness of the people here.  I have not noticed one person who is snarly or miserable.  Just the same, I do feel kind of silly having to come with questions all the time. 

I try to be as snarly and cranky as possible, I guess I need to try harder.

[John M. Hetz]

Bert/Randy:

Dom is right. There is so much to learn by reading thru other's questions and answers. You will get there, be persistent. I wiped out the better part of my Home Page one afternoon, got kinda snarly like Mike, and it took about three hours to rebuild, but it was a better page when I was done (and it still could use some more work). I suspect that you will have bigger challenges in your business than building your website.

John

[Ian Niquette]

Bert, if you search some of the old threads in the design or tutorial threads you will see that a lot of had a hard time getting going as well. Trust me, a few weeks or a month from now, you will look at some of the things you ask and laugh. But, as with everything in life, you don't know until you ask. Keep asking away, and everyone here will help out.

[Dominic Maricic]

One big tip. Do not paste content from Word without clicking on the Paste fro m Word button and checking both boxes! Also when you're editing the text , highlight it all and set the format to Normal (DIV) which will help with the fonts looking right.

Another tip. Only focus on content first. Fill out the pages that are there, you'll pick up bits as you go along which will help you later when you go to be more detailed.

[Fred Brown]

OK boys I am gonna chime in.  I am very computer literate and a programming whiz for the most part.  Working with the base HTML on the sites can be very hard at times.  It takes a lot of tinkering.  Even with tonnes of experience you can have problems.  Nothing is perfect we should all know that being home inspectors.  You have to look at it as a learning experience.  I was fortunate enough to be the first computer generation.  You guys are probably all playing catch up. 

Just think of it this way guys each element you put in your websites can be broken down into a few different elements.  This is what I mean.  An image tag has attributes like width, height, name, id, src, and such that can be changed.  Most HTML is like this.  If you want a solid width for something like a table you can increase the width and height within a certain range like Dom said some of these are set so you cannot go more than them. 

Just keep this in mind when you get frustrated.   One other tip for you guys is if you get frustrated working with it get up and leave the computer for awhile.  If you get angry you cannot see the proper solution.

[David Macy]

I had troubles when I started and still do, my biggest problem was not watching the tutorials and just wanting to get it done. 

I began to figure it out and I know I can bother Dom if I have questions, guys around here are willing to help out.

The SEO is most important and is an area I need to get back and improve on. Just get to busy and lazy.

Watching the tutorials, read the threads and ask the guys. Lots of good people here.

Dom, Ian, were is John Sopher and lots of other guys and gals.

Sometimes I forget to thank everyone, so thanks everybody!!

[Bert de Haan]

I did watch the tutorials but some of the terminology was new to me so watching a tutorial was no guarantee that I would know how to do it.  I am getting almost comfortable with it now.  Yesterday I thought it would take me a month to get the hang of it.

[Fred Brown]

Bert

Trust me I have had actual web design training and I had a difficult wrapping myself around this and now I can modify pretty much anything.  Just ask lots of questions.  You can personally email me if you have any questions about anything I can give you an answer or find one for you. 

Email me here at my70cutlass@hotmail.com

Fred