It’s Official . . . It’s a Mess

You know how Picasso had a “blue” period? Well, I’m in what I call my “flash” period. Not a good thing.

There is no question that I have an unholy crush on flash templates. I spend waste a great deal of time online browsing through those at Template Monster. Some of the layouts are awesome. Creative. Inspiring. My imagination runs wild. The possibilities feel endless. I want to use them for my clients and build sites that will knock the socks off anyone visiting.

Wanting that “wow” factor for my design site, I found a sweet template with the features I needed. Though I don’t know a thing about flash, I decided to give it a try.

Wow. What a challenge. What a mistake.

First of all, did I mention I don’t know anything about flash? I don’t even own the software, so doing any real customization wasn’t going to happen. The best I could do was place the template at the center of the page on a checked background and swap out some text and photos.

Secondly, because I don’t know a thing about flash, I couldn’t add any new pages. That is, I could not add new pages that “matched” the main flash page. Nor could I duplicate the flash in the menu and the special rollover effects that go with it. Instead, I had to create inner pages in HTML that kinda sorta almost matched the look of the main flash page, but didn’t. What a mess. What a mistake.

Third, the not-so-sweet flash contact form does not work. I didn’t even realize it until a good client told me they had been trying to reach me for days using the form. How’s that for “Wow” factor? It’s my bad—I never tested the form. Part of the problem is missing code in the PHP file that came with the flash template. I tried adding the code, but had no luck. No luck with Template Monster either. I wrote their customer support with a clear explanation of the problem and attached the necessary files. They sent back a polite, generic one-line response that did not address the problem at all, and told me they were closing the ticket.

I’m not at all happy with the way things turned out. I prefer clean and consistent with clear navigation . . . and this is not it.

My love affair with Template Monster and their flash templates is officially over.