Chris Salmon Technologies

It's now time to take a look at our basic website layout.  The absolute MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER about this, is that the layout is separate from the content, and THE LAYOUT CAN BE CHANGED OR ALTERED AT WILL!  I've seen even very smart people, be fooled by this aspect of Joomla.  They see a particular look to a site in development, a particular layout, and they just think that the layout is going to be that way, that this is what it is going to look like, etc.,  I've realized over time that these clients aren't seeing what I'm seeing.  I'm seeing a look that is always temporary and ready for change, that can be made and remade like sculpting a piece of clay, then working it back into a ball and sculpting it into something different.  I'm seeing something that is really just a placeholder for the important part of the site - THE CONTENT!!  The content, and in large part that means text, is what the search engines care about, it's what they index and search, and it's the most information dense part of most websites.  So don't be fooled!  You can't judge a book by it's cover, you can't tell what someone is capable of by their clothes, and the various appearances which a site can adopt at will are nothing more than mere clothing on a base of content.  And actually it's probably more work to change your clothes than to change the look of a Joomla website.

That being said, I must admit that, at least this morning I'm having a hard time coming up with much of a starting look and feel for Lisa's site.  You can see what I've come up with so far but it's not really ... thrilling me just yet.   However I do like the plaid/tartan background for a school site.

I'm using a tool called Artisteer (advertised on the left) which is a great prototyping and design tool for Joomla.  It has a number of built-in prepackaged layouts, headers, menus, etc., that you can combine in whatever way you wish.  But it also does all the css and Joomla template coding for you in any custom format you might want to create.  It's highly recommended and is a great time saver - and it doesn't limit you as to what designs you might like.  

I'm going to take a little break and take some quiet time and give this some thought.  Then I'll come back to it and see what other kinds of layouts we might do.  Lisa likes this site:  Har-Ber High School but I'm personally not too thrilled with that one either.  I've written her to see what it is that she likes about it so much.

There is one other consideration - how exciting should a school/class site even be?  This isn't a video game and we're most worried about the functionality of the site, not a flashy appearance.   If anyone has suggestions, put 'em in the comments, I'm happy to listen.