You thought your current layout was really awesome the last time you logged in to your blog, personal site, MySpace, what have you. But as you check your site again, you realize something’s off— it’s becoming old and terribly familiar. Ah, you’ve outgrown your layout.

A change of scenery is needed by everyone now and then.

Lucky for you, if you’re using blog publishing systems, or social networking sites that have their own HTML editors, perhaps even a WYSIWYG program, changing the design of your website is a mere matter of copy & pasting the right codes in the right places. Since these sites have their own set templates, the more graphic-savvy users of the site usually make their own designs, and at most times even share it with others, as long as they are credited back.

But what if the design you want is one that features a very, very obscure underground band which you are a big fan of? What if you want a layout that would proclaim your pet’s cuteness? Well, if what the Internet offers doesn’t satisfy you, you could always make your own. Especially if you’re the type to build up and manage web pages from scratch.

You could always hire a web or graphic designer to do the dirty work for you—but why miss out on the learning experience? HTML, CSS, JavaScript and designing tutorials are very much available in the World Wide Web. The Internet is a pretty big library of self-help books; it’s a matter of finding the time to read all of it.

The basic languages of web design are pretty easy to understand and utilize. A few self-study sessions will reward you with a web page made entirely in Notepad. Spend a few more hours on it and your well on your way to having a layout revamp every time you want. Pretty soon you’ll discover programs like Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Photoshop, you’ll learn soon, is crucial in making your website look like a million dollars.

If you’re the lazy or no-time-to-spare type, however, there are certain tools to help you on your web designing crusade. An example of this would be SiteGrinder, a Photoshop plug-in which enables you to convert your creations into fully coded pages. This is immensely helpful for designers who enjoy the layout-creation process, but have a hard time when it comes to translating the layout into the web language. Other plug-ins and support programs offer different kinds of aids to make the layout-changing process easier and more efficient, some examples of which include: psd2fla, photocaster, etc. (Check those out when you’ve leveled-up in terms of design knowledge.)

Once you’ve graduated from HTML, CSS. XHTML, JavaScript, PHP and all that jazz, you can now move on to adding multimedia content to your site. This includes, but is not limited to, music, nifty mini-games, animated galleries, movies—whatever you want! The only thing that could probably limit you is your webhost space and bandwidth limit. Probably.

Related posts:

  1. Sprucing up your site with new Photoshop Plug-ins Gone are the days when websites were just a clump of text sprinkled with minimal,...
  2. Making Your Website Interactive In this era of Web 2.0, it’s inexcusable for seasoned web-owners to simply have a...
  3. Making a Template to Save Time If you’re maintaining, or even just assigned to manage, a website with a large network,...

Tagged with: • •

Filed under: Sitegrinder Design

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!