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Simple backgrounds

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:09:05 +0100

I realize that if your new to the world of website creation, then it can be a daunting task. You realize your problems as they present themselves to you, then it's a matter of sifting through everything that's available on the web in order to find what you need. I thought for this post I would create some very simple backgrounds using subtle gradients. This way you can download whatever may match your needs. This may be the simplest means of customization because all you have to agree with is the color. Some pre-made templates and backgrounds include patterns and symbols that have no way of appealing to the widest audience. I will start this segment off with some shades of green, then I can add others as you request them. I have formatted the files so that they will tile seamlessly in you background, but at the same time load very quickly. So download the zip file and give it a try.

DOWNLOAD ZIP

Images as Links (Alternative Angling)

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:46:45 +0100

This is my first "workshop" post. I will basically offer my assistance to selected synthasite users who may be having some difficulties concerning their site. Our first submission comes from a nice gentlemen by the name of Steve. He posted a question within the synthasite forum support pages over at getsatisfaction.He wanted to find a way to increase the link size for the given style he is using. Above is a screenshot of his site before this posting.

Solution: I have a "low tech" solution for Steve - basically you use small images as links to your pages. You also "hide" the pages from your menu bar to clean up the look of your website. Now, from what I can see - Steve has a link called "this weeks fishing"; he has two articles up there currently, and he has labeled them as dates. I think he should convert this page to a blog page. This is an easy way to post and archive posts especially for journal style entries. His current homepage has a brief description of himself which would fit perfectly in the "About me" widget found within the blog style page.

1. First thing is to determine what kind of images to use as links. If you're resourceful enough, you can scour the web, or simply design something yourself. Remember this is low tech, so you won't find any roll-over effects, but it will look much nicer than the current links. I took the liberty of designing some links for Steve if he likes them, he can use them on his site.

Above is a representation of the blog style template for this page. I would suggest rearranging the widgets to have the blog post to be to the right of the links, otherwise it will be "squished" into a tall column of text.

2. Find the edit menu

and open it up in order to hide the default links of pages you create. For Steve, these links would be "home, before leaving home, arriving at the water, how I fish, what bait, taking pictures, and this weeks fishing". See the edit menu below.

You're going to drag all those links from the left side of this window to the right side, which would hide them from view on you actual site. Just remember to have all the image links you need, otherwise no-one will be able to move around your site.Once you've done this, you can click okay and return to your main website builder

3. Now we want to upload our images onto the page and then assign links to them. If you don't know how to upload images, you can find the tutorial here. To assign links, look to the left of your website builder to the "content sidebar".

With your image widget selected, choose the "properties" tab to reveal the properties. Look further down, and there is a "choose link" button. The first option in the window that appears, lets you assign a link to other pages on your site. Do this repeatedly for all your links. Remember to have this same links on all the pages so that your users can easily move around your site.

Here is the finished product. Hopefully it was easy to follow, if not you can post questions within the comments section and I will try to find a better way to illustrate everything here. (Download buttons here)

Scenic Banner

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:34:10 +0100

This beautiful set of scenic banners was submitted by Mxser over at Deviantart. Depending on what kind of site you're looking to create try to create a mood that's consistent with the message you're trying to convey. It may be difficult to select the right banner but it takes a little time and effort to produce a package that will speak to the target audience on many levels. I believe that the harder it is to do something, the more thought and care you'll put into it. Having said this, Synthasite makes it extremely easy to put a website together that you will naturally rush to throw all the pieces together. The tools are there for you to succeed, so put some effort into it.

Glassy Banners for your Synthasite Header

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:53:58 +0100

I know that the styles currently available on the styles page of the website builder, may not satisfy the needs of every synthasite user. If you would like that Web 2.0 , glossy look - I have the banners for you. I'm working hard to compile a database of design elements that you can easily integrate with the already available styles and layouts.

These banners will look nice on the "CLEAN SLATE" and "BARE NECESSITIES" styles. These banners have the recommended 900x125 pixel dimensions; which means they will fit the space naturally without ugly distortions. Just remember, selecting the color palette for you preferred style, look at the preview to see what color text is used. Currently you can only use black or white depending on the style and color palette, so depending on the banner you use, preview it to make sure that your text is visible.

These beautiful banners have been generously provided by the design folks at BittBox

(RIGHT CLICK ON IMAGE TO SAVE TO YOUR COMPUTER)

How to align widgets

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 15:39:40 +0100

I'm gonna briefly outline how I like to keep all the elements on my site spaced and aligned evenly. It's a very basic tutorial but I'm simply demonstrating how I apply the available features.

With all the widgets placed roughly where you would like them on your page in the sitebuilder you should preview the page.

Use the "Preview Button" located in the page editor's tool bar.

Once you get a sense of what your website is going to look like, you should be able to see what looks out of line and how to better organize your site. Here is an example of this website with a few of the widgets out of alignment.

Some may say this looks fine the way it is, but if you have OCD then the corrections above need to be made. It's a quick fix that I always perform before my sites are live. To move the widgets in line with the blog widget (the red margins) I use the "Properties" tab found on the right side of you page builder on the "Content Sidebar". Within this tab are margin settings for all your widgets (except the HTML widget).

From this point you can enter varying values and as you input the numbers you can see how the widget moves. Sometimes it is necessary to hit preview because how the widgets line up in the page builder, is not the same way they will appear in preview mode. If your HTML widget is not aligned how you want it to be, you can easily address this by nesting the HTML widget with a TWO-COLUMN widget.

The reason you do this is because the HTML widget does not have margin properties, so the placing it within a TWO-COLUMN widget will help you adjust where the widget is placed. Of course if you're a fancy pants, you could always edit the html to place it exactly, but I don't believe a typical synthasite user needs to know how to code.
Have fun organizing your layouts.

Synthasite Styles and layouts

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:37:44 +0100

I'd like to take a look at MY favorite layouts on synthasite. Of course, I'm able to design my own banners and backgrounds, so I always select a layout from one of four choices.

Clean Slate, No Frills, Squeaky Clean, and Bare Necessities.

As I continue to design and upload backgrounds and banners, you will be able to use these to get better looking websites; meaning more unique. What I have noticed with some of the sites made using Synthasite is that it is so simple and so easy to create a website, without need or knowledge of html or css that people end up just throwing widgets onto a page to get a site up as quickly as possible. Think clearly and carefully about what your intentions for a website are. Is it a personal blog about something you're passionate about, or do you want to have an online presence for your business? What ever it is, the layouts are cruical to how people perceive your site when they first see it. Make sure you can read the text on the page and that the background is not confusing the content on your website. When you create your website, try to make sure your widgets and elements are aligned in a way that makes sense. It's more pleasing to the eye when the elements of your site seem to fall into place.

(backgrounds) - Stains

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:25:15 +0100

Here is a background that I just through together. Really simple stain effect. For whatever reason I'm partial to white backgrounds. I'm an advocate of less is more and white does it for me. This is a nice background for blogging I think, again with the squeaky clean template, the design is not over-whelming but the effect casts a mystic mood. This only my second design, but I'm going to need inspiration. One thing that I have noticed, however, is that I have to keep these files small. Any bigger than a couple hundred kilobytes and your page is going to take a long time to load. I hope the people over at synthasite are working on a fix, that will give us access to the html for the background. I'm not a coding expert, but I do think that the sites people will be able to produce just with this basic feature will be incredible. "Stained" is available for free download.

P r e v i e w

(backgrounds) - Sun Flower

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:48:41 +0100

Okay - my first post is about the sunflower-theme that you see featured as the theme for this site. It's a simple design; blue sky gradient with a sunflower border. Most of my sites that I create, are created using the "squeaky clean" template.This way I have the most flexibility. Sometimes if I need to use a banner, then I'll use the "Clean Slate" template. The maximum dimensions for this background is 1920x1700. I do this so that the background doesn't start "tiling" on my 24" screen. I also use a laptop, so I tried to scale the sunflowers so that they wont overlap with your header if your screen resolution is in the 1280x720 range.

I have to say, this is my biggest gripe concerning layouts. It would be great if we could select how we need our background image to be displayed i.e centered, stretched, left align, repeating. It's okay - I'm sure the folks over at Synthasite are working on features that are far more important. So, for the time being, any backgrounds that I upload will follow the format of my main theme "sunflower", so that you get a consistent result. Please leave comments, let me know what you think about sunflower - Remember every background will not be for everybody, so be gentle.

Preview this theme

Introduction

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:31:17 +0100

Welcome to Synthetic Elements. This is a blog concerning "all things synthasite". If you have found this site, it means you're the type of individual that's willing to learn a new thing or two in order to get something done yourself. If you fit this description, it basically means that you're not a technical person, but you're capable of learning and absorbing enough details needed to accomplish something easily and inexpensively.
As far as do-it-yourself website builders are concerned; I've only dealt with one - Synthasite. This service is as easy as it gets, and its getting better. I've always wanted to learn how to launch my own blog, but became quickly overwhelmed and did not know where to begin.
On this platform (synthasite) I can do the "hard" stuff easily and quickly; basically getting the site launched.The HTML widget that is available within synthasite, is one of the main components that will help you in the development of your web design skills. As you build your sites, you will come across elements and features on other sites that you want to incorporate into your own site. Some of it will be simple HTML, while other stuff will start dealing with cascading style sheets (CSS) and javascript (whatever that means). Eventually all the little things you learn will get you to where you're going even if it's one widget at a time.