Hi.
I’ve posted atleast 4-5 threads about this but I don’t get it, but I’ll try to be more clear what I wanna know.
I only have knowledge about about HTML and CSS, I have no experience with any CMS at all.
My clients wanna be able to update their site, mostly just have an image gallery, be able to change a couple of pictures, write news.
I just don’t know where to start off? I mean, I only know HTML and CSS building static websites in Dreamweaver.
My clients normally shows me a website they want their own to look like, or they simply tell me ofcourse how they want it to look like, and they say,“On my gallery page i wanna be able to insert pictures so my custumers can see my work”.
I just dont understand, what would be the best way to be able to serve my clients what they want?
Where would I start off if a customer showed me a page they wanted their own website to look like http://www.kwpwebdesign.se/WBM-Fleninge%20blå/atv.html and said “Hey, I wanna be able to insert my own pictures here so my customers can see wich bikes if for sale at the moment”.
Should i not do my websites in dreamweaver with HTML and CSS? Should I use only wordpress or is there a combination with WP and html and css?
I have just no clue at all.
My customers just wanna have a good looking site and some things thats updateable, thats what I wanna learn to do.
Whoa, you have a lot to learn:
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If you really want to learn how to code websites I’d drop Dreamweaver completely and learn how to code by hand. If you get a text expander and a good editor (like Coda or NotePad++) you could build a website much faster without Dreamweaver.
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You don’t actually need to know how to code at all in order to use most CMS’s, all you have to do is upload Wordpress to your server. It takes less than a 5 minutes if you know the database name, username and password to your server.
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To theme it, you should start by using a premade theme and looking at the files to see how they are made. That’s how I learned. Actually, that’s how I learned PHP in general. You’ll need to know at least the very basics of PHP in order to create your own Theme, but you can modify existing ones with just HTML and CSS.
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You can download a Wordpress plugin to do just about anything you want. Installing is easy…just download the plugin, and upload the .zip to your server with a single click. It’s really easy.
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Everything in Wordpress has instructions, and mostly everything can be configured and installed with a few clicks.
So just start by installing Wordpress. Then, find the plugin that does what you want. Slowly start making small changes to the plugins to see if you can get it to do something different. It seems like a lot at first, but if you just take it easy you’ll learn pretty quickly.
It is important to distinguish too between the straight HTML/CSS and moving to a CMS system. HTML/CSS tends to deal with static website material whereas a CMS is database driven. This necessitates a shift in how you think about coding and getting the system you are using to do what you want it to do.
Dreamweaver can work with both systems but it is not necessary for dealing with WordPress. WordPress is designed to be standalone and not require an external editor. Dreamweaver helps by making it easy to integrate and customise your code, but it isn’t necessary when learning.
Honestly if you want to learn Wordpress or a CMS I would go to Lynda.com and pay US$25/month and do one of the [URL=“http://www.lynda.com/WordPress-training-tutorials/330-0.html”]basic Wordpress courses. There will be others I’m sure but I was watching the latest one today (to be able to pass on to clients) and the [URL=“http://www.lynda.com/WordPress-tutorials/WordPress-Essential-Training/97614-2.html”]essential collections are good at covering all the bases. They also have more advanced courses including how Dreamweaver integrates. Don’t bother mucking around if you are stuck for a place to start. You’ll get yourself up to speed in a matter of hours and feel good about it if you already have some skills. I don’t advocate spending money very often but lynda.com will give you unlimited access to everything for a month you can achieve a huge amount for that small investment of $25.
If you understand how WP uses its database then customising a site for your clients will be much easier. If you understand where to edit files with your current skills (without messing things up), customising sites for clients will be easier. WP is a good system used by millions of websites, but that also means there is a huge amount of both good and bad advice out there.