Complete Noob in need of help!!

[yummymummy]

OK, go on ... laugh very loudly at me!! I'm am completely new to web design and all things domain related and openly admit that, but I have a question that will make most of your toes curl!

OK, so I'm designing my first site just now. I say designing in the loosest possible sense. I'm using a template I've bought and I'm attempting to personalise it. ( I did say I was a noob!) The template contains an image at the top of the web page which has a URL. I was hoping to delete this image and replace it with a picture from my own computer. How on earth do I do that?

Grateful for any help offered - not grateful for any slagging offered!

Yummy xxx

 

[sibaong]

Edit/delete/replace using graphic/image (editing) software such as photoshop, corel, etc.

 

[swimjenni]

I'll be glad to help you the best I can! Everyone had to start sometime so there is no need to be laugh at you or any other newbie!
I would suggest getting and using Dreamweaver which is a webdesign program. If you don't have it, pm me and I'll tell you how you can get it. Then open the template in Dreamweaver, depending on how it is coded will depending on how easly you can change the image. You maybe able to just click the image and then you will see a box at the bottom and one says SCR. Click the folder next to it and find your image you want. Then click ok and it should see it. If this doesn't work, let us know! Anymore questions, let us know!

 

[TestCase]

First off, Welcome to NP "YM"!

Now, before you go any further, you MUST learn the most important rule there is to learn about anything dealing with websites...

That rule is - BEFORE you make ANY changes, BACKUP EVERYTHING to a seperate directory - no matter how small the change is!!!

If you learn and follow this rule religously, you will save yourself TONS of frustration, anger and grief (time, effort & $$$ too) in this and ALL future endeavors...

As to your question, I won't be able to provide you with an exact step-by-step procedure, but I'll give you a global overview and you can use your favorite search engine to track down additional info.

The first thing you will need is a replacement image, do you have that already? (And the legal rights to use it???... :hehe: )

Next you'll have to make it the same size as the image you'll be replacing. Depending on the new picture's current dimensions, this can mean using your favorite graphics program (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Irfanview, etc) to enlarge, reduce, and/or crop it so that it is the same size as the one you want to replace.

How you do this varies depending on which graphics program you use. If you don't have a graphics program and/or have one but no idea how to use it, then it's time to start up the search engines... There are any number of trial versions or free ones you can download, but for basic image manipulation, Paint Shop Pro (full featured - get the 30 day demo) or Irfanview (good, basic features - 100% free) may be your 2 of your best options. (Photoshop is a monster in terms of complexity, learning curve, and size of the download... but its a great program to learn if you have lots of time and $$$.)

Once you've succesfuly created the right size image, save it using the same name and file type as your current image and then swap the two, this way you won't have to change the underlying code.

I know this is pretty general info, but hope it helps...

 

[Barrucadu]

Look at the source of the page (open it in notepad or something) then find the image code, it will look something like this:

<img src="image name" width="xxx" height = "xxx" />

Then change the src="image name" to the path to your image.

 

[yummymummy]

Thanx for tips guys! Will have a look at all these later when the sprogs are tucked up and not swinging off my legs while I try and sort it!!! (Really!)

But just quickly ... Mikor, I tried your one just now as it looked the quickest and easiest. Found the code easily and switch it for the path of my file, but my changes are not saving in notepad! Have tried 4 times, and each time saved, but the image on my site remains the same, and when I go back in to look at the code again it has defaulted back to the template image.

Any ideas???

Yummy xxx

 

[Barrucadu]

Thanx for tips guys! Will have a look at all these later when the sprogs are tucked up and not swinging off my legs while I try and sort it!!! (Really!)

But just quickly ... Mikor, I tried your one just now as it looked the quickest and easiest. Found the code easily and switch it for the path of my file, but my changes are not saving in notepad! Have tried 4 times, and each time saved, but the image on my site remains the same, and when I go back in to look at the code again it has defaulted back to the template image.

Any ideas???

Yummy xxx

Did you edit all the files with the image you want to change? Are you sure you edited the right image code (if there are multiple images)? Did you click save (some people forget that, lol)?

 

[yummymummy]

Mikor.... did a search through the whole script for every occurance of the image I was to replace. Everywhere I found it I replaced it with my image path. And yes I clicked save! Not that much of a noob! It's just plain not updating my changes!

Yummy xxx

 

[Barrucadu]

OK, post the code (and the image path you want) and i'll have a look

<edit> And next time, for something like this use the programming section.

 

[Datalife]

Just wondering, did you upload the new image into the right image folder? Becos that is where your site goes to look for your image. You need to remove the old image totally and just replace it with the new image of your choice. Of course it needs to be the same size too as the old one unless you want a different size.

Images should be located inside an image file. Can you locate where it's at on your site? Also you need to rename the image to a suitable one or rename the image name in the index (I assume its ur homepage) to match the new change.

Think of a webpage as made of different parts. If you want to change the logo, just find where exactly its located and replace it with a new picture.

 

[TestCase]

I'm going to make a guess here that may be completely wrong, but I believe that Notepad will automatically save a file as a text file (.txt) unless you tell it otherwise. So though you might think your saving it as "index.html", Notepad may be saving as "index.html.txt"...

Again, I could be completely incorrect...

Also verify that Notepad is saving it to the correct directory/file folder.

By the way, there are a number of other free text editors out there that have a lot of neat functions that you will find useful as your knowledge and skills develop (like saving files under their original name and extension...). The only one that I can ever remember is Crimson Editor but there are lots of others.

 

[yummymummy]

OK, thanx again for all the input guys. Thanxs Mikor in particular for very kind offer - still plugging away at it but will keep you in mind.

Perhaps should have mentioned that the template in use is from one of these 'instant site manager' deals, and so the image it's trying to pull is one from that company's website. Whereas the image I want to replace it with is a photograph on my c:\ Don't know if that makes a difference or not to anything said previous.

Sorely tempted to give up and go back to the day job! Don't cope well with noob-hood! :red:

Yummy xxx

 

[TestCase]

Hi YM,

Sounds like you're a little greener than I thought and may be trying to walk (run?) before you are able to crawl.

You might want to consider picking up a book such as "Websites for Dummies" (no offense meant ) at the store or from the local library. It will get you started on the basics and will be handy to have around as a quick reference that you can read anywhere (versus something online). You might also see if there is someone one that you know (or some kid in the neighborhood) that might be able to help you with website basics.

Also see if this website might be of help in getting a better understanding of website basics:
http://www.genifla.bravehost.com/

The most important thing is to NOT be afraid to screw things up - hence the original tip about backing up EVERYTHING before making changes! If you make a complete mess of things then just reload from your backup and try again!!!

By the way, very few people start making lots of cash from their websites at the beginning. Remember, that creating a website can be the easy part, getting people to the site (via SEO, marketing, etc) and getting them to click on the ads is going to be the hardest and most important part.

Believe in yourself, have a little (or a lot of...) patience and stick with it, you'll begin to understand things and your website(s) will start to come together just the way you want, and hopefully soon be bringing in the $ (and posibly even $$$...).

 

[yummymummy]

Very tactfully put Testcase! Hey - did stress I was a complete Noob!

Had someone who was going to help me with all this, but that's fallen through now, so having to fly solo, hense NP SOS! Not interested in making money from this - just a wee pet project at this stage to get to grips with it all, and we'll see after that.

Anyways, will forget image replacement for the meantime until I can get my head round it all, and focus on getting the rest of the site ready instead.

Thanks one and all for humouring me so well! You are all truly yummy!

Yummy xxx