I think this is the right place to post.

I am looking for a little assistance or advice on template customization. I have no problem with the PSD files and editing them in Photoshop, got it Sliced no problem. But when i go to add content and HTML in Dreamweaver I am lost. I have used Dreamweaver before for several other start from scratch pages but using and existing template i have issues.

What happens is I open the .html file that i exported from photoshop, it opens fine, all the slices are there but when i go to add content to a particular area the slice is offset and the content i inserted above or below the template image. How to I get the template set i guess as a background to allow me to put in my content without throwing everything off? I tried to setup layers but that is as inconsistant as i could get.

Any help would be appreciated. The site i am currently playing with is www.beient.com the template was a download from boxedart.com I am looking to create my own from scratch but I have to figure this out first.

Thanks for you help
JD

It's a simple fix if I understand what your saying.

You just need to change the image from

<td><img src="blah blah.gif"></td>

to

<td background="blah blah.gif">your content here</td>

If your using CSS you can do it with this line

.someclass {
background-image: url (images/blah blah.gif);
}

Just as a side note, you really shouldn't use the HTML files that photoshop outputs... Hand coding the file is not only much cleaner, but more precise and lighter most times. You've most likely got a LOT of spacer images in the code. But, that's your decision... ;)

edit - you need to be sure to set the width and height of the background image precisely... or it will repeat on you and look horrid.

I can help you out if you stick a link to us on your site (or maybe more)

I can actually help you do it, instead of doing it myself, or I can do it myself and explain how I did it...

Sometimes the Image Slices get all messed up in the html, it is the most important thing to know how to use Dreamweaver, etc... to fix the errors and make the page bug free.

Anyways, you can e-mail me, pm me, AIM me... whatever.

Ok that makes some sense. The question that comes to mind now is when i have the template in adobe & sliced how do you recommend exporting it to modify in dreamweaver?

Sorry if these are stupid questions, but I have read the material, and am one that has to learn to do things myself.

It's best to take the output of adobe, and start with a fresh clean page... Code the thing by hand, and just use the output file as a guide if you need one. Sure, it may take you a while, but the end result is much better IMO.

They aren't stupid questions btw, it's probably that most folks that 'know how' to do this already (and could do it in their sleep), usually want to tell you to RTFM or some stupid crap like that. The way I figured it out was *all* by trial and error. Of course, I was comfortable with hand coding HTML well before getting to this stage. When I saw the output from image ready, I knew that wouldn't work. ;)

Ya, I agree. I haven't EVER read any type of coding or graphic manual.

The only manual type things that I have read are tutorials for Photoshop. IMO you learn a lot more if you do it for yourself.

It may take a little longer at first, but once you have it down.. you will almost never forget :)