…With my pages. I feel like a total user cause I can’t do it:duh:. I know everyone has other things to do for there pages and whatnot, I just want to get the minis up and some merch stuff (and have the merch so I can add to it, without having other people do it). Please help. I’d feel bad if MannyC did them all like he is doing for my bootleg page.
Thanks
Dont feel like that Matt I totally understand your point where you want to do more but you can’t. I would be more than willing to teach you but I feel like others like Kyle and Manny would be the ones to look for as far as lessons. Chris has come a long way and I can probably say he has more skills in that area than I do. I basically modify existing templates and make it work for what suits best. At the moment I am basically getting over a horrible virus which has put me out for the last 2 days from work. I really havent been able to do much with the bootlegs section but God willing i will be able to do so this weekend. I know Kyle has been super busy and I can imagine MannyF as well so I would suggest that if Chris is not overly busy he would be the one to teach you the basics. If you can get a headset it would make things easier since you would basically need step by tep and someone guiding you along the way. Maybe Chris can be of help now and I can provide you with more once I get over this virus.
Chris would you be willing to lend Matt a hand for the moment at least with basics?
I could help you with the basics. I can’t do anything complicated either to be honest.
However I’m sure Chris will come here and correct me if I’m wrong, but I think he also edits existing templates that Kyle created. I’m sure I won’t offend anyone when I say Kyle, MannyF and Mark are the only real html experts here.
Of course I think Purrsia does too, but she is only a part time member so I doubt she would have time to help. So Matt, just hit me up on Skype and we could go through some basics if you want. Up to you 
Thanks Neil for offering to help Matt, as I mentioned earlier this virus took a hit on me and I am just recovering . I’m sure with your help along with everyone elses matt will be allright
Chris here…
I’d be happy to pass on any knowledge I have, or help in any way I’m able - but, as Neil rightly says, all I really do is modify templates that Kyle’s made for me. I have created some pages virtually from scratch (just using the basic TCL template that all pages on this site, no matter their style, utilise), but these have all been a process of sheer trial-and-error, taking many hours, and more often than not Kyle or MannyF have had to make amendments to my HTML coding. 
Kyle is the guy who taught me most of what I know, and if he was able to help then (with no offence to anyone else here) he’d probably be my #1 recommendation - otherwise, everything else I know was taught to me by Neil, who has a lot more HTML skill than me, and so if he’s offering to help I’d definitely take him up on that offer, Matt!
Take care…
awesome guys. I appreciate any help. Neil when is a good time for you to be on skype (tonight I’m pretty busy but I am free whenever over the weekend, or whenever you want). Let me know.
Kyle if you see this when is a good time for you to work with me if you can (and are available I dont want to put you out or anything)
Hey Guys,
This is probably a good thread for me to let you all know that I am beyond busy at the moment. I am in the process of transferring University course at the moment, which is taking a great deal of my time. As most of you know I am working in between all of this at Apple, which just to help things is really busy at the moment.
My gran passed away last week as well, so everything is real crazy at the moment. With the interest of the site at heart, I would please ask if someone would be able to complete the update to Marks Animation Art section for him. This was all I committed myself to for the February update.
Ordinarily I would have had this done by now, and would gladly sit down and help you learn HTML Matt..
Apologies to all this affects, hopefully when things settle down I will be able to manage things a bit better and be able to allocate time to the site again.
Hope to catch up again soon guys
Kyle
Hi matt.
True, I’m sure Kyle can help you best with what you’d want to accomplish here being a force behind the basic templates you all probably use. Even so, to plug your content into a template, it seems that the only thing you’d really need to know are very basic tags - for links, images, center-right-or-left alignments, and maybe some basic font tags such as for bolding or italics. Oh and the ever-handy line return tag 
But if I may just offer some general help/advice, as someone who taught herself from the ground up, and suggest to you somethings you can use in your spare time to tinker with building a page from scratch (because hey, I find it addicting and fun when I can get things to come out as I wish them to!).
Some random, basic advice:
Get yourself some kind of editor, but not one that does too much for you. (I use html-kit. It will start your new pages out with all the very basic tags, but most of the work is yours to do and you can preview your work, too, before uploading. Might want to also get some free web space to toss your work up on too, so you can get used to the management side…using ftp, putting files in different directories, organsing things on a server and so on. Plus you can see how your practice pages look live on the web). It’s free. I try to stay away from things like frontpage or dreamweaver just because they do too much for you, and relying on them I feel you won’t learn as much or as fast as you will coding on your own. And since you want to learn, no sense having a program do it all for you.
Biggest thing is (and the solution most times when something just doesn’t look right), to remember that when you open a tag to close it. Tags go on the buddy system - in pairs. One opens the operation, and his buddy tells that effect when to end, or closes it, in other words. A lack of a closed tag or a typoed one is usually the #1 mistake when something doesn’t come out as expected. If you only wanted a few words to be in italics, for example, but you look at your page and the whole block of text is that way, chances are you didn’t close your italics tag
CSS and other things are great, but they’re more advanced and I think you’re better off starting simple and building to things like that. You don’t want to get so frustrated you give up! Do your font specs the old-fashioned way first (i.e. within the body tag and so forth) and get comfy with that, and then tackle things like CSS if you want.
Look at other site’s source coding. Usually can be found in the Page or Tool tabs on your browser, depending on what you use for browsing. Granted, some pages will have more complicated coding than others, or may even contain a lot of stuff like javascript, flash, or php coding that’ll be greek to you, but it’ll still inspire you by seeing how certain effects are achieved. html and so forth is always evolving, so web design can be an endless adventure. You may never feel the need to get super into it or into the really complicated stuff, and that’s fine. You don’t necessarily need that to do what you want to here, or even elsewhere. Sometimes simple gets the job done just fine. In fact, some of the fancier things don’t work for everyone or all browsers, so sometimes simpler is safer.
That’s up to you.
But sometimes it’s just fun to download a page of source code from a site, bring it up in html-kit and learn by messing with the tags, adding things, moving things, and watching what happens - good and bad - to the page when you preview it. Trial and error, and just general tinkering, are great ways to learn or reinforce what you’ve practiced.
He-Fan is right - some of that will take hours to get it just as you want it, but it’s a nice feeling to have taught yourself something and achieve a goal.
Over all, the best way to learn is to pratice as much as you can, and just play with the basic tags so that eventually, you won’t have to look up that reference page - typing basic code will come natural to you eventually. Nice thing about html is many of the tags make complete sense and so are easy to remember.
At any rate, enough rambling out of me. Hope that helps you out as well, and happy learning!
Edit: Just saw your post, Kyle - gotta love replying at the same time! Sorry to hear about your gran. Hope things smooth out for you really soon. Take care.
Chris here…
Hey Kyle, I’m really upset to hear about your Gran - as you know, I lost my Grandad suddenly last year, so I know what you’re going through. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say don’t worry about the stuff to do with the site, stuff in people’s personal lives should always come first. Look after yourself, my friend!
Re: the Animation Art update - at the moment I’ve got a few TCL jobs on my plate for the rest of the Cartoon Section, but if I can make some better headway I would happily apply some of my (admittedly somewhat limited) HTML skill to try and get some of it nailed. If someone else that Mark is cool with working with is able to step up to the plate in the meanwhile, then of course by all means go for it!
Also, can I just add how much I LOVE Purrsia’s comprehensive responses - you’re my kinda gal!! 
Take care…
I agree with Chris, Kyle. You sound very stressed just lately so I don’t think anyone will mind at all that you take an unspecified break from the site. I am sure we can all muck in and get this AA finally sorted. You have sincerest condolences about your Grandma Kyle.
I’m happy to help anyway I can. MannyF is it possible we can team up and work on this together to get it up, running and finished?
Matt: Best times for me are around 8pm UK time any night apart from saturday. I should be good for sunday
As for Purrsia’s info, some of the stuff was helpful to me! lol Thanks for the excellent post Purrsia!
No prob. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I have learned a small thing or two tinkering with my own sites
Anyone who wants can hit me up on IM to talk about html or whatever. If nothing else, it’s fun to talk to other fans!
Chris here…
Did you ever look into reinstalling Skype? I’m not on it as much as I’ve been known to be but I’m still around a fair amount - would be great to catch you on there!
Take care…
Did you ever install Skype, if you did whats your screename so I can add you to my friends list
Just reinstalled Skype. Name’s purrsiakat on that
Chris here…
Just added you! Looking forward to chatting on there!
Take care…
My condolences on your loss of your Gran Kyle. My prayers and thoughts are with you and your family.
As for the Animation Art update, I’m not sure how far you are with the update, but I’m sure I can help out somehow.
We can, but I’d have to postpone the redesigning of the toy index until the next update. I’m helping Chris with the WildStorm pages in addition to redoing the main index page, so I also have a lot of things on my plate now until the upcoming update.
Kyle my prayers are with you and your family. I know that at such hard times family and friends are what you need for support and if in any way you need someone to talk to I’m here. My grandma passed away last year and I never saw her or where she was laid to rest so to this day it is tough for me. My condolences to you and your family.
@Manny- It is ok if the toy section redesign cant be done this update. I think its better to do it after this update so you can port everything all at once
Purrsia- Thanks for all the info and help. I will try it all out and see what happens.
Kyle- I am sorry about the loss of your gran. My condolences go out to you and your family. Hope things get better for you. Take care.