[Typo3] Helping new users - was [menu item image gets cut off or truncated]

[Erik Svendsen]

Hello Vincent,

> I have been watching discussions indicating that the typo3 community
> would like to see typo3 become better known and in more wide spread
> use. Especially in countries such as the US, which is where I am.
> 
> Typo3 is a wonderful package and it deserves to be more wide spread.
> However, you people do not seem to be trying very hard to help new
> users come aboard.  Not one experienced person came forward to help
> with these questions.  It would have only taken a couple minutes to
> direct me to the "TypoScript By Example > Standard templates >
> static_template" section of the documentation.  That answered most of
> these questions. But it was days before I discovered it on my own
> after asking the questions on the mailing list.
> 
> When it does not appear that the community is willing to spend 2 or
> 3 minutes to save a newbie days, it makes one concerned that they are
> going to be ignored and completely on their own if they choose typo3
> and
> have a show stopping problem that they cannot solve on their own.
> Another example of why new users are not as attracted to typo3
> (speaking for myself initially).

I both agree and disagree with you on this point. Myself have always got 
neccessary help from the community. But reading a lot of post, I also see 
that sometimes people don't get all the help they should have got.

One problem in your case could be that very few are using the static templates 
in TYPO3. They are more ore less obsolete, and my opinion is that they should 
have been deleted from the package. I have never used them. There are better 
and easier ways to get a site up and running.
 
> I look at at other cms sites and most of them have links to themes and
> templates to help new users get started more easily.  One of the cms
> packages I recently evaluated, Xaraya, is even having a theme
> competition to build up their collection of themes that they can offer
> their users.  Typo3, so far as I can tell, is the most powerful cms of
> all of them for creating themes, yet there are no links to any kind of
> a theme page with screen shots that I have found on the typo3 site.  I
> am
> surprised by this considering how much longer typo3 has been around.
> Because of this, I almost did not give typo3 enough of a chance to
> know that it was so much more powerful and feature rich than the other
> cms packages I have found.  If I had not already spent substantual
> time on typo3, I would have likely chosen something like xaraya.
> 
> So far, I have only found one site that offers typo3 templates with
> screen shots, and it is a church.  Hah!  go figure.
> 
> http://webempoweredchurch.com/gettingstarted/templates/
> 
> The official typo3 site really should have something like this.
> 

There has been an discusion about having an template extension with different 
TemplaVoila templates. But so long not any results. But there are some very 
easy solution to get a site up and running i 5 minutes. The solution i called 
TemplaVoila. TemplaVoila has a wizard, where you can use any (X)HTML template 
to make the site (even pick one from the web). Every free template on the 
web could serve as a TYPO3 template. Using it together with the manual Futuristic 
Template building, you are on your way. What I really think is missing in 
the documentation is a new getting started manual, who are updated with these 
new and easy ways to get up and running. This could helped people to start, 
and also helped them to find templates to use.

Because you have many ways to make your site in TYPO3 (typoscript, markers, 
TemplaVoila), and most of the users are designing their templates from scratch, 
it's maybe not so strange that there are few templates aviable. That also 
my main reason for ditching system like postNuke, Mambo, EZpublish. I want 
full freedom in my design.

Another main reason, TYPO3 is more an enterprise CMS. A lot of the people 
that working with TYPO3 is making middle size and large size websites. Sites 
where custom designs are used.

WBR,
Erik Svendsen
www.linnearad.no