Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › How Difficult Is Gen + Dynamik?
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July 18, 2014 at 1:46 am #114775dsimmsMember
I am considering Genesis...
First off, how difficult is it to master?
I am not a coder/designer, so if it requires those skills then I am out...I have also run across Dynamik Website Builder...
How difficult is it to build your own themes?Would appreciate some advice....
Thanks
July 18, 2014 at 6:12 am #114781deejukMemberHi there. I am more of designer than a coder and use Genesis all the time, I started off using Dynamik and dropped it after a little while.
It is a good system got a few quirks and you can mix and match CSS. I think the only reason I dropped Dynamik and started doing some code and css in just Genesis was speed, because Dynamik runs on the browser and I can't ever be bothered to set a local host I foudn it much easier to Firebug everthing and use a standard CSS editor or Text editor.
All in all I think it's a great starting point if you want to use Genesis, you are almost certainly guaranteed a result. One thing I would add is when it comes to post types and the such like with conditions etc it can be as confusing in some ways to doing it all in code, all that said I am visual person and struggle with code stuff anyway.
July 18, 2014 at 6:19 am #114782DTHkellyMemberIf you choose a StudioPress childtheme, with no customization - voila! Not difficult. But also not what you are looking to do?
Consider a StudioPress childtheme http://my.studiopress.com/themes/ with Design Palette Pro:
http://www.carriedils.com/genesis-design-palette-pro-vs-genesis-extender/The plugin runs on top of your Genesis child theme and includes a Settings panel, where you can adjust font families, sizes, colors, margin, and more. ALL WITHOUT TOUCHING CODE. Did I mention you never have to open up your style sheet or write any CSS?
I have Cobalt Apps' Dynamik-Gen ChildTheme and also Genesis Extender (with Magazine Pro). Both are great! I have learned a lot more about Genesis and WordPress using each. Also great.
How much change do you need from the default Dynamik-Gen?
http://demo.dynamiktheme.com/
Dynamik-Gen customizer requires no code. And has features similar to those described for DPPyou can adjust font families, sizes, colors, margin, and more. ALL WITHOUT TOUCHING CODE.
Bottom line: it is not difficult to do this with Dynamik-Gen.
But Dynamik-Gen does so much more for folks who also want to learn some CSS and PHP. Consider that an optional bonus.
Genesis framework has so many more tutorials/code snippets from StudioPress and independent Genesis developers (in this Forum, on their blogs) than the other WordPress framework I started with. How awesome is that? One of the best features of switching to Genesis.
Hope this helps.
July 18, 2014 at 3:19 pm #114833dsimmsMemberno, I do not want to learn css, or even coding...
What I need to do is move things around without having to
hire a coder to make code tweaks....So your first option that has: Design Palette Pro
would sound better for me, at least I think...all I need is a basic template, and be able to tweak it up
from there if I need to change this or that without
having to pay coders to do it for me....July 18, 2014 at 3:27 pm #114836dsimmsMemberSo what is the difference between:
Design Palette Pro & Dynamik-Gen customizer
and I think dynmik has a year cost attached....July 18, 2014 at 5:04 pm #114848DTHkellyMemberDesign Palette Pro is a plugin that works with Genesis childthemes.
Cobalt Apps' Dynamik-Gen is a Genesis childtheme. Its customizer is part of the "dynamic" features of the childtheme.
Cobalt Apps' Genesis Extender is a plugin that works with Genesis childthemes.
Definitely compare features and costs from the developers' respective product websites.
July 18, 2014 at 5:09 pm #114850dsimmsMemberKelly,
I understand that...
I just do not know genesis enough to know
what is best and what will be easier for me...November 29, 2014 at 11:23 am #133217devParticipantThe Dynamik Web Builder theme (DWB) is quite nice and very useful in many situations.
For example, a client wanted a simple site... a header, a slider, two widget areas, and a footer.
Gen child themes today are jammed with so many widget boxes. It is very difficult to find a very basic, simple theme anymore.
We started with one and just "took out" the boxes we didn't need. In the Welcome area we loaded a page with two columns to simulate the two widget areas and then styled it.
Yes, we could have done it differently... lots of ways... maybe use two of the boxes on the child theme and resize them, etc.
Anyway, you would not think it a lot of work to re-engineer a child theme, but it is.
Since we had bought the Dynamik theme some time ago just to have it if we wanted it, I figured "Let's see how much work it is to use that instead," since client was not in a hurry to get site up
DWB let me easily create the exact layout I wanted (EZ 1,2 for those who use use the theme) and it will auto-gen a slider area and a footer if you want (via a check-box.)
It took a while to figure out what as what in all the setting areas (similar to Design Palate plugin but more extensive) because the documentation of them is truly lacking. There was some trial and error here... but then again there is a lot of trial and error when using a browser's "inspect element" facility to figure out what class to tweak in CSS.
When we did the site using the well-known child theme we had about 150 lines of CSS to style it. With Dynamic we had about 17 lines.... just about everything was done via the many settings.
And it took me a about half the time to do the site with Dynamik than by modifying a child theme and the results were exact.
Here is the site if anyone is interested (a work in progress): http://ruffdogbooks.com/wp/
(Loads slow because it is on a 'snail' server in the UK... client's choice, not mine!)Dev
(Usual disclaimers apply. We have no relationship with Cobolt Apps beyond being a paying customer and this post is not an endorsement, etc. It is just my individual reflection on the product in this situation. YMMV)November 29, 2014 at 2:32 pm #133225anotherusernameParticipantI am not a coder/designer, so if it requires those skills then I am out…
To be honest, if you have no interest in coding (css, html, php, etc.,), then it is probably better for you to just get a regular old free / low cost wordpress theme. There are hundreds of them out there.
You probably don't need to spend the money on genesis.
If, on the other hand, you want to develop sites (more than one) with custom templates and customized widget areas, then genesis would be great for you.
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