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oraclewiz1
Posts: 19
Joined: 2/21/2009
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CSS Coversion of existing Web site - 9/30/2009 16:07:16
My website FP 2003 is a visual mess.
Can I change my website to CSS--would I have to convert each page to CSS or do I create a CSS page and it converts entire
website?
How can I make a work copy of the site to practice on it?
Thanks
Frank
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womble
Posts: 6007
Joined: 3/14/2005
From: Living on the edge
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RE: CSS Coversion of existing Web site - 10/1/2009 6:43:16
quote:
ORIGINAL: oraclewiz1
How can I make a work copy of the site to practice on it?
Just create a sub-directory on your domain (or you could do it on a sub-domain if your host allows the setting up of sub-domains and copy all of your website files (pages, images, everything) into that sub-directory/sub-domain, and to access it you'd just go to www.mysite.com/whatever/ instead of your root directory. You just have to be careful that when you upload stuff onto the server, you do it into the right directory so you don't overwrite your 'live' site.
On your computer, the same again, you'll need to set up a new directory for your copy site to go into, and copy all the files in the original site's directory into that one. It's a while since I've used FP, so I can't remember if there's a shortcut built in for making a duplicate of your site. Someone who's still using FP may be able to advise better on that one.
Usually on redesigns I set up a directory called 'test' and put my copy of the site in there, so I'll just go to www.mysite,com/test/ to access the copy of the site.
If you're not very familiar with CSS, apart from OSWD and other free template sites (just search for "free CSS templates") I'd suggest checking out the W3Schools tutorials on CSS. The tutorials are very easy to follow and clearly written, and some have a "try it out" feature where you can alter the code on screen and see its effect. Investing in a couple of books on CSS can also be a good idea. Sitepoint do some excellent guides to CSS, and the "Sams Teach Yourself..." series of books are very good (they do one on most aspects of web design, including CSS). My particular favourites are Dan Cederholm's books on CSS. There's plenty of CSS tutorials online though if you prefer working online.
FP by default uses "inline styles", which mixes the styles with the HTML all on the HTML page, which is one reason the code for them can look a bit of a mess. As TWD said, the easiest way to use CSS is to put all your style information in an external stylesheet which you then link to in the <head> section of each page on the site:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/style.css" media="screen" />
When you're first starting out with CSS it can all seem a lot of hard work and hassle, but it is worth it in the end. The beauty with CSS is that say you have a heading on each page that's blue bold text and you decide you want to change your site's colour scheme, with CSS with your styles in an external stylesheet you can simply change the colour, size, boldness etc. in one page, and it'll change every single heading with the particular name you've given to that heading on all the pages of your site.
I've done a number of sites where a couple of years later it's been decided that the site needs updating. The content's essentially still the same, but the design and layout of the site's needed changing. With the current site I'm working on, I'm doing a total revamp. The original version of the site's on the left below, and the new version of it's on the right - exactly the same content, but a different style, just by changing the stylesheet. With this particular site, I've got both versions in test directories on one of my domains, and once the new version's ready I'll move it over to the site's server.
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oraclewiz1
Posts: 19
Joined: 2/21/2009
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RE: CSS Coversion of existing Web site - 10/12/2009 17:04:30
Thanks Womble
You are a great help
Frank
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