This is the FUN part! Y.E.S. makes designing your web site as easy as typing some text, and choosing your favorite colors. You can now easily design and customize your own website, and be selling your goods and services online, in a short amount of time, WITHOUT knowing HTML or any other programming language.
Note: This tutorial assumes you have already entered your Inventory into the Y.E.S. database. This will be crucial to viewing your complete website as it is being customized.
1st: Develop a Mission or Overall Image for Your Web Site
The most important step to efficiently developing your web site is to establish the basic idea for the site. You have a good grasp on the structure of your existing business, the products and services you offer, and what your customers want to see. In order to easily develop a great website, use your understanding of your business to structure the image or character of your web site in the same way.
Knowing what image you want your website to convey to your online viewers will provide the cornerstone to quickly and successfully building it. For the above example, the business owner is obviously looking for a "clean" and simple website layout. A few, crisp pictures on the home page, and the use of colors which match their company logo will produce the desired look.
General Rule of Web Site Design: Develop your website for what works best for your business.
Always remember when building your web site, that your web site is simply an extension of your business, and that the general purpose of the site is to persuade the online viewer to eventually BUY something from you! Your customers, both in your store and online, want their shopping experience to be fast and enjoyable. Traditionally, by inundating the viewer with vast numbers of flashy graphics and animations, not only makes the viewer wait longer for the website to load in their browser, but could possibly convey the wrong message. Depending on your specific business (and the ultimate goal of your web site), the use of colors/graphics/animations may or may not be appropriate for your web site. The Y.E.S Software Suite allows you to easily add as many images, graphics, and animations as you wish.
Remember: With Y.E.S., you are in complete control of your online destiny.
You have probably already completed the first step to designing your web site in the "Getting Started Wizard", by selecting a template. You can select a different template for your website at anytime from the main menu by clicking on "Website", and choosing the "Select a New Template" option. This will display a small screen which lists the various templates you can use. Clicking on the template in the left hand listing displays a screen shot of the template on the right. A short description is also displayed which illustrates the common uses and features the specific template. Once you have selected the template you wish to use for your website, click the "OK" button. This template will now provide the basic structure and layout for your website.
Warning: Selecting a NEW template will load the standard template. Any changes you have made to your existing template (such as fonts and colors) will be lost, and you will need to customize the new template as well.
From this point forward, this tutorial will assume you have developed the general idea or image of your website and selected the template which best fits your desired image. We will now walk you through the process of customizing your website from the beginning.
2nd: Establish the Basics of Your Web Site
Clicking on the "Website Design" menu button on the top tool bar displays the screen where you will be able to completely customize all areas of your website. The "Home/Startup Page" tab screen is used to customize the appearance of the initial page that an online viewer will see when visiting your website.
NOTE: When you change any property of your website, the preview in the right-hand window will reflect the change immediately.
On the left of the screen are several buttons, listed vertically, which are used to customize the appearance of the home page and the border and menu listings on the rest of your website.
Insert Your Logo (optional): If you have your company logo in a .jpg, .jif, or .jpeg graphic file format, and you wish to display it in the header of your web site, click on the "Select Logo" button, and choose the "Select an Image to Use" option. You can now browse to the file's location, and select it.
Note: It may be necessary to resize your logo to fit into the logo area of your web site. This can be done using most graphics software programs.
Now use the following buttons on this screen to customize your website to your liking:
Clicking on any of the Font buttons will open a standard font selection dialog box from which the font name, style and size may be selected.
Clicking on any of the Color buttons will open a standard color selection dialog box. The currently selected color is shown in the small square just to the right of this button.
Clicking on the "Define Custom Colors" button will change this dialog box to the following from which you can select virtually any color you wish:
