I have been tasked with taking a very clean design which was created by an internationally acclaimed design shop and dropping it into mojoPortal.  I really need some help with approach.  I am a developer with limited visual design skills, but I was able to spin up a basic black and white site with all functionality without issue.  I have read lots of documentation and watched lots of videos, but still a bit confused about the best path forward.

Question: Since we already have CSS and HTML and a functional "file based" web site, do I even need to try Artisteer?  I have not problem purchasing the tool, but I think in the end it will simply generate what I already have - CSS and HTML.

Question: We already have the "boring" version of the web site "stubbed out" in a mojoPortal, meaning we have all the functionality defined, all the pages created, just no content or styling.  I know now I must go back and somehow drop my style sheet into a skin or a template and then tell the pages to use those classes.  What is the best approach?  Create a whole new site or try to apply changes to existing stubbed out site?

I will continue to read the docs, but really want to get some guidance before I run down the wrong rabbit trail.

Many thanks,

Keith

I'm in the same boat, tasked with mojoing a site for which we already have basic layout complete.  Since the sample skins are tightly linked to Artisteer naming conventions I thought I'd start by copying an existing skin then use the demo version of Artisteer to make adjustments.  But since there is no reference to a stylesheet within the layout.Master artisteer doesn't know what to do and I find myself back to manually hunting down css tags, which is painful.

Is there a quicker way to get up and running with Artisteet, IOW does there exist a skin with an Artisteer project file that couples the master page with the edited css?  Or are there steps written out somewhere that would help getting up to speed?  I suspect the answer is the plug in a temporary link to the stylesheet for that particular skin?

Any other suggestions how to start, I don't want to just start from scratch if I can avoid it.

Stu,

If you've got an existing html and css file (with image assets, I presume), that means you've got a working prototype to compare to.  The fastest way is to open up Artisteer, configure a layout that's as close as possible to your working prototype, insert the graphic assets/typography to be as close as possible, and then when what you have in Artisteer strongly resembles your working prototype, export your project as HTML.

Your page.html will have the layout that needs to go into a mojoPortal layout.master, sans the control tags, which you can copy over into the proper locations.  Once you've done that, copy the contents of your page.html into your layout.master, and select that skin in the mojo admin.  From there, tweak with Firebug until you have an exact "mojo'd" version of your original prototype.  This really is the fastest way that I can suggest for getting the job done DIY.

There are various articles available to step you through this, both here at mojoPortal.com, and the tutorial blog articles for mojoPortal over at Arvixe Hosting.

Hi Stu

Just wanted to chip in here - you've made the right choice in my mind. Artisteer is great for people wanting a quick solution but is a little heavy for certain things.

We always always create a standard HTML / CSS template and then add what's required for mojoPortal. Artisteer is simply an enhancement and adds a lot of heavy ish code that isn't optimal. If you've manual coding skills then you'll end up with a much better output by coding mojoPortal in by hand, plus you'll not have to "unpick" Artisteer code should you need to teak anything later.

Artisteer, in my opinion isn't the fastest way, it's merely an easier way for people willing to sacrifice some control over their code - people who want that "off the shelf" look, fee, backing code. I don't believe that's what mojoPortal is about and certainly if you look at some of the best mojoPortal sites out there, they don't look like the "unique" Artisteer templates. Remember, anyone using Artisteer still needs to learn howwo to tweak the code it creates, why not use that time to create a skin from your current HTML / CSS.

Good luck with the skin, I've actually drafted a blog post about this very thing - how to approach things so once it's up I'll pop you a link :0)

Best regards

Mark