All,

I've got Site Designer for Mac with a Webbie annual account. The Site Designer software and the guides are likely intuitive for those who can intuit but, for me, I'm lost. Something's not clicking. I can't even get a profile picture added!

The guides only get me so far. Can anyone point me to any material that shows what does what, why and how?

Best,

Robert Ballou
Hampstead, MD

Welcome to Coffee Cup forum, I would suggest opening Site designer and click on the help function its the last on the right in the row of functions listed upper left of application. They have a bunch of choices in the help. Is pretty much a complete how to. With new software start reading and trying the more you read and try the more progress made. Also you might find some how to videos by doing a you tube coffee cup site designer search. After some trial and error you can come back to the forum with some specific problem help requests. Do not be shy, that is what the forum is for.

Good Afternoon Greg,

Thanks for getting back to me. Been there and done all that (it's useful up to a point). There's a great deal of esoteric information but little by way of demonstrable application. I've tried to shortcut my way by pulling in a template made available to me on the S-Drive that I've set up at w3pga.coffeecup.com. I'm at a loss to determine how to download that template into Site Designer for editing. There are files that open up in an HTML editor but I don't code so that's a dead end. Advice?

Best,

Robert Ballou

Hello Rob

The templates on SDrive are not for downloading to Site DesignerYou could try going to
https://themes.coffeecup.com/#templates
there are some free ones there for Site Designer which you can download, and give one a try out to get you going.

Can I ask how much experience you have in website design & development? sometimes it can be good and sometimes not so good, because Site Designer is a Drag & Drop type of Application (A Bit More sophisticated than that) abd sometimes many experienced designer/developers, find it hard to get into it.

I don't use Mac, but the principles and ways of How to are basically the same.. I could do a couple of introduction videos where are you based?

In addition to what Wayan says, you could also just open Site Designer (SD for short) and look at the templates that come with the app. If you have one called 'Get Started', 'Easy Start' or 'Visions' you could try selecting one of them, as they don't have too many different features to learn to master for a beginner. Those templates I mentioned are made to be built from wide to narrow, but if you prefer working from narrow to wide, I could convert them for you.

Good luck, and if you get stuck, just yell! Someone will come to help you.

Good Afternoon Wayan,

Thanks for reaching out. I've edited sites in the past (changing a name or some other term) and most of my computer interaction is in MS-Office (PowerPoint comes to mind). Adobe Photoshop is another bit of software I've worked with as well as iMovie. What I'd like to see are specific tools in action. The Site Designer guide tells me what something does but it's not showing me the significance of what it does. By way of metaphor, if I introduced someone to an automobile and they clearly never saw one in their lives, pointing at the accelerator and saying, "this makes it go" without demonstrating what "it" is and what "go" means then there's going to be a bit of a learning curve until that person actually sees it in action. That's where I feel I'm at.

I gather that the bulk of the software is about allowing the designer to work on some parts of a web page without risking changes to other parts of the page(s). That's what interested me in this software in the first place. I'm convinced that I'll figure all of this out someday but I feel like I'm doing so with less than adequate instruction or guidance. Of course, there's GOT to be something a little more exhaustive out there that allows me to see this software at work.

Finally, why would CoffeeCup make a template available (one that I could just edit) without making it possible for me to download and edit it? Is it meant for their HTML Editor software (Windows only)?

Best,

Robert Ballou
Hampstead, MD
USA

I don't know why those templates on display as examples haven't been changed out long ago. They are not responsive, and they are not for SD. I'll tell the CC staff that they are misleading, to say the least. Do as Wayan and I have suggested and choose a template for SD from where they are offered. I think that maybe the ones that come with the app are the easiest because you don't need to import anything from elsewhere.

THANKS SO MUCH! I do appreciate it! I'm convinced this will somehow "click" when I least expect it.

Best,

Robert Ballou
Hampstead, MD

Finally, why would CoffeeCup make a template available (one that I could just edit) without making it possible for me to download and edit it? Is it meant for their HTML Editor software (Windows only)?

Yes or any other HTML editor , but as Inger says,, not really very usefull or any use nowadays. Its now easier to simply publish a site directly to SDrive, from Site Designer, (I use mine for testing before full publishing, and SDive is great for publishing any Web Forms made by Web Form Builder,, no messing about with User Configs or manually installing Recaptcha ,, Hit publish,, BOOM there it is ready to go done and dusted.