site customizing

I would love to experience a fully customizable site, so far I am frustrated.  The solutions are so beyond a newbie in the language that dolphin is written in that it goes over my head.  I must learn a new language to change something simple like a background image.  Someone please tell me this has not been a waist of time and money!  I can easily get the look that I want with css and html.  Is there a way I can get what I want with boonex without knowing php? 

Without this it would be fair to stop saying dolphin fully customizable!

You can never get a Mini Minor look and act like a Ferrari. Dolphin is fully customisable, but you need to know CSS, PHP, Ajax, Java, MySQL and a host of other things to do it, just like you would need to be a panel beater, spray painter, welder and mechanic and draftsman to work on your Mini.

There are some great sites out there, but the people behind them often have the necessary skills, or they've asked someone to do the work for them. There are also mods in the Boonex Market which give more scope for your site. As the free version of Dolphin works fine, you've only wasted your money if you purchased it before testing and deciding the script is what you really need.

HTML isn't a great deal of use, but if you know CSS, you can do wonders. 

Changing a background image can be done simply by replacing the existing one. No programming is necessary, you just need to be able to locate files in folders or directories and replace them. That comes down to your knowledge of Windows or whatever DOS you're using.

If this is the case, how?  What are the instructions for changing a background image when you are  familiar with just css?  Where do I access the files?  How to I keep them from changing?  

If this program is only customizable AFTER a person knows CSS, PHP,Ajax, Java, and Mysql then the text for selling this should reflect that reality.

I purchased this with the thought I could use it for my purposes right away.  This is what is implied by the sales script.  No where have I seen a requirement for these skill sets in the sales pitch.  Also if I had those skills why would I just not make my community from scratch?

I am decent at CSS and html any what is the best way of customizing my site with this skill?

You may like to start here:

https://www.boonex.com/forums/topic/Background-Image-Without-Repeating-.htm

Use firebug for firefox

https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/addon/firebug/

The Firebug Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdIk2PztcL0&list=PLZF67-JkD6cvltlmxYYMsZjrXwYmWWsWi

first off - turn off all caches in your site

second - firefox and chrome come default with an element inspector - just right click on page and click inspect. ith cache turned off, you can make changes using the element inspector and see exactly what page and line to change in the actual files.