I dont do web development/design...

[Daz]

Which hasn't been a problem before. I can knock together very basic html to do some work stuff (web interfaces to basic log parsing, form submission for config file generation, things like that), and I know how things hang together, but I have no idea how to make things look nice - but now I'd like to!

I need my web space to do more for me over the coming couple of years, so I'm coding up a site using the django (http://www.djangoproject.com/) web framework, which is written in python, which I know rather well :) I've already got blogging functionality and rss/atom support plumbed in nice and quickly, and some very basic templates to test with, which is all spiffy.

I obviously want it to look reasonable though, which is where I'm going to struggle. I'm not looking to do anything fancy, just have a basic header with menu navigation, content pane under that on the left and some extra links to the right (some of which will be context based).

Could anybody point me in the direction of some good how to's or something to get me on my way?

Ta :)

[Joe 90]

couple of CSS sites it might be worth checking out;

http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/007/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/01/19/53-css-techniques-you-couldnt-live-without/

http://snook.ca/archives/html_and_css/top_css_tips/

[Desmo]

Can you not get a pre made CSS template? There are plenty of sites out there with free templates that you can then adapt to your needs.

[Daz]

Thanks show :)

Des - I'd give that a go for sure, got any good links?

[Desmo]

I've always used this place... http://www.freecsstemplates.org/

[Burble]

Which hasn't been a problem before. I can knock together very basic html to do some work stuff (web interfaces to basic log parsing, form submission for config file generation, things like that), and I know how things hang together, but I have no idea how to make things look nice - but now I'd like to!

You and me both dude. Remember that PERL file transfer utility? That's about as far as I go with HTML prettyness.

I could do with getting to know stuff better so this thread is quite timely for me!

[Daz]

It looks pretty damn good compared to the stuff I knock up ;D

That's a great site Des, found a couple of good starting points, thanks :)

[Mark]

I've done some fairly basic CSS in my time. Menus, lists, that sort of thing. I'm useless at graphics, and I only design for what looks good to me (which usually sorts out any accessibility issues for obvious reasons but might not do much else).

I'll certainly watch this thread.

PS - I've been known to use the Listamatic (http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/index.htm) and A List Apart (http://www.alistapart.com/) sites for CSS ideas.

[Daz]

I'm know Django reasonably well Lozza - I've already got basic templates pulling out all the information I want, I just need to wrap it in a half decent layout. That first link of yours looks really useful, thanks :)

Side note - a lot of the css I've looked at is for fixed width stuff, which is fine - I presume it's like that because it's easier to maintain consistency in the layout?

[Daz]

http://www.subcide.com/tutorials/csslayout/index.aspx
Just wanted to say that this was a really excellent link, gave me a good foundation of understanding what css can do, so thanks a lot for the link :)

I built the framework of my new site completely by hand, and it all hung together pretty well, but my lack of artistic flare completely shone through - varying shades of grey wasn't very impressive!

So I've gone with Des's suggestion and have been looking at pre-built css templates and adapting the site to use them. It may be cheating a little but I now understand what's going on to a reasonable degree, to the point that I can make changes with some confidence that I'm not going to f**k everything up :D

So thanks for the links everyone, I've learned stuff :)

Just have to convince beany to enable mod_wsgi/mod_python/mod_fastcgi so I can start working on this thing in public now :p

[MarcLister]

I've done some fairly basic CSS in my time. Menus, lists, that sort of thing. I'm useless at graphics, and I only design for what looks good to me (which usually sorts out any accessibility issues for obvious reasons but might not do much else).

I'll certainly watch this thread.Ditto. I've some knowledge of XHTML/CSS but I'm always wanting to learn new tricks. Especially as I'll be responsible for redesigning my workplace's website soon. :D