Joomla

[blazzar]

For some royalty free open source designs you can try www.oswd.org, you can do most of the changes you would need with notepad and then upload them using a free FTP program.

[TheFaQQer]

If you're doing it in static HTML, then Sizzling HTML Jalfrezi has some good examples and reference for what different tags actually do.

[designationlocutus]

Hi. I'm echoing Chicane and DaveB here.

I have had good experience with Joomla. If it's a 5 page site just build it with static HTML. If you're new to HTML it might be good to start with the basics and the site that you propose will be ideal. Joomla would let you add content quickly, but the templating system is fiddly in the beginning.

I recommend you go to the W3Schools site and start with HTML and CSS. You should be fine from there.

Good luck with the site

[Clippy]

Just bear in mind that Joomla, and any other CMS application, will help you put the site together but will not help you design it. There is a big difference and if you want something that looks professional it takes a lot more than a wizzy CMS system. Once you've got a good, well presented and well designed, site then Joomla is an nice easy way to manage it and add new content.

Yep, kinda of realised this after the event when I was looking at Moonfruit which 'seems' to aid in the design.

I wouldn't mind giving Joomla a look see, more out of curiosity, but as with everything nowadays, it's about finding the time.

[DaveB]

Just bear in mind that Joomla, and any other CMS application, will help you put the site together but will not help you design it. There is a big difference and if you want something that looks professional it takes a lot more than a wizzy CMS system. Once you've got a good, well presented and well designed, site then Joomla is an nice easy way to manage it and add new content.

[Clippy]

Chicane - thanks for this. Appreciate you taking the time to reply.
Will check out the site you mentioned.

Also followed Cojaks earlier suggestion and in a previous thread on a similar topic, someone mentioned Moonfruit which I had forgotten about. For £23, you quite a good package so will investigate further.

Once again, thanks to all who replied.

[chicane]

If I was to go down the HTML route, where do I actually start. i.e I'm guessing there are ready built (free) templates available on the web. Any sites you could recommend? Only reason I pitched in with Joomla from the get go was did a quick search yesterday for templates and there seem to be a fair few out there.

Just out of interest, why do you say Joomla is overkill?
Is it difficult to use? How different is it to HTML coding?

Just typed 'free html templates' into Google and got http://www.templateyes.com/ as the first entry. Looks like they provide HTML, CSS and images for some of the templates, so you should be able to load into Dreamweaver and get editing.

From then on it should be a matter of copying the template HTML five times (assuming the template is suitable for 'inner content' pages), put the appropriate content in each page, and voila - instant website.

Regarding Joomla being overkill, I believe it's a developer-facing platform on which to build complex content-managed websites, rather than a user-facing utility for building simple websites.

[Clippy]

Cojak - Fair point and will do. Took the easy path and submitted the question before thinking.

Gables - Thanks for the heads up. Will keep this in mind if I go down the Joomla path.

Chicane - This was the type of response I was hoping for. Don't come from a programming/coding background so am a real newbie to this. Have recently started playing with basic HTML and Dreamweaver.

If I was to go down the HTML route, where do I actually start. i.e I'm guessing there are ready built (free) templates available on the web. Any sites you could recommend? Only reason I pitched in with Joomla from the get go was did a quick search yesterday for templates and there seem to be a fair few out there.

Just out of interest, why do you say Joomla is overkill?
Is it difficult to use? How different is it to HTML coding?

TIA.

[chicane]

Need to bang together a simple website of about half a dozen pages regarding me and my services.
Was thinking of using www.joomla.org which looks quite good

Using something like Joomla seems overkill for a brochure site of half a dozen pages. Why not just build the pages from static HTML?

[gables]

Also, do all hosts support Joomla websites?

TIA.

One thing to check is the version of PHP\MySql is installed on the host, I can't remember what versions Joomla requires these days, the docs should tell you.

[cojak]

Hey Clippy - do a search on here for Joomla and Nvu, will ya?

[Clippy]

Need to bang together a simple website of about half a dozen pages regarding me and my services.

Nothing fancy but needs to look good - more of a brochure of Clippy Svcs Ltd.

Was thinking of using www.joomla.org which looks quite good

Not being a coder, thought I'd check with thos in the know if this is the way to go or if there are better (free) alternatives.

Also, do all hosts support Joomla websites?

TIA.