DIV on Webpage - Want to throw a couple more in

PasturesNew

I've grabbed myself one of those lovely freebie templates off the Internet for a web page. It's html/css and uses divs for layout. Which is great .. except...

It's one of those annoying ones that has a big empty strip on either side. So it's not using the whole page. I want to change the container and add in some extra divs to be able to utilise those big blank spaces and/or having done that I might want to resize the existing containers.

Short of refreshing my memory about divs and spending way too long faffing about in notebook what's the quickest/easiest way to do it free?

I don't have Frontpage or Dreamweaver and don't want to get them.

The perfect world would have a piece of software enabling me to do a File, Open on my page and then to graphically display each div so I can see where they are and then be able to just "draw" new ones on and hit a button and it would rewrite the .html page for me.

So, what's your best advice on a way forward? Frontpage/Dreamweaver are not an option as I don't have them and then there's the learning curve... and I am trying to get something up/working by tomorrow ideally.

Thanking you in anticipation.

[Deleted User]

Download firefox, download the web developer plugin. There is an option to view the DIVs (it draws red boxes around them). You can even edit the CSS whilst the page is still open in the browser.

I've never seen a piece of web design software that lets you just add DIVs like you described.

Frankly, the quickest and easiest way would be to post a URL in this room and let the wonderful people of this forum tell you where to put your new DIV since you obviously don't want to a) learn anything b) pay for anything

[Deleted User]

I've just discovered the firebug firefox plugin.. it rocks, lets you view/edit your CSS/HTML/Javascript.. i just used it to fix a CSS problem i was having on a site

geekgirl

Post a link and we can have a look.

aknot

ringo_24601 wrote: »

I've never seen a piece of web design software that lets you just add DIVs like you described.

Expression web now lets you add divs and containers and wrappers off the cuff, you just want to set your width to a wider setting maybe about 900px or 85% but try and insert a wrapper aswell because of screen sizes or youll get yucky top and bottom scroll bars.

dekh

Just a point or two to keep in mind.

A lot of web designers fix the width of their designs to about 750 pixels and center it. So you get the 'annoying' stips left and right.

This is done to ensure the website looks the same on the vast majority of monitiors, recent stats from one of the big 4 mobile network sites still has just under 20% of screens set at 800 x 600 so 750 is picked to allow room for scroll bars. (about .2% still have 640 x 480!)

If your website stretches to fit the width, for instance of a high resolution widescreen monitor, you have to remember that long horizontal lines of text are difficult to read.

Of course this may not apply to your website as it may not have much text content, it's just something to be aware of.

PasturesNew

Thanks everybody. I don't use Firefox much, never liked the look of it.

I'll certainly go check out the developer toolbar.

I just wanted a "quick fix" on this occasion, rather than going down the whole "learn everything about these again" route. I did do/pass the html/css module of a Certificate in Web Apps Development, but any web presence I put together is based on the content, so I tend to just opt for CMSs to be honest.

Maybe the Developer Toolbar will tempt me back into a spot of minor coding as I do have some other requirements already which are best served from a DB.

Thanks again!

PasturesNew

Well. 1.5 hours' on... initial thoughts were: "Brilliant, just what I need" Now spent 1.5 hours trying to achieve what I want and getting nowhere.It turns out the page was a bit more complex than it needed to be and all I wanted to do was get a couple of new divs in. Tried everything, they are never ending up where I expect. Changed quite a few values now and really about to sack it all off.

I can't see where "outline" is as suggested above, although I did just have one quick look at the start then ploughed in.

But not yet managed to see the page in one showing all the nestings. Although I've worked out it isn't the nesting that controls these divs I need. So I've also looked at changing the floats and the position: values. Still nothing. I will plough on though. It's all I've got to play with. I can't "design" one myself. I can't "design". I have to use free templates. I am utterly useless at anything creative. It's outside of my understanding at all. So I pick free templates and go "that'll do".

So, chucking out the last 1.5 hours' work ... and starting from scratch again. I know I'll get there in the end. But you'd think it'd be easier to be able to see these things without owning software.

I think if I could just see the position of the divs, their size/position/float... then I could work it out easier. Maybe I need to draw it all out on paper after all... and I don't even particluarly like the template... it just "does for now". So feeling frustrated at the waste of time just to get something going "for now"

PasturesNew

And another hour gone. This is what I was trying to avoid.
I might go hire one of those little indian programmers for $2. I know it's just 2 minutes' work!

dekh

I do it by hand

I just use conTEXT text editor.

PM me the URL I'll see if I can spot the css definitions you need to change.

PasturesNew

I ended up chucking it across to a designer a couple of hours later to drop the divs in ... and he decided to get a bit creative with it and add in some other spaces for me.

So I'll get it back some time in the next couple of days.

Spent the rest of the day until now (4.30am the following morning right now) doing stuff with rss.

Isn't it odd how something starts out as a 2 minute job and always ends 2 weeks later??

Thanks everybody. The Firefox plug in was handy to look at things with!

Looking forward to the day in the future when I can pay people to do these things for me. Designer/coder... and then I can concentrate on what I do best instead offnever getting to that bit! (content and marketing)