Hi,
I am wondering if there are any Sparkle users in the Bay Area who could help me set up my artist website. I am totally ignorant. I did do my website on iWeb many years ago, working at their Genius Bar and getting help every week. website is norareza.com.
I was hoping i could just tranfer Iweb to sparkle, but i realize I don’t even get how to drag the images and get them straight. Anyone in east bay or Oakland /Berkeley I could meet for coffee and go over a few basics? thank you. Nora.
Nora I live in Italy, so I cannot help you from here. Anyway Sparkle is a very easy software. If you use iWeb then you are able play with Sparkle.
Hi, like MultimediaMan said, Sparkle is very easy. I think you can import your site directly into sparkle and then adjust what’s necessary. I give it a go tommorow, I’m from Belgium but I’m often in the Provence, I lived in Ramatuelle.
Hi Nora. Just to give you a helping hand I have imported your site from what you have on the web now to a Sparkle file which you can open in Sparkle and start laying things out. The best way (in the meantime) is check out Duncans documentation online plus he has a number of videos on YouTube that explains how it all works.
You can find your Sparkle file by following this link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/429dcoa09uvnddv/Nora%20Reza_Sparklewebsite(import).sparkle?dl=0
Whoever steps in and helps you in your area probably will talk to you about the naming of your pages (the main navigation) which comes across a bit confusing, sorry.
Good luck with it all 
Thank you! I will try.
This is not my website, but this is a good “before” and “after” example. The Before The After Might give you some ideas for your own site to showcase your art. 
thank you to all. I am not sure if I am writing to one person or to all. I looked around my area for someone to help me. Both website designers I found refuse to work with Sparkle. I am a painter, and I don’t even know what people are talking about when they say Sparkle is difficult etc. this is what one of the people whom I am considering hiring wrote, I am curious what other people think and how I should reply to her and if she has it right or wrong.
"Your mom’s website looks to be potentially my cup of tea. I haven’t heard of Sparkle until your email, and after looking at it briefly, my first instinct is to not recommend it. It’s a building tool…which means without html/css/website training, she’s open to all sorts of code & programming issues. Also, they take no responsibly for security, they don’t setup SSL certificates and they expect you to know how to design for both mobile & computer, rather than automating that process for you. Basically, it’s a field of landmines for non-designers. And frankly, and field of landmines for designers as well.
I’d be happy to meet and discuss options with her…but I don’t want to take on something that’s going to cause headaches down the line. And if she’s dead set on Sparkle, I’ll probably say no.
I do agree with her on Square Space in one big respect, I think the Square Space editing tools are annoying! However, the pros of template web-builders far outweigh the cons. And if she’s just doing the one task (uploading photos to a gallery) that’s an easy thing to do once everything is setup properly. Minimal headaches are a good thing!
I do actually think Weebly is a little easier to use than Square Space , and the results are comparable. Also, there is Wix , which I don’t think is as good an option, but again, that’s something for her to decide. And there’s always Wordpress, and we might be able to find a tool to automate that photo uploading. But for a $500 budget, Wordpress is pretty much out since it’s a lot more work to setup & troubleshoot. And really, Wordpress is unnecessary for a site like this."
Lol, looks like that designer has no idea.
For $500 I do it for you on sparkle or Tilda.cc, depends what solution you need. I prefer Sparkle to work with.
It is great you are shopping around to get further understanding in how you can go about redoing your website to better serve your needs and getting it in front of clients in a more intuitive functional way.
Being in the game (and knowing there is so much out there in creating websites) I can see where this web designer is coming from. She has already thought ahead and weighed up the pros and cons knowing that you are an artist and not a web designer - security, SSL, and hosting. That being said, and you mentioned it, Sparkle is not that hard for a non web designer to build a good site and Sparkle is good in the security department.
Please don’t touch Wordpress… that is a total nightmare and security risk to non web developers!
The Sparkle file I moved across to you was nearly 10 minutes in the making which is a good start and with a bit of motivation and consistency you could work on it for a week or so and have something really good to be proud of. You could even go to Duncan’s website (https://sparkleapp.com/designs/) and download a free template to start things off.
…you can do it yourself. Try it…
Wordpress is a nightmare. Cluttered, over complicated, time intense and frequently security update needed and slow.
That all is not with Sparkle. I am happy to help you for free if it’s Sparkle. Please feel free to contact me.
Best on FB messenger, you can find me and others on our unofficial facebook group.
Thank you. And thank you for creating the file. I looked at it, but i have to figure out what I am to do with it. Sorry to be so ignorant. Now I am wondering if instead of trying to transfer my Iweb site, maybe I should just start again. and try to create an entirely new site. It looks like the images i have will be pixilated and not open to full size when clicked on. I am posting a lot on instagram at norarezapaintings.
Not a problem, and I feel you are on track with your take on things!
I good idea is to flesh your site out on paper and imagine yourself as a potential client looking through your new site. What do you want to see? What would interest you to go further with your site? What would prompt you to get in contact with the artist? Remember you are not making the site for yourself, you are trying to get in the head of your ideal client and make the site for them!
I’m sure after a little while you will get Sparkle and you’ll come up with a site you are proud of! Oh yes, don’t forget to also layout your site for a mobile device before publishing it to your hosting server… good luck!
html/css training, code & programming? With Sparkle? Maybe we don’t communicate this well enough? The very point of Sparkle is to be visual like Pages or Keynote, even at the expense of harsh criticism from professional web developers who use Sparkle and would want to sprinkle in some custom code. There’s not really a “website training” thing either.
Seems like this person has done a very poor job of figuring out what Sparkle is.
This is just a cheap shot, just to throw in some random criticism. Sparkle doesn’t offer web hosting, which is actually an advantage for price sensitive customers who can pick their own hosting. SSL is part of the web hosting.
On the other hand, Sparkle doesn’t produce websites that have security issues like the ones wordpress has. Sparkle produces so called static sites, which are fast and secure (from hacking), and fully compatible with SSL when it is added to a web hosting plan.
There isn’t a “canon” for how to design. One of the points of Sparkle is to bring people from different backgrounds to the web, that a site be an expression of who they are, rather than being mediated and standardized by a designer.
Sparkle does require adapting the layout for mobile, which is an extra (optional) step. The template-based tools do it automatically but often don’t offer any flexibility as to what the mobile layout looks like.
Anyway if you need to put images on a website, well that’s pretty much something you can look at and refine until you like what you see.
Well template-based builders are not intrinsically bad, some have nice designs. Content creation is usually web-based, so the interface is really clunky. Without extensive customization you do end up with a site looking like many others. And weebly/wix/squarespace have significant monthly fees. But they do shower the web with advertising so they are a popular recommendation.
Anyway seems like this person is one of these:
Thank you Duncan for such a thoughtful reply. I am also greatful to everyone’s input. Hopefully I will have time soon to look at the tutorial videos again. And then I will have more questions. best, Nora
I am in Canada so I’m afraid I can’t help you either. However, I can tell you that I am also a painter and I am 85 years old, originally built my site in iweb and just finished updating it in Sparkle [ I have no webmaking or much internet savy either!!] but Sparkle really does make it easy. It imports your old site so you have something to work with - and you are able to preview each page before you finalize it. I’m not saying I was able to do it in a day or even a week but certainly in less than 2 weeks. Duncan is a great help and seems always to be there with an email immediately - despite the time difference. Get the free one to try it out. Have a look at mine - bettybishop.ca. I also have a blog with googles blogspot - with a link from my site to the blog and a note for a reader to hit return to the previous page to get back to my site.
I think it is great - better than iweb which I was in love with for a long time. Good luck!
Duncan? The best! He is always present!
I thank everyone for their replies. I am sorry i haven’t gotten to all the work involved in building a website. I have the show in 6 weeks, and just keep working on the paintings. I especially want to thank Betty for your
thoughtful generous letter. I looked at your site Betty and your blog. I love your work and I hope you get the recognition you deserve. It’s rare to see such an authentic artist and your site reflects beautifully who you are. I am impressed that you were able to build it yourself. thank you again. Nora. ps i will be visiting my family in Ottawa, Ontario, the first week of August before going on to visit family and friends in France where I lived many years.
Thanks for the thanks Nora but just so you know - you can do Sparkle a bit at a time. Your old site will still be there until you decide to replace it so you have nothing to lose [I didn’t realize this until I got working in Sparkle].I would suggest you join up and give it whatever bit of time you can each day or so.
First you import a copy of your current site - then work on the changes you may want to make [or not make - your current first page looked very good to me, you may still want that to be your first page?]. When it appears to be the way you want it you hit Preview which simply allows you to see both pages on your screen - the current page and the revised page, one aside the other. Nothing will be changed. You current site will still be there until your say you wanted it replaced with what you have built in Sparkle. If you are busy that is probably away down the road. My point is your old site remains until you tell it to get lost - by that time you will probably be talking to Duncan about publishing it. It is easier and better than iweb. but I know how you feel when you don’t speak computereez…me either … grrr.
good luck, Betty
Hi, I would like to transfer mit iWeb-Sites like www.bimashofer.eu to sparkle and wonder, that I cannot change the width für the import. Therefor some parts are missing!
Kind regards
Reinhard