DotNetNuke® Websites: Problem — Design — Solution

4.1. Problem

Let's face it — most designers use Photoshop as a basis for website design. However, because of the pressures of deadlines, many designers simply don't take the time to properly organize their files with layers and layer sets. This creates several headaches when preparing designs for HTML or having to change aspects of the layered Photoshop file itself:

• When using Photoshop files that are not organized appropriately, it is not clear which design components are defined by the different layers that may exist. This is apparent, for example, when using certain pre-built templates as a basis for website design that may have hundreds of layers that have not been named according to the design elements contained on them. This is also apparent when designers use the default names (Layer 1, Layer 2, and so on) given by Photoshop when creating new layers. It can be quite frustrating to show and hide layer after layer just to find the correct layer that contains an element you want to change.

• In many cases, certain components within a design may have several layers. For example, the navigation component may have background images, text, on and off states, and separator images. When these types of components are not part of the same layer set, it becomes very difficult to make changes that may affect the component as a whole, such as moving the navigation to a different location within the design. Doing this layer by layer is time-consuming and inefficient.

• Designs created in Photoshop ...