neilp

Niiiiiiiiiice! I really like this - good job, but..... the only thing that seems missing is the footer content. I think if you was to make a nice high footer with perhaps a contacts form and your site navigation.

Unfortunately i haven't worked enough with Prestashop to say what your best options are. But i know i can design and build almost any type of website and turn it into a working ecommerce store using Opencart. The best thing to do, is download a free prestashop template and see how it's put together or download any other template and try and turn it into a shop within Prestashop. It might take you all day to get familiar with it but it will help no end. But, from what i remember....prestashop is similar to Opencart and should be nice and easy once you get stuck into it?

For me...Magento is quite a hard piece of software to learn and could well be overkill for your site. I have tried using magento, Prestashop and OsCommerce and found them all vey different. But the one i now use and have developed well over 20 sites with, is Opencart. I couldn't recommend this enough and i believe it was voted the second best open source software of last year. Prestashop was top! So, i would highly recommend that you stay away from Magento and either use prestashop or Opencart?

Yep, i totally agree with Kensha about getting into Javascript(or jQuery) if you don't already know it? But if PHP is definitely what you wanna learn next, then checking out the Nettuts beginners course - "Diving into PHP" which is all FREE, is a great place to start. EDIT: I have noticed a few people over this forum mention w3schools as a great learning resource, including this thread and i highly recommend you stay well away from that site. It's full of inaccurate information and will do more damage then good. For more info on this, check out this site w3fools

This is simply done using the animate function: What i did was create a div called 'empty div' and positioned it relative. Then i positioned an image inside that using absolute positioning. The HTML: <div id="empty_div"> <img src="images/img1.jpg" height="336" width="500" alt="" /> </div> The CSS: #empty_div { position: relative; height: 400px; width: 600px; background-color: #f00; } #empty_div img { position: absolute; top: 20px; left: 50px; } The jQuery: <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function() { $('#empty_div').delay(2000).animate({ top : 400}, 'slow'); }); </script> Also i placed a delay on it so you can see it happen but just remove that and it will fire as soon as the page loads!

Hi Ben Having problems uploading a PSD file. Tried zipping it up to but i keep getting the same error "No file has been selected for upload" I uploaded a screenshot okay, but not the PSD? Any ideas. I used FF, IE and chrome? thanks - Neil

Sounds great a will certainly contribute, but how will it compete with sites such as themeforest? Good idea anyway, look forward to seeing how things turn out?

Avoid jQuery like the plague? are you mad! jQuery is huge right now and most employers expect you to know at least one JS library. Learning core Javascript is certainly a good thing and learning them both at the same time is what i did and is what i would advise you to try and do. The best book i have read on jQuery is "jQuery - novice to ninja" from Sitepoint

LOL...no it was Prestashop. I tried using it once but enjoyed using OpenCart more.

Opencart - got voted the second best open source ecommerce software! http://www.packtpub.com/open-source-awards-home

As what Wickham has already mentioned - placing absolutely positioned elements inside a containing element which has been positioned relative, is by far the easiest and safest way to do things. No browser will turn their noses up at that and if you want a nice little tutorial on how this is done.......Check out my one and only tutorial on my blog... My Blog

This is a looooooong road, and you need to stay inspired while on it, otherwise you will give up or not learn as much as you could. The biggest thing that i did wrong was to try and learn everything, and i never really mastered anything. That's still the case but i am getting there and i have acquired a good method of studying throughout the five years i have been slogging it out! It is really a case of "getting down and dirty" - learn by doing and make as many mistakes as you can as you won't do them again! I spent two years studying and learning from the so called 'guru's' before i could think about taking on a fulltime position. Just remember - a portfolio means more than a certificate or any other qualifcations, it's sad but that's the way the cookie scrumbles in this industry. When i first became CIW certified, i was certain i would be taken on at the first interview.......no chance unless you have a decent portfolio to showcase your work. Some people have already mentioned some good links to online tutorials, but below is a few that i always use(and soon to be writing for...he he) http://net.tutsplus.com http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/ http://thinkvitamin.com/ http://css-tricks.com/ All the best! - Neil

Exactly my point, front-end developer, someone who works both on the front-end(html, css, jQuery) and back-end(PHP, Ajax) If you call yourself a web designer, then why would you wanna rely on a developer to...well....develop your new designed site that you feel proud of and take all the credit for it! Sod that, i will sort me own back-end out thank you very much!

I agree and who wouldn't. But the labels 'designer' and 'developer' may have sufficed in the early days of the web when we was all trying to settle in to a new meduim. But the needs of the user has changed radically over the last few years and a lot of these needs are accomblished by developers, or should i say 'Front-end developers'. So if you label yourself a designer, then you will only limit what you can achieve, whether it be making yourself more employable or boasting your business? My personally opinon is if you are lucky enough to be able to design well, then there is no harm whatsoever to at least learn some form of development, whether it be jQuery, PHP or even ASP.NET....for me this can only help to make me more marketable and help to make the work more varied and enjoyable.

I have never used the 960 grid system but i do mock-up my sites inside a 960px area with the canvas set at 1200px and using two vertical guides with one set at 120px and the other 1080px, you then can work inside a 960 width area. Also i have just started using the max-width property in CSS to compensate for larger screens. Well worth looking into if this is something that worries you? Also i wouldn't even consider worrying about the height(the fold) as this isn't really a problem anymore due to the user now knowing how to scroll. The myth of the fold

I think you may have that back to front? Historically, a web designer wouldn't do anything else but design and would work with the development team. It was only when the needs of the 'user' on the modern web changed so rapidly(and still is) that the 'web designer' had to evolve and that skill set has been given the name of 'front-end development' If you think about it.....the websites we build today are more of a web application than just a brochure website that relies purely on design. Almost evey build i do now has the client asking for a CMS or a added blog and how easy is it now to add a little jQuery into the build to enhance the site even more! In my opinion, as a web designer, if you don't at least know some development then you are only gonna get left behind because it's more about the development or should i say the interaction than the design. Don't get me wrong, the desgn is important but getting it looking nice is really just the beginning. And even though i love design, i enjoy building the site and adding those dynamic elements a lot more!

Why don't you ditch the client and put your work on themeforest. http://themeforest.net/ If your good enough, you could earn ruddy good money. When you look at the wordpress section and total up how many templates one of the most popular sellers is selling since it went up.....man, you could be earning thousands. The top seller can earn 70% of each sale. I worked it out once that one designer called 'kesha' was earning around 50 - 70k a year plus whatever freelance work he gets in. Crazy! OR....you could buy your templates from here for the low paying clients for as little as $15. Bloody hell...i am starting to sound like i have shares in the company...! You seem hard working enough and honest, but perhaps you need a little inspiration to get that passion back. Good luck..

Most of those tags should never be used inside HTML whatever the version, apart from <iframe>. They are presentational tags and these things should be left to CSS to sort out. But i must say throughout the five years of using HTML, i have never came across the <menu> tag or the <u> tag. What are they?

Or you could use wordpress and install a forum plugin.....for FREE!

Here Here!

The link that J90 gave you should tell you all you need to know and having just skimmed through it....i learn't something to. But i know my compnay has always told me that when a client has paid for the work, they then own that. I don't know if that was agreed upon through the contract they signed or it's how copyright works?

Wow crap! that's a lot of potential customers that could be missing out? Again...how do you educate these people? It's not as if you can put a pop up message to say "Please enable Javascript!" Unless you use PHP? Hmmmmm that's a thought???????

Would be interesting to know how many people do actually have Javascript disabled, as we do tend to rely heavily on js these days. The thing is, it's hard to educate the user on what is needed to get that ideal web experience. If only users knew how crap IE is and how great Firefox and chrome are! Wouldn't our world be bliss.......ahhhhhhhh.......

What's wrong? I can't see anything different in both IE7 and 8

What rallport has said here.....Progressive enhancement(degrades gracefully) is what you should be thinking about now and in time more and more people would have upgraded their browsers and we can all work in harmony! The HTML5 shiv (sometimes called html5 shim) http://code.google.com/p/html5shiv/