Hi everyone, I've been using free Wordpress themes for my websites but I think that they're not "professional" enough. Now I want to switch to CSS templates but don't know squat about them. Are these standalone software programs or something? How do I install them? I'm a Hostgator account holder and I find it easy to install Wordpress and Joomla since it's just one click via Fantastico. Can anybody please help me decide which software to use in order to make a better website? (Wordpress, Joomla...or CSS ) Also, just out of curiosity...how does one install web pages designed through Frontpage? Thank you in advance for any help you could extend!
OK, I think you're a little confused over the nomenclature, perhaps I can help you out. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets - just about any theme you find today, whether it's for Wordpress or Joomla, is going to use CSS. CSS is just a way to theme HTML by seperating the design layer from the code layer. When done properly, a theme is comprised of 2 files, an HTML "skeleton", which just provides the code for the page's text (preferably semantic code), and then an external CSS file which is applied to it to provide color, graphics, etc. - to make it look good. Wordpress and Joomla are different software packages. Wordpress is a blogging platform (which has been leveraged to do more) and Joomla is a CMS, or Content Management System. You should choose which one you want to use based on their features and what you want to accomplish. Next, once you've chosen a platform, you'll need a theme. As I said, this theme will contain both the HTML and the CSS needed for the right appearance. The problem you're probably running into is that you're not crazy about the basic, free themes which are out there. There are some good ones, but you'll have to hunt around. It may be worthwhile for you to pay a designer to come up with a wordpress theme for you, there are plenty here at DP which can do it. Frontpage is another topic - one I think best avoided Stick with Wordpress or Joomla.
^ Thank you so much for this! Very, very helpful! I get it now...HTML and CSS comprise a theme. I really thought CSS was a software on its own...eep. Thanks so much for the help! By the way, is using Frontpage really that bad now? I keep on reading blog posts that they'd rather stick with CMS instead of "going back" to Frontpage.
As a developer, I think using any WYSIWYG editor (like Frontpage or Dreamwaever) is very bad, both for creating extra, worthless code and for making incompatible pages. BUT I realize not everyone has the experience or knowledge to starting coding everything manually. But more importantly, if you want to create a large site which you can add content to easily and which is easily managed, then there is no other choice than a system like Wordpress or a CMS. That's what they're made for. Frontpage and Dreamweaver do have the ability to make sitewide changes, incorporate themes, etc., but at the end of the day they were just designed to design web pages, not power a content management system. If you're a writer and you just want to get a good content site up which you want to write blogs or articles for once every x amount of days, save yourself a lot of headache: Install Wordpress, Buy a good looking or custom theme (anywhere from $5 to $500, depending on what you like), and just start working on the content.
^ thank you very much, ITCN! I'll definitely search for a good Wordpress theme out there. And yes, I want something that I can use for my article writing service + rep for you. Thanks again!
wordpress templates are styled completely using css, and i wud say that wordpress is the best content management system for a blog or even a static site. I wud stick with wordpress and try design my own theme. If you're not up to it, download the sandbox wordpress theme and edit it to your heat's content or hire a designer.