Little Intro - Plus need suggestions on new site...

Howdy.....

Jim from Michigan here. I am a salesman with a small local company that sells things like Bird Seed, Grass Seed, Fertilizer, Salt and our biggest thing Fences (that’s my part). I am 1 of 4 salesman that sell fence. I also do their IT and website stuff. I also an VP and Webmaster for a local hobby type club. From the link to my site below, you’ll probably figure out my passions in life, Woodworking, Scale Models and Photography. I’ll say this, I am a weekender website guy, I don’t know PHP. Guess I tend to lean towards to WYSIWYG type setups. But I like the potential of MODx.

I love tinkering with websites and up until a year ago, did the websites via Dreamweaver and then switched all 3 sites too XOOPS. I love XOOPS to a certain extent. I wanted something that would allow our club to have several writers who could submit their own articles rather than sending me the text and me doing all the work. Someone at XOOPS suggested MODx because it allowed AJAX. Apparently I need that for drag and dropping of images into articles.

So, I’ve downloaded MODx and installed it on my personal space. My current site is http://www.planesnsuch.com. I backdated the XOOPS install to try something and haven’t done much more to the front page of the site because I’ve been tinkering with MODx. So, herein lies my questions.

Running Website: http://www.planesnsuch.com
MODx trial run: http://www.planesnsuch.com/modx

I don’t know if I am making it harder for myself or what, but I am struggling with the initial setup. Attached is my site structure from the manager.

It just seems blank and not setup right when I click on SCALE MODELING from the menu. Maybe it’s a combination of a new CMS package and not knowing all the things MODx and it’s snippets can do.

Anyone have any thoughts? Did any of that make sense?

Your test site is not looking too bad at the moment, what did you want/expect to be displayed on the SCALE MODELING page?

Maybe that’s the thing........I don’t know. Sometimes I think there should be a list or something. Actually, if the menu just had the folders without the subfolders and docs, that would be fine.. Then list the subfolders and articles on the SCALE MODELING page? I’m just drawing a huge blank........but maybe it’s just the new CMS package that’s overwhelming me. It’s so rich with possibilities.

MODx and woodworking are a great analogy, actually. You can pretty much craft MODx into anything you’d like without any restrictions. If you know how to use steam, you get some amazing bentwood creations. If you’re a router-ninja, then amazing joints and other really interesting projects are within your grasp...

In the end, nothing is instantly easy to grasp, but once you understand the basics it becomes much easier to start taking on increasingly more advanced projects. MODx is what you decide to make out of it. And it can be crafted into really beautiful and amazing things.

Well maybe it’s because I am new to MODx or maybe it’s because I have a very limited knowledge of HTML and know no PHP, among other things. But boy am I overwhelmed with getting this MODx understood.

Hi jimbofoxman,

MODx is really currently targeted at either experienced CSS/HTML Web Designers with some web development experience, or knowledgeable coders proficient in PHP. That’s not to say newbies aren’t welcome, but you’ll really need to dig in and learn a bit to feel comfortable. Best of luck!