Web design in InDesign?

[Shanno...@adobeforums.com]

I am a veteran of print media. Ask me to do a brochure or a newsletter and I'm confident. However, I was asked by a close friend to design a website for him. He simply wants a static website with some pictures and about 4 levels deep.

Can I create the pages in InDesign? I do own GoLive 6.0 but have never used it. I'd appreciate a kick in the right direction.

Thanks!

[Richard_...@adobeforums.com]

GoLive. It will take you about a day to do a simple site. You can export your ID doc but you will still have to tweak it in GL so might as well do it all in GL.

[TC...@adobeforums.com]

I agree. ID has no web layout features, per se...and GoLive does that job very, very well...

[Erik_N...@adobeforums.com]

You can easily create a simple graphical interface in Photoshop...then bring that into ImageReady where you slice up the interface and assign links to the appropriate slices.

You can export your ImageReady document to html (where it creates your html template and an images folder)...and open the result in GoLive for finishing.

don't try to build a site in InDesign.

[Al...@adobeforums.com]

I agree with everyone else. There are plenty of tutorials and tricks that you can find online for GoLive. Check out the GoLive forums. You may even want to get the Quickstart Guide or something similar. Once you get the hang of designing sites with a GUI-based web program, simple static sites become easy.

[Bu...@adobeforums.com]

Shannon use imageReady.

I like to tweek the imageready stuff in GoLive.

But remember the spyders can't read the text in a Jpeg or giff (picture)

if the text is important you need to set it as text in a HTML app, like GoLive or DreamWeaver.

[Shanno...@adobeforums.com]

I have been messing around quite a bit the past couple days. I have a list of questions:

1. Is it possible to create an entire web page in Photoshop with slices/text, etc.? Then simply place that on a page in GoLive?
2. If I do this do I get big, bloated .html doing that?
3. Should I leave any "body text" as text in the .psd file?
4. If so, should I use a universal font (Arial) for the "body text"?
5. Can I edit that text once the smart .psd file is placed in GoLive?

I am very confident with my Photoshop skills; however, I don't want to go and do some snazzy design in Photoshop if it's not practical to bring it into GoLive to create the site plan, etc.

[Shanno...@adobeforums.com]

Buko,

In my Photoshop file I have an area of white for text, but am unable to place a text box on top of the image in GoLive. That's what prompted my question about text.

For example, let's say I have a photo that has a large white box in the middle of the image. I would prefer to do as you say and place text in GoLive, but how?

Shannon

[Eric...@adobeforums.com]

Shannon--

In order to place text on top of a graphic in GoLive you need to get into floating boxes, and this is going to take you places you don't want to go until you are very familiar with web pages and GoLive both.

For the sake of doing a simple, basic, static website, stick with basic stuff. A few hints---

Use a grid from the Objects Palette. I usually set mine about 600 points wide with a 9x9 grid (which sort of works out to 1/8" in the "real" world). The grid will give you a fair amount of flexibility in laying out the page, but bear in mind that photos and text cannot intrude on each other's space.

By the time you get 4 or 5 pages knocked together, you should understand how GoLive more or less works. If nothing else, you'll have a familiar base of knowledge to build on when you want to get into the more complex stuff like CSS and floating boxes.

[Jennife...@adobeforums.com]

GoLive is the way to go by a long shot. I've always done my design comps in Illustrator and executed in GoLive or Dreamweaver.

In addition to the Adobe forums there are also a number of very useful sites/forums that will offer help and tutorials: try GoLiveTalk list at blueworld and the GoLiveHeaven site to start.

Use photoshop and its export for web capabilities for your images. Don't build a whole site as an image and slice it. The text in the image won't be searchable or selectable. I second Eric's suggestion of using the grid for tight positioning as you are starting out. Floating boxes are a much harder proposition and you have to really work on them to get them to behave across platforms/apps (or supply alternative page views with a browser-detect option to deal with the ones that will see mayhem arriving at your page).