[Typo3-documentation]Different documentation structure suggestion

[Justin Kramp]

Greetings-

I would wholeheartedly agree.  I've got no problem installing Typo3, but 
figuring out how to take my already built HTML, CSS-heavy / table-free 
pages into Typo3 Templates is kicking my rear.  I've been looking over 
documentation for days and its just not clicking.  I have just seen 
TemplaVoila or similar mentioned, which I've not checked out yet though.

Anyway, I think that Typo3 seems to have a great backend setup; and the 
main roadblock to rapid deployment and usability is the difficulty in 
setting up templates so that the frontend works and looks beautifully. 
Frankly, the "time to go live" is what is pushing my projects, and what 
is making me look at CMS solutions such as Mambo/Xoops/PHPNuke, because 
they are a little easier to make look like I want out of the box.

just my 2c...I think I will really love Typo3 once I get the hang of it.

jlk

E. Veelo wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am a newcomer to Typo3 and am reading my way through the available 
> documentation. And, although there is an extensive amount of 
> documentation available, I still can't quite find what I am looking for. 
> Since I might not be the only one at that, I thought I'd discuss it 
> here, if you don't mind?
> 
> Before I explain what I'm looking for, let me explain where I'm coming 
> from:
> I am a full time web designer, or Art Director as I'm called on the job  
> (@agency.com), so I basically breath Photoshop. I do so for about ten 
> years now and along the way I've made myself familiar with HTML, 
> Javascript, CSS, PHP and MySQL (which comes in handy as I can design 
> already knowing how it should be build, and in private undertakings 
> actually building the site myself). So I have a good starting knowledge 
> of the technical part of site building. And I've build dynamic websites 
> myself, not with a particular Universal CMS like Typo3, but basically 
> building a custom application for each situation. So I have a certain 
> pattern of thinking of how I build fixed content and dynamic content, 
> how to include this and compute that. I'm used to build my templates 
> directly in PHP.
> 
> What am I looking for:
> Now I want to make the switch to Typo3, but I can't find something that 
> tells me how I do in Typo3 what I used to do in PHP. Something that 
> tells me: this is what a template file is made up of; if you have a page 
> ready in HTML, this is how you turn it into a template; this is how you 
> include dynamic content; this is how you build a menu template and 
> include it in the master template; this is how you create variables, 
> store them in sessions, and act upon them; etc. Like a quick-start guide 
> for insiders. Much less a step by step manual where you explain the 
> template concept while at the same time explaining Typo3.
> 
> In short:
> I'd like to have a Typo3 user manual or functional reference in which I 
> can quickly look up things like 'create new page' or 'add column to 
> template' or 'change user rights'. And a template reference, giving the 
> concept basics, and explaining simple and to the point 'if you are 
> looking to do this, do it that way' etc.
> 
> Does this make sense? Took me a while explaining and I'm still not sure 
> if my point is clear. I hope you get what I mean... And maybe this 
> documentation does already exist, in that case, excuse my ignorance and 
> please point it out to me.
> 
> Greetings from the Netherlands,
> Edwin Veelo
>