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I like to change the look of my site for holidays, the seasons and sometimes, just for a change of scenery.  Who wants to see the same old thing every time they visit?  Variety is the spice of life and I feel that holds true with your site as well. My site is for fun and frolic and I'm not really concerned with having a "professional image" as much as I am keeping my visitors at least somewhat entertained.

Your site is a great way of expressing whatever it is you want to portray to the public, whether it be private, public, fun or professional.  Who says you need the same image day in and day out?  That's boring!  In addition, you can set a mood from the moment your visitors arrive with eye candy.  We change our clothes all the time, yet doing so for our site can become quite complicated.

I should qualify that I am a true, blue, dyed in the wool, graphics JUNKIE!  Put me in Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop and I'm like a kid in a candy store.  I will "binge" for hours some days playing with colors, textures, brushes, patterns and palettes.  Even writing about it makes me want to fire up one of the above and let my hair down to create my latest masterpiece.  But how do you transfer your creations to Joomla?  That is another story!

Having to sit down and design a template from scratch is, quite simply, my personal idea of hell.  Although I know how to do it, I'm just too impatient to go through it putting my ideas into action when it comes to coding it all.  I can buy a pre-fab template or pick one up for free, but you always have to make modifications (code changes... acccck!) if  you want anything remotely resembling "unique."  The whole point of installing a CMS system was to eliminate as much of that as possible!  Thus, for many years, my artistic urges were quelled by the mundane tasks of coding templates and modules to show my work off.  All these beautiful designs floating in my head were lost to the things dreams are made of.

Over the years, there have been several programs aimed at easing the pains of creating a new template design for Joomla.  Many were free but the interface was cumbersome, slow and confusing.  I rarely promote anything the costs your hard earned cash, but there is one that stands above the rest when it comes to designing a template for Joomla.  That is Artisteer.

Here's what they advertise:

"With Artisteer you can instantly design your own unique Joomla templates without technical skills or learning Dreamweaver, Photoshop, HTML or CSS. Artisteer's "Ideas" feature automatically produces and proposes new and unique template designs for you, which you can then adjust and finalize to your liking."

Of course, the "instant" got my attention.  The truth is, when designing a template, one misplaced semi-colon, missing period or other required piece of code on one line can wreak havoc with your site.  A really nice template can contain upwards of a thousands lines or more, dependent upon the complexity.  ANYthing I can do in Joomla without having to delve into the code is worth it's weight in gold to me.

Enter ARTISTEER.  From the first day I purchased this "dream machine" for templates I was hooked.  I had it up, running and had created my first truly unique template in less than an hour.  No special coding was required.  They upgrade constantly, add new features based on user's input (a dream in and of itself), and support is top notch.  I've been using it for over a year now and I'm still learning new and innovative ways to manipulate my own graphics creations.

You say you don't like to play with graphics?  You aren't a creative genius?  The variety of options offered by Artisteer will bring out creative talents you didn't know you had.  The pre-installed graphics, textures and overlays offered within the program itself have limitless possibilities.  So don't let that stop you.  You don't have to open another graphics program or create your own to enjoy a truly superb site.  If you have difficulty with color coordination, it even comes with pre-installed color palettes.  You can't ask for more than that!

Hate coding fonts and typography but still want a custom look and feel?  With a few clicks, in seconds, you're DONE! 

As far as templates go, this is a dream for the do-it-yourselfer.  Even better if you lack the coding skills necessary to create your own templates.  It's a great way to showcase your designs without dousing those creative fires with hours on coding.  Couple that with the variety of CMS systems it supports, this is the genuine ticket! 

Take it for a spin, kick the tires, look under the hood... I can almost promise you'll be hooked from the first day.  Once you see how quickly you can change your site's theme, you'll see it's worth well more than the asking price. Download Free Trial of Artisteer.

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Here's a few tips to prevent error messages PRIOR to installing your Artisteer template in Joomla (or any other system).  Artisteer is a great program. Like all graphics programs, it is memory intensive. Here's a few things you can do to eliminate error messages and have your installs go seamlessly and display beautifully from the beginning.

First, most of us will create a few custom graphics for our site. Dependent upon your graphics program, CPU speed, memory limitations, etc. you will have a number of temporary files floating around in your system which may/may not interfere with other graphics programs (Artisteer). It's important you clear your computer's cache and "tmp" files prior to using Artisteer if you don't want any conflicts.

PREPARING YOUR TEMPLATE:

1. IMPORTANT! Prior to using Artisteer, clean your computer's cache, prefetch (if enabled) and all .tmp files.
2.  Next, end all non-essential programs prior to use as it will speed up the program (regardless of CPU speed or amount of memory you have).
3.  Make sure you create file in proper format (i.e. Joomla, Blogger, Drupal, Wordpress, etc.) I use all formats and sometimes forget to change it.
4.  Create/Modify template, Save to "artx" file and exit Artisteer.
5.  Repeat Step 1.
6.  Bring up Artisteer, Select your template THEN export file to desired format WITHOUT ANY CHANGES.

PREPARING TO UPLOAD:

1. Check your file permissions on the live site prior to uploading. See Note below on file permissions.
2. Double check your FTP program settings:
3. Limit simultaneous uploads to 1 (eliminates errors in transfer on fast servers),
4. Set transfer mode to Binary, and
5. Set FTP to verify each upload (guarantees files are identical after transfer).

AFTER YOU UPLOAD:

All templates are not created equally.  They don't have the same module positions. The most common display problem after enabling a template is forgetting to go to Admin Control Panel> Extensions> Modules.  Double-check the position for EACH module in use to insure it matches module positions for Artisteer template.

TWO NOTES:

The average install on a Joomla site will have in excess of 7,000 files. It's always a good idea to make sure your file permissions are set properly before you install a new extension (template). There's a great program call Admin Tools which will do this for you at the touch of a button. It's free, it's easy and will save you many hours of grief. Read about it and download here: http://www.akeebabackup.com/download/official/admintools.html

Next, if you aren't testing your templates locally (offline) prior to installing on a production (online) site, you should be. It's the best way to find errors prior to screwing up a live site. Use Xampp if you are new to this method. It's easy, it's FREE and it supports all OS systems: Here's the link for info and downloading: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

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A subject I see more and more these days is whether or not you, as a designer, should reveal all the "tricks and tools of the trade" to your clients (or on your own site).  Obviously, there's a limit to how detailed you should get with the "hows and whys" of software you use to develop a site.  For most clients, there's a fine line between being informed and T.M.I. (too much information).  As an example, I may develop a site for Linux on a Windows computer.  Should I explain how Windows core works?  Of course not!  But my client will know this up front.  In essence, from the beginning, Microsoft gets their proper credit and my client trusts me to know HOW to use my tools.

The bottom line is this.... you will need software to create ANY site.  So where do you draw the line?  The list can be endless by the time you have created the final product.

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