Template Customization

XML Flash Templates – Maintaining your Flash website made simple!

Posted on 28. Sep, 2007 by Dave.

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On September 18th, 2007 templatemonster.com, announced that it now offers XML Flash Site templates a new product category with a unique feature allowing content to be loaded onto Flash via an XML file, no doubt aimed at lessening the convoluted task of running and maintaining Flash Sites.

One of the claims made on the templatemonster web page is:

“XML Flash Site templates are equipped with the system that will simplify your work with the Flash website by giving you the opportunity to edit it without having to use the special Flash software for that (you only work with the XML file)”

What their basically saying is that I can get the functionality and simplicity of editing my template’s content from a text editor, and still get to keep the performance and beauty of a premium Flash website.

So I decided to put this to the test, using a free sample XML Flash site, a copy of which I have taken the liberty to make available to you here (Free XML Flash Site Template Tryout). Don’t mention it! Besides as a developer you’re expected to be somewhat comfortable around XML. So if you aren’t, this free XML Flash Site template is just what you need to start getting your hands dirty.

Once I extracted the files I opened the site_flash directory, located the tfile_main.xml file and in just a few key strokes same as I’m doing right now I was literally changing menu items, adding more links, and even editing the content throughout the entire Flash template instantly requiring no prior knowledge of Flash whatsoever (I only worked with the XML file). What I liked best of all is not having to buy some hyphy Flash software in fact I did all my editing in Notepad. I simply edited all my stuff from the text file, changed whatever I wanted, and still kept the efficiency and beauty of Flash totally intact. Seriously, it’s unbelievable!

One neat thing XML Flash Site templates allow me to do is add as many “read-more” pages as I want or, for that matter, any page. Here’s what you do. I wont go into too many details-this is already beyond the scope of this article, and you’re darn smart.

Copy (Ctrl+C) an existing code for a “read-more” button [code lang="xml"](e.g. _read more)[/code], find an area where you want the button to be, paste (Ctrl+V) and give it a unique identifier [code lang="xml"](e.g. change function from asfunction:_root.more_click_func,0 to asfunction:_root.more_click_func,1) .[/code] The same if you were to add a 3rd button you’d change this function to a “2” the 4th would be “3” etc… Mi conprende? Oh yeah! I almost forgot, in addition to that little tidbit you’ll need to copy the existing code for a read-more page and paste (Ctrl+V); then replace the old text with new text and give it title. See? That wasn’t too bad.

The greatest gain for web site owners is they wont have to hire someone each time they have to make a change on their website. XML Flash site templates will let you circumvent the need to modify FLA source files whenever you need to change some text or move some pictures around. And it’s not just for beginners either, just think of the time we’ll save, I cant tell you the number of times I’ve been coding away the hours seemingly making huge progress, when out of nowhere I’ve got one of these “Flash has encountered a problem and needs to close” Dam!

Lastly, here’s the basic information you need to edit XML Flash site templates.

Open the “tfile_main.xml” file in the text editor (e.g. Notepad ++). DO NOT rename this file. Otherwise you’re screwed. Find the text you need and type in your new text. Upload all files to your public_html folder. All files should be placed in one folder. Also there are a number of free XML text editors that offer some really neat features such as color-coded text and section highlighting which can be very helpful. If you would like to find a text editor that provides this feature, try searching Google for a free XML editor or if you like you can contact the Foamers.net Web Team for our recommendations.

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Website Templates For Web 2.0

Posted on 13. Sep, 2007 by Dave.

Web 2.0 is rapidly becoming a new way of developing websites. It is the next generation of web development. But for many web developer it may be difficult transition starting a new era. The best jump start to this amazing generation of web is using website templates that are web 2.0 compliant.

The benefits of using these templates are the following:

There is no need to hire an expensive graphic designer or a web developer to give you the state of art website. You don’t have to wait a long time for your site to be designed and developed. In other words save time and money. Web 2.0 provides an interactive user experience that provides performance, flexibility and simplicity. You don’t have to be programmer or graphic designer to develop your site. Using these templates makes everything seem simple. Another advantage of using web 2.0 templates is the higher quality of the design. These templates are designed by top designers and include every thing you need to put your site up. You will have all the sources including fonts, flash sources, PSD files, and navigation bar.

Another key benefit of using these templates is the consistency it gives your website. If you want your website to appear professional, you should have a consistent look across all of your various pages. Using website templates makes this task much easier. Updating your website will not cost you anymore. you can easily update your site with the templates you get. If you update your notes in word you can update your site as well.

About the author:
Corey Mc – EzineArticles.com Expert Author
To find out more about these time and money saving state of art website templates visit digiobjex.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Corey_Mc

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Should You Have Your Own Website? (Take this Quiz!)

Posted on 07. Sep, 2007 by Dave.

I have been asked numerous times about the necessity of having a website. After asking the same questions I developed a quiz. Not all questions have the the same value but answer each question honestly before looking at the scoring criteria. (For scoring, go to http://www.easywebdesignbasics.com and click on the Quiz link.)

Here are the basic questions:

Question 1 – Do you have an interest or hobby that you spend at least two hours a month pursuing?

Question 2 – Are you interested in earning additional income?

Question 3 – Can you spare a couple of hours a week to learn something new?

Question 4 – Do you have a product or service you are currently selling or plan to sell in the near future?

Question 5 -Are you interested in saving time and money?

Question 1 – Do you have an interest or hobby that you spend at least two hours a month pursuing?

Most of us have several interests or hobbies. I like photography, hiking, teaching, learning, video, reading and the list goes on and on. However, there are only a couple of interests that I can actually enjoy regularly due to lack of time. It is the ones that you actually make time for that relate to having a website.

Let’s say that you actually spend an hour a week on gardening. Are you aware of the massive number of people who are also interested in gardening and have websites on this topic? Do you realize the amount of information you can get from fellow gardeners? But most importantly, do you understand how many fellow gardeners would benefit from your expertise?

You need a website to share what you have learned from practical experience. Your website can steer beginners in the right direction to avoid mistakes that you made.

Question 2 – Are you interested in earning additional income?

I haven’t met one person who has said no to this question.

Question 3 – Can you spare a couple of hours a week to learn something new?

Designing a website will require you to learn some new skills. Don’t worry, these are not difficult skills to learn but it will take time. There is a minimal financial investment. You can use free editors and free software to upload your web site. All you would have to pay for is a domain name and hosting. However, if you go with a blog you don’t have to spend any money!

Question 4 – Do you have a product or service you are currently selling or plan to sell in the near future?

If you answered yes to this question and do not have a website, then you need to get started now! Whatever you sell, a website is a great way to advertise. You can target your website to the specific type of client you are looking for. You direct your prospect to your website and let it presell your product.

It does not matter whether you are local or worldwide. Let your website expand your business.

Question 5 – Are you interested in saving time and money?

Whether you use a website to help others or advertise your products and services, you can leverage the Internet to ave you time and earn extra income. Website can save you time by information access. For example, I am asked the same questions over and over and now just send people to a special page where they can find the answers. This save me a lot of time.

You can provide great detail about your products and services for others to read and even buy without taking your time.

As the saying goes, “Saving times saves you money.” You also save money by consolidating resources and increasing you use of free online advertising

About the Author:
Are you new in the web design? Then jump start at http://www.easywebdesignbasics.com/

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Blogg – Free WP Theme

Posted on 05. Sep, 2007 by Hasan.

Another beautiful template that has been designed by Templates Factory Download | Demo

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How To Set Up Website Using Web Templates

Posted on 05. Sep, 2007 by Dave.

Web templates provide ready-made codes that you can customize with ease. Now, you can forget about hiring a web designer that can cost you more or less a $100 per design. You can save a lot of money, plus you can give your creative juice some needed exercise.

New Web 2.0 Website Template Wave
With the popularity of one-click web publishing, the Internet has never been the same. Even individuals who lack technical background can make professional-looking web pages in no time. Thanks to web templates, you can forget about the hard part of web designing.

Cost of Web Site Templates
It’s a good thing that you can get simple web templates for free on the Internet. Paid templates can also be very helpful and you can get awesome templates at just around $25-$75.

Choosing Web Templates
Remember these three things in mind, when you are looking for web templates:

1. What is your website for?

2. Who are your would-be visitors?

3. What do you want to project?

Personal Website Templates
If your website is for your personal page, then anything goes. The only thing to consider is if your website is a mirror of you, it is YOUR site anyway. Adding your personal style to your site would simply do the trick.

Business Website Templates
Business web templates are more specific in themes. You can find that more popular categories are: real estate, e-commerce, hosting, directories, health, sport. Such templates have related graphics to those businesses and may be the best quick solution for start up company.

Web Hosting Providers And Website Templates
After you select template you have to find hosting where to place your website. These days many hosting companies offering cheap hosting and free web site templates. All this included in their package. You just need to read their descriptions. They also provide software which you can use to edit website templates in the way you like.

SEO And Website Templates
SEO – Search Engine Optimization is a technique to optimize your website pages to be better understand by search engines. When you set up templates for your website make sure that all required meta tags are included and you follow at least basic requirements. This will help your web template site be more visible for search engine and as result more people can find you.

Types of Web Site Templates
There are two basic types of web site templates – Html or Flash. Html templates are simple and static but they are very efficient because they can make fast loading pages compared to flash templates. Usually business websites use html templates. Flash templates allow you to use some moving graphics or even animation in your web page. These kinds of templates can really make your website exciting.

About the author:
Petrok Devochkin is Internet marketing expert who writes for various companies including LogicTechnologies.net (web site templates design company).

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Cascading Style Sheets Basics

Posted on 04. Sep, 2007 by Dave.

There are only three parts to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and once we understand what they are and how to use them, CSS becomes very easy and exciting to use. One of the best parts of CSS is that you can create an external Cascading Style Sheet which you can use for all web pages on your website. You can also have one CSS for all of your articles and a different one for all of your press releases. Making one change in your CSS, you are able to effect changes to a few web pages or to hundreds of web pages without ever touching any of the different web pages themselves.

Below I am going to break out each one of the parts of CSS and explain them in non-techie terms:

1. Selector 2. Property 3. Value

This is what these three parts will look like when they are all put to together:

[code lang="css"]selector { property: value }[/code]

The first part is the selector. In techie terms, a selector is the (x)HTML element that you want to style. Now what does this really mean to the person who doesn’t know about (x)html code and really doesn’t want to learn it, but does want to make changes to their own websites. Absolutely nothing, right? It just went over your head and now you are at a loss (oh how well I know that feeling!). Well, let me show you what some of the most common selectors are, and I know that you will begin to feel more comfortable with selectors.

The first selector that you come across in all web pages is the body, next might be h1, or the p. In (x)html the code is going to look like this:

[code lang="css"]< body> your web page content goes here< /body>: or, < h1> Your headline text goes here< /h1> ; or, < p> your paragraph text goes here< /p> .[/code]

For the first example, let’s start with the body. Here is the main thing that you will likely do with this simple but important piece of code. Let’s say you want the main background color of your website to blue or #0000ff (which is the hex code for blue). It will look like this:

[code lang="css"]body {background-color: #0000ff}[/code]

OK, what does all that mean? It is saying that the “background-color”, which is the property, is going to be blue, which is the value of that property. In simple terms, it means the main background color of your website is going to blue. It is easy to change the background color of your website now just by changing the hex code (#0000ff) to a different color, say red, which would look like this: #ff0000.

Now let’s look at the selector h1:

[code lang="css"]
h1 {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 22pt;
font-weight: bold;
text-align: center;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ffffff;
}[/code]

Here we are defining what h1, or the text inside of our header 1 tags, is going to look like. The first line in the property is the font-family, and the value is Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, and sans-serif. So, in plain English, what we are saying is the font that we want to use for all of our h1 headers is going to be Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, or sans-serif.

You might be asking if we want the main font to be Verdana, why are we also using Arial, Helvetica, and sans-serif as fonts? The reason for this is not all computers are going to have Verdana font loaded on them. If they don’t, then the default font becomes Arial. The same thing holds true for the Arial font, which then defaults to Helvetica and, finally, to what is called a system font or screen font that all computers have on them, which is sans-serif.

Now for the next line, which is font-size: 22pt. The property is font-size and the value of that is 22pt. 22pt is the easiest to use because we all know about 10 pitch, 12 pitch, 14 pitch fonts when we are using our word processors. There are several other different ways to express the size of the font, one of which is small, medium, and large, and is much more complex than just entering the pitch size.

Next we come to the font-weight which is a real easy way to bold all of the text in your header without using any other code to do it. Following along with what we already know, font-weight is going to be the property and bold is going to be the value of the font weight. If you choose not to bold all the text, all you need to do is change the word “bold” to “normal” and you are all done.

The text-align is just that: by changing the word “center” to “left”, you can align your text to the left margin instead of centering it all. I am sure that you are beginning to get the hang of this by now, but just follow through, “text-align” is the property and “center” is the value.

The color of your font or text is going to be the hex code color #000000, or black. If you want to change the color of the font, find the hex code for the color that you want it to be and replace #000000 with it.

The last one here is the background color, which is behind the header text. This background color is different from the body background color in that this color is going to be directly related just to the text in between the header tags or the h1 tags. In our example, “background-color” is the property and “#ffffff” is the value. You can change the background color to any color you like just by replacing the hex code #ffffff, which is white, with the hex color code of your choosing.

In our next article we begin with the paragraph tags and show just how easy it is to get rid of a ton out dated code.

About the Author
This article may be distributed freely on your website, as long as this entire article, including working links and this resource box are unchanged. Copyright 2006 Larry Lang All Rights Reserved. Lang Enterprises Inc. Elite Web Strategies-Empowering You to Empower Your Business.

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