Howdy experts...

Long story short: I needed a website, but being mostly a fine art painter, I don't know anything about HTML or publishing. But I knew what I wanted my site to look like, so I designed the whole thing in Photoshop, preserved the layers, and then saved all the pages, images and thumbnails as PSD files. Then I burned all of it onto a disc, along with the font I wanted used, a list of links I wanted, and some other bits...a single button, site logo, and so forth.

I gave this disc, along with $300 (half up front) to a guy who took my dough and disc and never called again. Upsetting. I had this huge show of paintings coming up in Manhattan, and really wanted to be able to put my web address on the promotional stuff printed for the show. So I found another guy, gave him the same disc and a lot more money, and he at least got the bare bones of the thing up in time for my show. Problem is, he never completed the work, and there are problems with the pages on my site. The background images were first too small, leaving a big black strip across the right side of the screen, and when I asked for a resize, it took three weeks...and now the backgrounds are so big that you have to scroll around to see the whole thing!

Which brings me to my question: I'm fairly good at Photoshop, but I'm a little unclear on if/how it can be used in web publishing... is there a way for me to update my own page from here at home? I'm really ignorant about most of this stuff, but I work quickly and will want images added to my image galleries pretty often, and I don't want to wait three weeks. Is it possible to design stuff in Photoshop and then open the file in some other program, then just hit "publish" somehow? And, since the second guy got the site up and running, what information do I need to get from him in order to be able to access and update my page? Okay, I guess that's a good start.

In case you care, the website in question is www.tiffcoinc.com

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

if you've got g-mail you could send all the files to me, i'll build you a site on my hallcross site and send the finished project back to you, you need the ftp info from the guy who opend the original site/domain, ftp password etc, honest, i get that bored i build imaginary sites all the time, building another real one will be fun.
if you need g-mail send me your e-mail addy by PM,
g-mail allows you to send folders up to 10MB

dont bother la tiff, i i just stole all your pix, backgrounds and text, i just need full size copies of thiese 5, if you can post links to them here, i'll knock a site together for in no time.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c64/thesplodge/HGDFGDF.jpg

Yer awesome Splodge.
I was gonna say , everything good about that site is the work she did.
I'd get my money back.

Maybe I should just cut and paste the address of this forum and send it off to my so-called web designer in an email! Arg. Thanks for any and all feedback...I guess what I'm eventually going to want to do is just learn how to do this stuff myself--I can't really ask Splodge every time...or CAN I?

Meanwhile, Splodge, you just add a link to your site or any other damn thing you want to my site...it's the least I can do!

Hi Tiff,
I just published a site for a friend yesterday and from what I can see on your site, love the backgrounds, it is grossly off center. This can be easily remedied tho. Just offering help if you need it but sounds like splodge has it covered. You go boy! Good luck with your art!

Cheers to Splodge truely a knight in shinning armour. Tiff nice work there hope your show is a genuine success. Hope you get your money back from this creep. Why don't you post his e-mail? He might need some encouragement to do the right thing.

There are a lot of web editing programs out there that don't cost too much. DreamWeaver is my favorite, although it costs a little more than some of the others. Just like Photoshop, there are lots of online resources to help you learn as well.

It's ironic (like a good video for a song you hate, ahem) that I've gotten more support and good ideas in this forum than from either of the guys I paid to do this work! My husband, normally a mild-mannered Englishman, has been practicing his Toughguy affectations in case he has to "walk dude down to the ATM myself." Don't tell him I said this, but the cultivated British accent tends to make him sound less menacing than he would probably like. Maybe I need to get him a cat to stroke--believable Brit Badguys usually stroke a cat, right?

As for posting his email...oooh that's tempting. How about I post our funny (not) exchanges over the last few emails, just to give you all a laugh...here goes some cut-n-paste action.

First I wrote:

"Paul,
Listen, I'm going to buy some software that will allow me to do my own updates...I think I'm going to want to update a lot, and I want to get the site looking good soon. Any suggestions on which programs will let me update my own site easily? It seems like a lot of work for you .

As far as the forum goes, all I really need is a frame that I can type updates on quickly. It can even be on the home page, if that makes it easier for you. I don't need other people to be able to contribute to it...they can email me if they need.

Also, I need to know how to check the tiffcoinc email...please tell me so I can see if anyone has tried to contact me since the site went up!

I guess I just have ants in my pants, I'm wanting to send out an update to people on my mailing list (like real mail, not email)...and I want those 404 pages gone and the sizing fixed and a bunch of stuff added before I mail stuff out (because the mailing is more than 200 people, and I want to put "check the new site" on there...can't do it until the site is good to go, because some of the people on my list are clients).

Let me know which software to buy that I will be able to teach myself...that way I don't have to pressure you any more. I know you're busy.

Tiff "

[Note: you can see right there how I need to toughen up...I mean, I paid the guy already. Why am I apologizing for wanting the work? Back to our story.]

He wrote back:

"there really isnt any software out there that will let you automatically update, or even let you create updates. I coded everything by hand. sorry.
As you the email address... i never made one, it's directed to whatever email you gave me in the beginning. You can try it out yourself... click on the page and email yourself.. you should see it come to your personal one.


Once again I apologize for being so busy, but work is work. I should be finished tonight."

[Note: perhaps people who can't be bothered to use capital letters in business correspondance shouldn't be trusted with small details. Again, Tiff throws money down toilet. However, I did get annoyed enough to send this back last night (just before my original post here]:

"Paul,
Well, I saw about a hundred different programs to do site updates...I just don't know which one to get! Photoshop lets you save as HTML...so I should be able to work on my own site, right? There are morons out there with websites that they update...so I must be able to, too. I just thought you might tell me which program to get. Don't worry about it.

I saw the update to the backgrounds...now we seem to have the opposite problem...the images are so big that you have to scroll, and there's no way to see the entire page at once. Isn't there a way to code it where it will resize depending on the individual user settings?

Let me know.

Tiff"

Would it shock you to hear that I didn't get a response? So thank the Man for you guys, because last night it looked like my options were to go back to school for a web publishing course, get swindled by some more so-called professional site designers, or punch myself in my own head.

So I compromised and punched myself in the spleen. Now I'm here.

By the way, the Manhattan show opened and closed, with one great result and one crappy result: I sold the painting of the Chrysler Building (on the "other work" page as "Square Foot Three") for a fair price...but then I got this one rare kind of food poisoning called scomboid from eating supposedly fancy swiss cheese before the show. The real kicker: This toxin (scomboid) only makes you sick if you have alcohol within twelve hours of ingesting the toxin! Ha! So I drank some red wine at the reception, and next thing you know I'm covered with hives. You ever see that one Twilight Zone where they all have the pig faces? I looked like that. Had to go to the hospital and get shot up with adrenaline and steroids a couple of times...and I can't drink any alcohol until the toxin works its way out of my system--up to six months! I tried to explain to the doctor that I'm Irish, so not drinking really isn't an option. He seemed unmoved. Word to the wise: if you ever get offered swiss cheese with tiny little holes in it, like air holes almost...say no. Apparently scomboid is carried exclusively by mackeral, tuna, and certain swiss cheeses. Sometimes I feel like God is making fun of me.

Suddenly realizing that this doesn't have much to do with my crappy web site...signing off for now. Thanks as always for your ears (or eyes, I guess) and your advice and help. I'm sure by now you can tell I need it.

Splodge, let me know if you're not getting PMs from me. Sent you one this morning, not sure if it went through or not. Par for the course.

Tiff

God I'll never eat cheese again! Six months aggggggh!

yes, i'm getting the PM's, nearly done, just the links page to redo, it's taking so long coz i had to resize most pix and backgrounds, some were nearly 1MB and were taking to long to download, Oh, and i had some of that sleep stuff last night too

OK, getting there, the backgrounds are still a bit big, KB wise,slow downloading, but i've already reduced the file size from 20MB down to 5MB. just need somemore wallpaper pix and a bigger one of the golden orchid.
http://www.hallcross.co.uk/tifcosite/index.htm

i'm to good to you lot

splodge, you da man! that's so nice of you!!!


queen
good luck with your site. I clicked your link and checked out your work, it's quite nice. I'm still laughing at the Ritalin one.
how was your show?
is it still up?

I know nothing about making websites myself. I used the web tools and space from my DSL provider and came up with this:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze77vh0/

I'm not happy with how it came out so far, but you can take a look at some of my paintings if you like.

-
Bill

Nice one Splodge!
What a guy!