Website template customization ideas for an unique design

There's a lot you can do with ready-made website templates and it can be completely changed to give a unique special design to your website. Here are the things you should look at doing when you purchase a template.

• Add Your Logo
The first thing you should do is add your logo to the site - E.g. we added the logo to SusanFrostConsulting.com which is a customization of Business template 9. As you can see simply adding the logo and header changed the look of the template and made it unique to the client. We also added an extra menu on the left to add additional links.

• Change The Pictures
The next thing you need to do is change the pictures to pictures of your organization or business. For e.g in the above example we have added a picture of the individual who owns the site. This gives a personal and unique look to the site.

• Customize the Colors of the Template
Once you have added your pictures and logo, you can customize the colors of the template to suit the pictures. You will see that just by changing the colors of the template, it looks unique and different. Alternatively, you can choose a color theme that you like from another template and customize your template with those colors.


• Customize the Navigation Links
Customize the links to the names that you would like them to be. For example even if you choose a travel template you can use it for a food website just by changing the pictures and navigation.

• Add Scripts or Design Elements
Add a unique homepage like we added to www.sitename.com. Using the same layout idea we added a unique homepage. You can also add drop-down menus, swap images, photo-galleries and much more!

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10 Tips on designing a fast loading web site

The Number 1 rule that every web designer should follow is to create a fast loading web site. You might have a great design but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. While designing a web site always think about how long it will take to load. Try out our tips to build a great looking web site that also loads fast.

1. Minimize the use of images - The key to a fast loading web site is to minimize the use of images. Images do enhance a page but don't make 80% of your web site only images. Instead break it down as much as possible to simple HTML. Notice the popular sites like Yahoo, Google, Ebay, Amazon etc., they have very few images because the load time is more important. Very often simple designs are the best.

2. Optimize images for the web - Once you have decided on the images that you need on your site, make sure that it is optimized for the web. They should be in the gif or jpeg format. You can also minimize the size of the image by choosing the number of colors you need, from the color palette. The less the colors you choose, the less the size of the image. You can also use online tools like Gif Wizard to optimize your images or to get a recommendation on how to cut down the size of an image.

3. Use Tables creatively - You can get some great looking designs by using tables creatively . Tables load very fast because it is just HTML code. Tables can be used in the homepage, menus or anywhere you like. Check out our homepage and our menus to see how we have used tables in our site.
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4. Cut down the use of animated gifs - Don't use animated gifs unless it is necessary. Animated gifs take a long time to load and can also be very irritating. But since they catch your attention you could use small animated gifs to draw a visitor's attention to a particular section of your site.

5. Design simple icons - Instead of using big, bulky images use simple and small icons that add a little color and draw the attention of a visitor. We have used small icons in our homepage to highlight the main sections of our site.

6. Use background images instead of big images whenever possible - Use background images whenever possible. This is usually a very useful tip for headers and footers. Instead of using an image of width 580 which is a uniform design you can use just a part of that as a background fill. This reduces the size of the web page as the image is small.

7. Try out CSS Styles - Have fun with CSS styles to get some cool text effects. Again, a CSS Style is simple HTML code so it loads very fast. You can create cool rollovers using CSS Styles.
Rollover the text on the right menu to see how we have used CSS Styles to get a simple but nice text effect.

8. Use Flash sparingly - There seems to be a lot of hype about Flash but I recommend that you minimize the use of Flash on a site. Don't make entire sites using Flash. It may look great but it takes hours to load and can really put off visitors. If you do want to use Flash use it within an HTML site and make sure it loads fast.

9. Design most of your site in HTML - As much as possible try to design your site using HTML. You can create great designs by just using HTML code. Use tables, CSS Styles and simple fonts to design your site. Minimize the use of animated gifs, Flash, bulky images etc.

10. Keep checking your load time - Last but not least, before you decide on the final design of your web site, check its load time on NetMechanic. This site gives you a free analysis of your web site which is extremely useful. We kept using it to improve our site till we got a report that said good loading time!

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Photoshop CS3 shortcut keys

So you want to use photoshop faster?

You want to create images in just minutes?

This means u need Photoshop shortcuts!

In Photoshop, shortcuts are customizable by using the Keyboard Shortcuts command. Choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts.

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Jump menus in Dreamweaver

Creating a Jump Menu is quite simple.

Step 1:Create a new basic html document and insert a form area:


Step 2:Next you have to insert a List/Menu form object. Select Insert -> Form and click on List/Menu:
Step 3:Now you have to apply a Jump To java script to your List/Menu object. Go to the Tag Inspector menu (if it is not open click on Window -> Tag Inspector). In the Behaviors tab, select the list menu and click on "+" button and choose Jump Menu:
Step 4:A new window will pop up - here you have to add options for your drop-down jump menu.Step5:To add a new link click on '+', or to remove a link click on '-'. In the Text field type the option name and in the next field enter the URL that you want to jump to when this option is selected from the menu. When you are ready with the options for your Jump Menu, click OK to save it.

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Image Maps in Dreamweaver

What are image maps?
An image map is an image that has been divided into regions, or "hotspots"; when a hotspot is clicked an action occurs, for example a new file opens. The image found at the bottom is an example of an image map. All the links are in one image which are linked to different pages.

You can also make circular links and polygon links as shown below.
Steps to creating an image map in Dreamweaver


1.Select the image on which you would like to make multiple links. Click on the rectangular hotspot tool found in the Properties Inspector. Select the rectangle tool and drag the pointer over the image to create a rectangular hotspot. You can also choose the oval or polygon hotspot tool to make an oval or polygon selection.

2.In the hotspot Property inspector's Link field, click the folder icon to browse to the file you want opened when the hotspot is clicked. Alternatively, type the file name.

3.Repeat the above steps to define additional hotspots in the image map.

4.That's it! You have now successfully created an image map.

The code will look like this.

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