Adding a forum

[skully]

ive gone for phpBB which seems to be ok, only problem is i dont know how to embed it into my website lol but im working on it

as im using Xara Web Designer but slowly getting the hang of it, what is the best way of putting my site up onto my server that i have just designed?

[steve.ledger]

Basically wrap an iframe placeholder with your WD content.
The iframe can just load the forum.

[skully]

thanks for that, its now coming together slowly hope you dont mind me asking one more question, and it is, can you use web designer to change ready made templates ie: say i had a joomla theme and i wanted to add some graphics from WD, how is this possible as everything is on the server? all im looking to do is bring each page into web designer, do some changes and upload it back to the server

[steve.ledger]

WD cannot edit html or web pages created by other software.
WD can only create an edit .web files then export them as html + images.

[slavelle]

Sledger makes a good point - it would be lovely is such a way existed within Xara stuff to understand Joomla, but then the Drupal folks would want it, then the Sharepoint people, etc. and then our lovely tool would be diluted to a point of uselessness, I think.

The great part about both Joomla and XWD is that they are pretty agnostic as to where their content comes from or where it goes. I have used xxtreme to design a number of graphics for Joomla, specifically to take it away from the original applied theme. It takes a little looking though their css files and determining which graphics are being used where, but then it's a simple matter of using xxtreme or XWD to edit the grapics. A LOT of stuff can be done just within XWD as a graphics program, so for a lot of things, you wound't even need xxtreme.

Also, with CMS sites being so popular these days, you can get a lot of inspiration from their design to create your own stuff in XWD. I've seen a lot of sites that are "static" but were built with a CMS - for some reason, I don't know why, probably the accessibility of a cool looking theme. Some of these new designs are pretty cool and give you great ideas on how to build your own stuff from their fundamental look/feel. I'm revamping my own personal web site using XWD and some stuff in placeholders and I got my inspiration for the genreal look and color pallette from a few Joomla templates that I have access to - not copied, inspired.

Hope that helps in some way.