firefox_2006 Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 Hello I have been asked by the powers that be upstairs (not GOD, but they sure act like it ) to redesign our school website. We recently purchased Adobe Creative Studio 3 which includes dreamweaver, flash etc. Only problem is my web design skills are fairly atrocious at best. We (me and my boss) tried to recommend that it would be quicker and easier if someone outside did it, but it seems they are insisting that it be done in house, probably to save money. I have read that a package called "Joomla" can be used for this as it is a type of CMS. Question is how easy is it to setup? are there any templates that can be used? I have started to create a few simple html pages with some flash buttons as navigation but it is all very basic. I am basically having to learn dreamweaver and flash as I go along to try and piece something tangible together. Trouble is nothing I produce will ever look as professional as if someone who knows what they are doing, were actually doing it. Add together the general lack of direction from the powers that be and im really stumped Anybody got any ideas? suggestions?
Brpilot99 Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 Hiyah ... I've played with setting up websites using Dreamweaver and its very good ... drag and drop with no need to code ... I recently had a go using publisher 2007 and its also very easy .. Check my site Lower case keyboards its not an advanced piece of web design but its fairly basic but was very easy to setup .. Theres lots of templates inside the programme. I tried playing with flash programming and it seems to be quite difficult .. to my eye anyway ..
rush_tech Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 EduJoomla? EduGeek Joomla 1.5 Package I'll second Edujoomla Just download WAMP install on your windows box Follow these instructions to install joomla (XP) Have a play:)
maark Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 Joomla is good for intranet and can be used for school website as well. Trouble is school website is a brochure for your school and should look professional - it is not that easy for someone is not trained as a graphic designer to do this but if senior management won't listen then you have to do best you can. Mark:)
DSapseid Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 I can give another vote to the edujoomla package took me about 2 days from start to finish to do our new site.
alan-d Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 Joomla is good but also have a look at e107 as it is a bit easier to get to grips with if you are not an expert. There are also lots of free templates about that you can download and edit. eg : Downloads but a quick google should find you loads more
srochford Posted February 13, 2009 Posted February 13, 2009 The other good think about Joomla is that, out of the box, it gives valid HTML. For a school (which ought to at least pay lip service to the idea of an accessible web site) that's really quite important.
FragglePete Posted February 15, 2009 Posted February 15, 2009 Another vote for Joomla, doesn't take too long to get your head round it, and you can then generate web sites from scratch in a matter of hours. Ours has just gone live based on the EduGeek Template. Take a look at http://www.commonweal.co.uk Pete
firefox_2006 Posted February 16, 2009 Author Posted February 16, 2009 Hi all Thanks for the response, which package should i use to install Joomla? XAMPP, WAMP? I get confused lol Should I also install it on one of our servers or am i ok to install it on a windows xp pc? Is there an idiots guide to this program. I have looked at many sites made in this Joomla package and they do look quite professional, more so than my current attempt in dreamweaver using tables. Do you need strong CSS knowledge also? @ fragglepete: I take it you did your banners and logos etc in an external package? I quite like the flash image on the front page, I have a similar affect going on myself using a program called Swish Minimax2. right time to get experimenting....
FragglePete Posted February 16, 2009 Posted February 16, 2009 Ours is hosted with the SWGfL on a Linux Server which comes with necessary MySQL, PHP, etc. I got it running internally on Windows 2003 Server while initially setting up with IIS and PHP; took a bit of tweaking but working in the end. I think WAMP and XAMP are really only for internal testing and shouldn't be used for 'live' servers as such. Otherwise, get hold of Ubuntu Server and install as a LAMP server which will give you a working system quite quickly. Pete
featured_spectre Posted February 16, 2009 Posted February 16, 2009 that joomla theme kicks some serious butt!!! looks really nice. Good Job Sysman!
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now