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General Discussion

Posted by Jeremy Schmidt
Jeremy Schmidt
710 Points

Starting Up a website for the first time.

Hey Everyone,

I am new to the web design scene and so far I have built a few websites with wordpress using themes from woothemes. I have done some minor css code tweeks here and there using the firebug tool and the custom css page provided in the Theme. But overall I don't know much. I have started going through the webdesign track and I am on deep dive html.

Now I am in charge of building a website for my business and I have hand drawn (with pencil and paper) a mock up of what I want the site to look like. Im wondering if I should start from sctrach or use something like word-press. There are sections of the site that it would be good to have a content management system in, such as a portfolio and blog style page. But I really want the pages to look a specific way.

So question 1 is can I build a content management system into my site i build from scratch or should I build my site around a word-press theme?

Question 2. I want my home page to utilize a large photo spanning the whole screen, as seen in www.smugmug.com how do i do this, or what tutorial should i watch for this?u

I really want to learn this but most importantly I need to get this up and running quickly, so if there is some way to hire designers to help you on this site please let me know.

If you want to see my current site go to www.edgeofcinema.com

You can see it needs to be sexyfied for 2014 so we can bring in more business!

I really don't know where to start.

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

1 Answer

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

Question 1)

Sounds like your CMS needs are pretty basic. I'd just use a CMS already out there, like Wordpress. No reason to go reinventing the wheel for your needs, and you mentioned getting this going quickly. Building your own CMS is anything but quick. It took wordpress years just to get where it is today. Leverage that power.

If you want to build your own CMS to do it some day, that's great! No problems there. It could be done later down the road when you have more time and learn more. I'd pick my flavor of CMS, and run with it.

Question 2)

It's really not to hard. In general, if the photo is going to be a background image the property background-size: cover; is a very powerful property. If the image is going to be more of an image than a background, you can set the width: 100%; and either set the height:auto; and the image will keep it's proportions, or explicitly set a height, and than give it something like overflow: hidden; so that the image still keeps it's aspect ratio and doesn't become skewed.

When you find something you like, I always find it helpful to view the source code of that thing, and learn how the creators developed it. You'll learn a lot that way.

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

On the topic of full screen backgrounds check out this CSS Tricks tutorial on creating the perfect full page background image

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

Good link. I've used that post a few time personally, not sure why I didn't think to post it this time. Good thinking!

Jeremy Schmidt
Jeremy Schmidt
710 Points

Thanks for your tips! Ill get started and check back in with any questions.

Adam Sackfield
Adam Sackfield
Courses Plus Student 19,663 Points

I'm no expert by any means so I ask this question purely for my own intrigue and not to take away from your answer Kevin Korte.

Question 1 - Would it not be super simple to use PHP includes for the content that may need changing or adding at a later date then its not certain files that will be modified. I have never used wordpress and thus may be wrong due to a lack of understanding on that subject.

Thanks