Hello,

I know a little bit about creating websites and how to use the programs that create them. And knowing this, is why I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.

A friend of mine, gave me a website template with all its files. If I open firefox or any browser and goto open file, then select the .html file, it will load it just fine and it looks great. In the folder of the template are the following files:


xzy1.fla
xzy1.fla.jsfl
xzy1.swf
xzy1.html
xzy1-b.jpg
xzy1-h.jpg

And that's it, nothing else is in the folder.

As for how I use to create or edit other website templates, I would goto the folder of the template, and in it would be the following files:

abc2.fla
abc2.swf
abc2_about.html
abc2_index.html
abc2_about.psd
abc2_index.psd

And there is also a 'image' folder with a lot of images.


Normally to edit this template I would use the .psd file and either Adobe Photoshop and/or ImageReady to make my adjustments.

Can someone please take the time to explain what other files I could use to make the adjustments. Because as I explained, the only way I thought you could edit a template was to use the .psd file.


Thanks again for your time,

Jason S

Jason it depends on what you want to edit. If you want to edit the images you would want to open them in Photoshop and you can just save them with the same name. The .fla and .swf files are Flash files so you would edit those in Flash.

I'm assuming what you want to edit is the basic page. If all you have is the files you listed then you would want to edit the .html file. You can use a text editor like notepad to make changes to it.

If you're unfamiliar with how it would be a good idea to make a backup copy so you have the original file.

You will need to understand HTML or at least be able to read it well enough to make the changes you want. It's also possible there will be CSS or JavaScript code in the files too. It's hard to know without seeing.

Feel free to post the code for the HTML file here and myself or whoever gets here first will be glad to help you out. Also let us know what it is you want to change.

If you put the page online somewhere that we can get to, you can just post a link to it instead of the code.

Hello,

I first want to thank you for taking the time. Also I had a feeling it would be hard to explain what I was trying to do and I apologize for this.

You mentioned about if I want to edit the images to open them up in photoshop, but thats one of the main problems...there is not 1 psd file. Normally the other templates I would work with, would have 1 psd file for each website page. Meaning if the website template was 3 pages...index, about, and contact...then there should be a index.psd, about.psd, and contact.psd.

I would then open photoshop, edit each psd page, then open each page in Imageready and save as 'html'.

You also mentioned about editing the html page...I know a little bit about editing in html and or css...but from what I think I know, the type of editing I need to do, cant be done. (I dont know alot about html and could be 100% wrong).

BUT...

The type of editing...like changing the color of a menu box from red to green, or adding a shadow to image or blend two images together, cant be done with html....right?

Like I said...I could be totally wrong about all this but from what I thought, you need to have the psd file for each 'website page' and/or all the images that would make up the 'website page'. For example, I thought when you buy a template from templatemonster or similar site...they give you the psd files, and all the images to edit the template. And it doesnt matter if the template your buying is regular or flash. Does that sound correct???

Please let me know if I'm wrong about something or not. I'm just trying to figure out if the template he gave me, is not going to be able to be adjusted or if there is another way to do it and I just dont know what it is.



Thanks again, so much for helping a newbie out,

Jason

I think you're locked into the way you've usually done things is all. I never save a PSD as HTML when building a website. It can be done, but in all honestly it's not the nest way.

I'd have to see the template files to be able to give you advice on specific changes, but I'll try to help with some more general suggestions.

First you can still open the jpg files in Photoshop. If one of them red and you want it to be green you can change the color on the jpg and save it and it'll be green. You wouldn't be saving it as an HTML file, but as a jpg again.

My guess is those colors are contained in the HTML file though. I would think the colors were set using CSS, which could be in the HTML file, but like I said I'd need to see the code to know. Feel fee to post the HTML here or post a link to the page if it's online somewhere.

Again I'm guessing, but I would think most everything is in the one HTML file. I'm making this assumption because I don't see a lot of files listed. I would think that there's some CSS in the <head> section of the HTML file that is controlling how most things look. It could also be controlled through attributes on the HTML elements directly.

I'll really need to see the code to be able to help more. There's a lot of different ways the page could be set up that it's impossible to be specific.

One thing about the way you've been creating pages in Photoshop. A PSD file is a Photoshop file. It's not at all needed to create a web page. It's needed for Photoshop to create the HTML for the page, but you don't need a PSD to create a web page. Microsoft Word can also turn a file into HTML I believe. It would probably need a .doc file to create the HTML. But that doesn't mean a .doc file is need to create a web page.

When I create a web page I do start by creating a PSD file. But I do it only to help me on the design part. I never use Photoshop to create the HTML. It creates some really poor HTML. What I do is use the PSD file as a reference and then type out the HTML by hand into a code editor. When I need an image I go to my PSD file and take the part of it that needs to be an image and save it as a jpg or a gif or a png file. I would then type the code I need in the HTML to have the image display where I want in the page.

The way the HTML gets created on my web pages is by me typing it out.

You should be able to open the HTML file in an editor like Notepad and change the code to modify the web page. I'm happy to help you make some changes as I'm sure will many others here, but we'll need to see the code so please post the code in the HTML here or better yet put the template as is online somewhere and post a link to it.

Hello,

Again, I truly want to thank you for taking the time. Most people might not spend the time, mainly after reading my problem because even when I read it, it sounds a bit confusing and I'm sorry for that.

I will try and hopefully explain myself again. Please if it doesnt make sense again, tell me, because its not your fault, its mine I have a hard time trying to explain in words what I'm trying to accomplish.

Ok...here it is:

When I mentioned about the psd file and using photoshop..it was because I was trying to explain that photoshop is the program I use to only edit the images and layout. As for the html coding side...I ONLY use Dreamweaver.

Photoshop is ONLY used for the beginning of the website. When I'm designing the site, or moving an image from say the left side to the right side, I use ONLY photoshop. When thats all done, I save it and close photoshop.

Then open Dreamweaver, and load the file I just saved, to start the coding side. Like adding the html codes, or meta tags at the top, etc etc. You see I understand a little bit about designing and coding....this is why I cant figure out whats wrong with the template my friend gave me.

When I say 'website template' I mean like the ones you could buy from companies like template monster or etc. Please dont think I'm talking about one made from scratch.

The set of files I normally work with when editing/designing a website template are:

1 file of .fla
1 file of .swf
1 file of about.html
1 file of index.html
1 file of about.psd
1 file of index.psd
** And there is also a 'image folder' with all the images that make up the complete template.

If you were to buy 1 website template from for example template monster, it would ONLY have the above listed set of files.

BUT...the set of files my friend sent me were the following:

1 file of .fla
1 file of .fla.jsfl
1 file of .swf
1 file of .html
1 file of -b.jpg
1 file of -h.jpg
** And nothing else is in the folder, no separate folder of images.


As mentioned, I would normally begin to edit the template to how I like it by, opening the .psd file into photoshop so as to ONLY DESIGN...but as mentioned there is no .psd file. So then by chance I clicked on the .fla file and it opened flash 8.

In flash 8 the .fla file opend just fine and looked great. I noticed on the right side list of files, that I think flash calls the 'library'. Each time I clicked on a different file in the library, it would show a small thumbnail of what it is.


** My problem is that I dont understand how I will be able to edit it the same way I used to, but this time by using flash 8. As we both understand about using photoshop to start the design side...how would I do that now in flash, because from what I can tell with the flash 8 program, you cant edit it the same way. More then likely I'm wrong, but I didnt see any of the tools you would use in photoshop and etc.

I'm sorry to bore some of you with this, but I only explained how I'm used to editing/designing a website template, so hopefully you could get a better idea on what I'm trying to accomplish. I truly would appreciate some input, help, direction....please.



Jason S

Jason, I understand the issue. What I'm saying is your way of coding a website is not the only way. With this template you weren't given the PSD file so your way isn't going to work.

You can edit the template by pulling the .html file into Dreamweaver or coding it by hand in an editor. You can edit the jpg by opening it in Photoshop if you want, and you can edit the .fla files with Flash however you want.

But you're not going to be able to edit the template as a whole the way you normally do in Photoshop, because you don't have the PSD.

If you want to edit the template based on the files you have it's just going to have to be a different way than you're used to, but it can still be changed.

In other words, to make the changes to the template, you're going to have to code the HTML yourself for those changes because you can't rely on Photoshop to set up the HTML (bad at that) for you. That sounds like your process, at least, from the way you've described it. VanGough is right, without the PSD, the only thing you can do is tweak the HTML code you have, manually, and make minor adjustments to the graphics files you've been given via Photoshop.

If the changes you want to make means more drastic changes to the original photoshop layout, then why not ask your friend for the PSD file ?

that's the point!