Going beyond the 'template' notion
Change the way you think…forget the word 'template' and don't confine yourself to a 'template' approach.
Many posts concerning templates seem to suggest that iWeb users (especially beginners, like me) think they must adhere strictly to the templates offered in the app. In reality you can take any template, remove the elements (delete the text in the 'unremovable' text boxes and pics) and basically consider it as a blank page.
Adjusting page, header and footer size, adding graphic elements, text, creating links - all can be done easily within iWeb to create a site that has no ressemblance whatsoever to any iWeb standard theme.
Starting with a blank page means you've got to have some design capabilities but not any code capabilities - the app will code all your new elements automatically.
Having created your first page which will have a certain number of common elements to other pages, simply pull up any other standard template page remove the elements. Set page width to the same dimension as your first page (if you changed the default size). Go back to your first page, 'select all', copy and paste to the new page. Delete all non-common design and text elements from the page and create new ones relative to that page etc etc.
That may seem clumsy in the sense that the idea of templates is to avoid having to do all that kind of stuff…but unless you want to see thousands of almost identical iWeb-created sites, redesigning from scratch is necessary.
Apple's iWeb provides a great basic solution for non-code and non-design savvy users. But there is little restriction on what you can do design-wise. Visit 11 Mystics for proof on that. Or visit a site I created with iWeb - bet you can't see which 'template' I used here ! :
http://www.kura-images.com/camping
Image size remains a problem in slideshows - I got around that by replacing the 800px generated images by 580px images in photoshop and replacing the images in the files folders relative to each gallery with the downsized ones.
And of course there are lots of other things that could be changed. But once you get beyond the 'template' approach, iWeb is a pretty cool app.
PA
G5 2Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.5)
Many posts concerning templates seem to suggest that iWeb users (especially beginners, like me) think they must adhere strictly to the templates offered in the app. In reality you can take any template, remove the elements (delete the text in the 'unremovable' text boxes and pics) and basically consider it as a blank page.
Adjusting page, header and footer size, adding graphic elements, text, creating links - all can be done easily within iWeb to create a site that has no ressemblance whatsoever to any iWeb standard theme.
Starting with a blank page means you've got to have some design capabilities but not any code capabilities - the app will code all your new elements automatically.
Having created your first page which will have a certain number of common elements to other pages, simply pull up any other standard template page remove the elements. Set page width to the same dimension as your first page (if you changed the default size). Go back to your first page, 'select all', copy and paste to the new page. Delete all non-common design and text elements from the page and create new ones relative to that page etc etc.
That may seem clumsy in the sense that the idea of templates is to avoid having to do all that kind of stuff…but unless you want to see thousands of almost identical iWeb-created sites, redesigning from scratch is necessary.
Apple's iWeb provides a great basic solution for non-code and non-design savvy users. But there is little restriction on what you can do design-wise. Visit 11 Mystics for proof on that. Or visit a site I created with iWeb - bet you can't see which 'template' I used here ! :
http://www.kura-images.com/camping
Image size remains a problem in slideshows - I got around that by replacing the 800px generated images by 580px images in photoshop and replacing the images in the files folders relative to each gallery with the downsized ones.
And of course there are lots of other things that could be changed. But once you get beyond the 'template' approach, iWeb is a pretty cool app.
PA
G5 2Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.5)
