Let's say I design a website in Photoshop - for example, something like this http://www.awesem.co.uk/ - would using WordPress or another CMS to build/code it be easier and better than doing it from scratch using HTML/CSS/etc?

 

I'm kind of confused on how it works because I don't want my website to look like existing themes created by others, and I keep thinking that if I use a CMS it wouldn't look like what I originally designed. Or is there so much flexibility in CMSs that I can selectively use it for the parts of my site that need it?

 

Also, do you guys use frameworks such as Bootstrap to help you develop a site? There are so many tools out there that I don't know how to move on to the building stage by putting everything I've learned together.

Welcome to the forum

 

Using a CMS shouldn't affect the way the site looks - however you need to know how the CMS works and what you can achieve with it or not. Having a good understanding of CSS, HTML and JS also is a must, understanding of a server side language would help a great deal, for example PHP if you use Wordpress.

 

You can use a framework with a CMS, too. If that helps yo build a site faster and better, by all means, use a framework

 

CMS is good to have when you / client plan on updating the content on a regular basis, otherwise, I think it's not needed.

 

Hope that helps a bit

Welcome to the forums

 

Really what teodora said, you need to understand HTML and CSS to get started as that's the basis of all web documents. Javascript is optional but the chances are you may inevitably need to understand it, even if it's just cut n paste and tweak code.

 

As for Content Systems they vary. Some like Wordpress and Drupal require you to use PHP, where as others like Statamic, Craft, Perch and ExpressionEngine use an easier to learn tagging system for outputting content. Either way both will allow you to build templates which you the use CSS to style the presentation. It's worth exploring different CMS's to see which is best suited for your content, systems like Wordpress and Drupal have a very fixed way of creating templates, whereas the others I mentioned (Statamic, Craft, Perch and ExpressionEngine) assume nothing and you start from a blank sheet.

 

Bootstrap - personally I don't use frameworks as I find they are too bloated. I'd suggest that you learn how they work before using them else you'll learn nothing

 

Finally you don't really "design" web sites in image editors like Photoshop - all you're doing is creating an image of what it might look like.

Thanks, both of you. Off to look up tutorials and read about different CMS's then.

Welcome,

There are lots of Frameworks are available, designing of website from the scratch is little bit difficlut. Better to do using Wordpress.