Website Layout. Liquid or Fixed?

March 25th, 2009

It’s a long term argument whether a website layout should be liquid or fixed. Each side has hundreds of followers, but the argument doesn’t seem to be settled. So, what are fixed and liquid layouts?

In a fixed width layout each element has a specified size, the web page doesn’t change when the browser window is resized. Your website will look exactly the same on any browser and computer.

In a liquid layout the size of the elements adopts to the browser size and preferences of the user. The web page elements size increases when the screen resolution is larger and decreases when the resolution is smaller.
There naturally are major pros and cons of both fixed and liquid layouts.

Fixed layouts advantages:

* Gives a designer full control over the page display
* Allows you to place images exactly in relation to other elements and type sizes
* Gives the line length that is easy to read
* Predictable default printing behavior

Fixed layouts disadvantages:

* Doesn’t give the user control over the page and text size
* May create a not optimal type size
* May produce large amount of unused window space that may increase the amount of scrolling.

Liquid layout advantages:

* Allows a maximum use of space.
* Gives a user control over the web page and text sizing.
* Allows people with vision problems to easily change the text size to suit their needs with the layout automatically adjusting around the increased size.

Liquid layout disadvantages:

* May produce hard to read line lengths or unreadable text if the screen size is too large or too small.
* May cause problems with default page printing.
* The image size to text proportion may create a less eligible look

So what side of the argument do you take? And what kind of web designs do you prefer to see more?

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Posted in General Talk, How To | 5 Comments »

How to name your website

March 4th, 2009

Now that you are already working on your site design and its overall appearance and feel, have you chosen how to name the website ?

Starting a successful online business requires several important tasks to do, one of the most important among them is choosing a right domain name. The domain name identifies your website just as your name identifies you. To be successful you need people to remember your name so that they can find you easily.
So what is a domain name? Specifically, domain name is an alphanumeric unique name that fingers individual web sites on the Net. It can be up to 67 characters, that can be 26 English letters, numerals 0-9 and hyphens (-).
Note: domain name can contain several hyphens, but can not begin with one.
Domain names have extentions or TLD (Top Level Domain). These are based on the type of organization they are associated with.
Common extentions include:

.org     nonprofit organization
.net     commercial network
.edu     educational institutions
.gov     government agencies
.mil     military
.com     commercial business

There also are additional domain extentions: biz, bz, info, tv etc.

It is a common knowledge that the best domain names are long ago sold, but don’t get upset right away better be creative.

First of all remember that your domain name should be:
- short,
- memorable,
- related to your business,
- hard to misspell

Shorter domain names are easier to type and remember and the possibility of a mistake made is far less, but every rule has an exception. Some long domains can be easier to remember. For example ltspck.com is set of unrelated letters and is difficult to remember, but LayoutsPack.com that stands for ltspck.com is much easier to remember ;) .

You should also consider hyphened names. Along with some disadvantages there are great cons in them. Disadvantages of hyphened domains are:
- Hyphens can be easily forgot when typing a name.
- When a person recommends your website verbally he/she most likely will omit the hyphens in your domain.

Along with these minuses are great pluses:
- Search engines can better distinguish keywords in your domain name
- Your desired non-hyphened name can no longer be available, but the hyphened one most likely will be there. In this way you can get your desired domain name.

Now make a list of the preferred word combinations and start searching for the availability of these domain names. And don’t get upset if the first ones won’t be available. Remember to be creative and success will come to you!

What are the main issues YOU follow when choosing a domain name?

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Posted in General Talk, How To | 2 Comments »

Flash Templates Knowledge Base

November 26th, 2008

LayoutsPack cares about its users and we try to provide you with useful and helpful information. We continue our Web Templates Types review, so please welcome some fresh pieces of advice. Today we are going to speak about Flash Templates.

Flash Templates represent ready-made usual web design templates improved by Flash technology. Nowadays Flash Templates are of great popularity as they are considered to be advanced and modern and are appreciated by webmasters. Using Flash Templates as a basis for your website you will get vivid and impressive web presence supplemented with movements, sound and visual effects. And you may be sure your clients and visitors will be amazed how professional and qualitative your website is.
Flash Templates can relate to various categories, such as Education Flash Templates, Business templates & Finance Flash Templates, Photo Flash Templates and many others. In other words they will perfectly fit each of your purposes, either commercial or personal, and will meet all your requirements. Though Flash Templates may seem difficultly organized because of impressive animation effects, they are quite easy to work with and customize. You won’t need extra knowledge to cope with your Flash Template editing. You can easily change necessary text, images or symbols with the help of certain flash editors which exist specially for simplifying your work.
In order to work with Flash Templates and edit them you will need to install Macromedia Flash on your computer. After the installation is complete you may open the FLA file (you will find the instructions in our previous post) and start carrying out necessary tasks.
Have a look at the following tips on editing your Flash Templates.

Changing text in Flash

In case you want to modify the text within your Flash Template you only need to take several steps.
First open your FLA file in Macromedia Flash. After that you need to select the very part of the text to be edited. The first way to do it is to make use of the timeline slider. You need to move it and watch the animation process, and when you reach the text you need to edit, stop the slider. Then find “Selection Tool” on the tools panel, double click the necessary text extract and change the text typing new one instead.

Symbols library
Sometimes you may find it hard to access some symbols from the timeline. In this case you may need symbols library. In order to open it select “Library” in “Windows” option which is in the top menu.
To open symbols library you can use “Ctrl + L” hotkey or choose “Window/Library…” from the top menu.
When you get to the symbols library you need to choose the text you want to edit. All the symbols there can be previewed for convenience. After you have found the necessary text double click the symbol’s icon and it will show the text in main window. Then do the same with “Selection Tool” to modify the text.

Text Properties
You can also edit your text size and color by means of Text Tool and Properties Panel. There you will find all necessary icons and options to make the modifications of the selected text.
After you have finished editing your text use “Esc” button to exit and then you may choose other text extracts to modify them as well.

Changing images in Flash
While working with your Flash Template you will definitely need to insert some images, so follow the advice.
After you have opened the FLA file press F11 to get to Symbols Library. Find the necessary symbol there and double click its icon to see the properties. There you will find image preview and be able to check the image size. The picture you want to upload should be of original image size to fit the original animation and effects. You can also set the quality of the image using symbol properties.
You can also resize the image using Adobe Photoshop. To use the image in flash after modification make sure it has “jpeg”, “gif” or “png” format. Use “Import” option and find your image file to paste it then.

Publishing Your Flash Movie
When all the changes are done you should publish your animated header and update it. In order to publish your movie choose “Publish Settings” selecting “Publish” option there. The SWF file will be located in the same folder where FLA file is. Don’t forget to replace previous SWF file with updated one, and then check the changes.

So this was the basic information on Flash Templates we wanted you to familiarize with today. Hope you will make use of it and thank you for the attention.

You are welcome to leave comments and ask questions if necessary.

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Posted in General Talk, How To, Website Templates | 1 Comment »

Flash Animated Templates Knowledge Base

November 18th, 2008

Layoutspack.com continues familiarizing its users with information about website templates types. And today we have Flash Animated Templates in question.

Flash Animated Templates are the kind of web templates that combine sound effects and live action in one. They may have flash header, animated menu and will appear a perfect solution suitable for impressing website visitors not only with professional design but also with interactive flash technology. Very often 3D models and 3D animation are used. Flash Animated Templates are good choice either for dynamic or static websites, and they will definitely make your website look professional and vivid.

A lot of web designers use Flash Animated Templates nowadays as they are considered to be stylish and improve your website presentation greatly. Nowadays there is a variety of Flash Animated Templates as their popularity grows day by day, and they are quite easy to use – you won’t need extra modern equipment to work with them.
The list of special software you will need to work with Flash Animated Templates is quite short and includes:

-    any HTML editor (Dreamweaver, Front Page etc)
-    Macromedia Flash
-    Adobe Photoshop

Any Flash Animated Template can be also modified according to your demands with the help of any popular HTML editor, and you won’t need special HTML and flash knowledge to edit and improve Flash Animated Templates. You can replace any photo, text or object easily.

In order to make necessary modifications you will work with the template FLA file – a file with all graphics and animation. You will make use of it with the help of Macromedia Flash MX 6 or higher. In order to open the FLA file, select “Open” in the “File” section, and then simply find where your FLA file is located.

“Unexpected file format” error

It happens sometimes that when you open your FLA file in the Flash editor you receive an error message which says that the file format is unexpected. This can be explained by the fact that your template source files were created with newer versions of the software.
So what are you to do? All you need is to upgrade your version of Adobe Flash/Macromedia, and you will be able to open the FLA file properly. In order not to meet such obstacles in future make sure you use Adobe Flash CS3 or Flash 8.
Thank you for your attention, this is the piece of information for today and we hope you will find it useful. Any comments and questions are accepted, so feel free to share your opinion.

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Posted in General Talk, How To, Website Templates | 2 Comments »