Design

Enhance your Homestead Website add a Forum Connection

It’s not an available option to be able to have a Homestead website forum through your Intuit hosting account. However, you can make a connection with your site and a different hosting company who can provide a forum for free. Basically all you would need to do is open an account read Homestead Website Forum

Do it Yourself-Just Drag and Drop

Instead of using one of the built-in templates, have you considered starting with a blank page and designing your own work of art?  You can do-it-yourself because the Homestead drag and drop website builder is so easy to work with. There’s not much that you will need other than a logo and a good handle on using the tools inside the SiteBuilder.  You can learn how to create a logo/banner by visiting the Homestead Expert Youtube channel. read Do-It-Yourself

Altering SiteBuilder Template Designs

Trying to change one of the built-in Homestead design templates can be very frustrating at times. Because there are many parts assembled together for the web page design to be complete, if you try to expand things you will end up with a broken apart look. If you want to change a particular layout, sometimes it’s going to take an intermediate level of website design skill to change the style of the template .

In order to start changing the design, the first thing to do is unlock the elements so they can be moved from their secure position. Left click on the part that you want to move and then uncheck the box in the lower section of the properties editor that says “lock.” You must be using the main SiteBuilder not SiteBuilder Light to unlock the elements.

Many of the parts that comprise the template are images that can be cloned using the “Clone” icon. So, if you must make a page longer perhaps you can duplicate some of the parts that comprise the design to customize the page. It’s going to be a time consuming process. read Altering Site Builder Template Designs

How to Optimize Images Without Them Getting Blurred

If you have tried to use the built-in SiteBuilder  “Optimize Image” icon for reducing the file size of a photograph, it probably got blurred, looks fogy or cloudy. Optimizing photos so they are not murky can be done with a different editor. It’s a bit of a pain to have to do this off of the Homestead SiteBuilder program, but this is what you will have to do to make the pictures look clear and not hazy.

Learning how to work with another program can be frustrating, challenging and fun at the same time, especially if you are hooked on learning website design. Please don’t faint at the suggestion. The editing software I am going to suggest is free and easy to work with.

Altering an Image to Load on Your Site Quicker by Changing the Dpi or Ppi

A digital photo is measured using dots per inch or DPI. Another term that you may see is PPI which stands for pixels per inch.

The recommended dots or pixels per inch for web design are 72dpi. If you are uploading a large size photo, like 600 wide x 400 high, you will need to reduce the pixels per inch to smaller than 72ppi in order for it to load quickly. read How to Optimize Homestead Website Images

Using Gimp for Editing Photos and Making Logos

The Gimp free software download for editing photos, creating logos and banners is my first choice for making image changes while designing my Homestead SiteBuilder pages. I’ve been told that the program’s running a very close second to the all favorite editor, Photo Shop. The biggest difference between the two programs, designed to alter pictures, is the price. From what I understand Adobe’s program costs hundreds of dollars.

The freeware company provides excellent tutorials which demonstrate how to use many of the features within the program. Youtube enthusiasts have developed video tutorials showing how to work inside of the program as well. This makes learning how to use the software even easier than following the developers tutorials at times. read Editing Photos and Making Logos