Recently I have considered using Photoshop to create website templates, and then convert them into HTML and CSS.
My query is, when working with a PSD you want to convert, what is the best course of action?
Should I craft the main structure first and then work on fine tuning or start at the top and vigorously make my way to the bottom?
use dreamweaver software than make html webpage with css style in one folder than start to top header section than left section middle section than right section lastly footer create with css and attach with html page ona see offline output
It depends on what comes handy for you. For me: first if I have a dashboard which has all the colors and buttons, containers, etc (components) for the websites, than I made the css classes for them. My best friend in this is the Bootstrap , so I don't have to worrie about the responsivity. After that I look up, the main structure of the site design. From the biggest to the smallest. Sometimes I draw them on a paper and made some scetches. So when I'm about to code, I will know exactly what I have to do. It is my workflow, but what and how you wanna do it, is up to you.
There is no best approach to this.
I generally make all the classes in a CSS file for all elements on the page as shown in the PSD template.
Then use that file in HTML, which can be fine tuned using more CSS, JS
Related
Sorry, first timer, yup im that guy. but anyway I am in highschool and for my IST (Information Software and Technology) assignment I have to make a website, I based it off my school website, the apple website and some subreddits.
I would appreciate any any feedback to make it better and I would Extra appreciate if you could tell me how to make the design using code, the part im having most trouble with is making the sidebar and menu bar
AND it needs to be in HTML and I'm using Dreamweaver if that helps
Here is the photo
GUI Design
You will need a basic understanding of HTML and CSS. You can use JS if you want. I would recommend using Bootstrap library to help with the design. Dreamweaver won't do you any good. Get a text editor like sublime and learn html and css. Setup your project structure. Load bootstrap into your project. Use the bootstrap grid system for positioning elements and the navbar. Nobody on this site will write the code for you. We will review it and make suggestions, but ultimately the work is on you. Happy Coding!
If you're wanting to use dreamweaver, this is the approach to take:
Open up photoshop, and design your site exactly like your drawing. Export your images (logo, slideshow images, etc) and save them to a folder titled "img".
Open dreamweaver and create a new html site. From there, you can use the WYSIWYG to move around your images and text, and that will give you the html/css you need.
That said, if the course is based entirely on knowing HTML/CSS from scratch...this would be cheating. But if it's just a matter of "make it work", then this should work for you. Good luck!
Hi Stackoverflow friends! I've been playing around with Materialize CSS framework and as instructed, downloaded, extracted files and set-up directory structure as per the set-up page. Being all set up, I've now begun to copy certain snippets of HTML from the 'components' section of the Materialize site, which work fine until the point I want to change anything. For example, I thought lets change the colour of the nav bar from the classic Materialize maroon to blue, although I noticed the relative link points to the minified CSS file (which I obviously can't read) - I changed that link to 'materialize.css' (long form CSS), but noticed when I refreshed the page, no styling at all was there? Any tips as to how I can manipulate styling without writing new CSS? If I have completely gone about the wrong way, please let me know also? Many thanks, Nick.
I have used HTML in its basic form, and I mainly work on "server side" (of Enterprise application, mainly based in Java EE).
From what I understand, HTML is the "pages" which we see in an browser (that source code which a GUI developer writes and which a browser renders appropriately).
For example in an HTML tag, we write "h1" element, and the browser displays the text within as bold.
Now why there is any need of css? From what I am aware of, CSS is used to give "style" to a html page. The confusion that I have, doesn't HTML in itself able to give the style? what were the compelling reasons for creation of css?
Can anyone help me understand this in simple words.
The code that you put in your html to style it is actually CSS. HTML actually has some built in CSS. So really, you are using CSS when you do that. Also people like to connect a separate file for CSS in bigger projects. It looks more organized, and it easier to keep track of. It is also easier to code the CSS, because it is less messy and it seems like you have a bit more functionality. In conclusion, the code in the html that you are using to style with, is actually CSS, just built in. Also, I would highly recommend separating your stylesheet and HTML file(the stylesheet is CSS). If you need help, go to codecademy and create an account. Take the HTML and CSS lesson. I found this very useful and is where I learned most of my knowledge. I would highly recommend going to that site also. The site is also free.
Do you know a source for pure CSS Templates? After setting up a simple Web Project I always wish to have a CSS file to:
Set reasonable font settings for paragraphs and headers
Polish my anchor tags
Style my forms (if I have to touch the HTML for this one - no problem)
Style my tables (I use headers and footers etc) using even & odd
Maybe give me some handy classes for error boxes, etc.
So if I Google for a such CSS file I find CSS Homepage Templates with HTML Structure and massive CSS which I can't use without changing much. I find CSS examples for perfect tables, other examples for perfect forms but what I don't find is a single CSS File which when loaded in a properly formatted HTML website will make it look "okay" instead of the pure HTML look.
Do you get me?
Does anybody have a hint for me?
Twitter Bootstrap might interested you but I believe it has a bit of javascript in it as well.
Edit: As mentioned in comment you can use many of the Bootstrap features without using any javascript.
I've personally used bootstrap and I love it. I've also bookmarked few others to play with when bandwidth permits.
Bootstrap
Blueprint
960 Grid
Update: On related matter, I would also checkout CSS Preprocessors such as Sass and LESS that could help in writing better CSS and build up a custom library to use across projects.
Perhaps try the CSS off of Twitter Bootstrap. Provides all sorts of consistent styling that's simple but elegant, in addition to some fancier element behaviors.
Update:
Adding to Yonix's related list, the following are alternative CSS preprocessors, which makes working with CSS a little more digestible:
Compass
Stylus
There's a bit of a learning curve when teaching yourself CSS, but some basic CSS is easier than you think.
For quick prototyping/wireframing and pre-made HTML templates, I use Zurb Foundation, as compared to Twitter Bootstrap. My advice is to familiarize yourself with their online documentation and delve into the main CSS file (foundation.css). You can build on top of that CSS file with the provided app.css file.
It comes with a lot of pre-made styles (buttons, forms, etc) and everything is responsive (fits on any size screen). You can choose to include all the plugins, or just the HTML and CSS. It also has an option to download the HTML templates, which come with a variety a layouts, such as a blog or a basic structure. I absolutely love it!
I know that is a very embracing question, but I have just started with Ruby on Rails, and still have a long way with CSS and HTML.
There are lots of books about CSS and HTML patterns, but I would like to know what is really applied to actual webpages.
For example, what's the best way of doing a simple webpage with a lateral menu, a logo on the top, and some text below?
Ok, it seems stupid, but there's lot of ways of doing that, or not ?
So, how can I learn this patterns and what are the real patterns ?
Would appreciate suggestions of books, articles, etc.
you can find some good css templates here:
http://www.csszengarden.com/
Actually in html and css there are not patterns in the oo sense.
I find this tutorial very useful:
Design and Code your first website
The nettuts website has a lot af very good free tutorials.
A very good book to begin is:
Head First HTML with CSS and XHTML
It varies from developer to developer. So I'll just tell you what I'm doing!
I'm actually following a very common pattern - separate ANY layout from the contents!
Into the HTML goes...
Text
<div/> containers with IDs to be layouted
And in the CSS goes...
Layout for the ID'd and class'ed <div/> layout containers
Colors, Background images
Fonts
It allows to rapidly change the whole page design without even touching the HTML! And it decreases both your server's traffic and the load time on the client pages, because the CSS file can be cached, since it does not change as much as the HTML does!
The CSS Zengarden nate posted is a very nice example of this pattern. The same unmodified HTML with dozens of CSS files with totally different looks!
This pattern also allows the same unmodified HTML to be displayed with automatically selected CSS files on huge displays, on small netbooks and on mobile devices. Can't be any better if you ask me!
You might want to check out some CSS libraries.
I don't personally like using them because I have ways that I like to do things and sometimes they aren't flexible enough for what I want to do. But since you're just starting out they might help you get something that looks good up really fast without having to worry about float drop bugs or margin collapsing or any other CSS quirks that are easy to hit but hard to recognize if you haven't seen them before.
An example would be the Yahoo User Interface (YUI) Grids CSS that will help you set up many different kinds of grid layouts. To find more, I would search for "css framework" or "css library".
Another YUI resource I think would be really useful for you would be their design pattern library, which documents different ways to display common interface items and gives you resources to go implement them. This can help make your interface look familiar to users and can keep you from feeling like you have to redesign a drop-down box or something.
The rule of thumb should be to do all design in CSS and HTML is just HTML without calls to design. That way, like referenced above, you can change design rapidly.
A good reference for how this works is the Zengarden CSS site at: http://www.csszengarden.com/
This is a site I used often as I learned the ins and outs of CSS design.