[Express] HTML Object creates problems with graphic object

Freeway
1

I am having the following difficulty with html objects interacting strangely with graphic objects.

  1. Created a master page containing two graphic objects, a title, and a sidebar. The page has a background color that contrasts with the sidebar.

  2. I made a new page based on this master, and added another graphic.

  3. I added an html object over the sidebar to insert text.

  4. I created an html object on the background of the page and added text.

Problem:

Everything looks great in the Page edit mode, but changes when view in Preview, and when published to the web.

For each html object a line the color of the background appears at the top and bottom the html object. This line extends from the left margin to the right margin and splits the graphic objects. The line is about 10 px wide, maybe less. Both the graphic object on the master page and the one added to the page are affected the same way.

I am not a professional web designer, but have a little experience using limited html code. Enough to understand the concept, read a page of code and figure out what is happening in a basic sense. I do not code in html. I have used several code generator programs over the years, Very early ones but I don’t remember the names, Adobe GoLive, Apple’s iWeb, and a little of RapidWeaver, but have never encountered something like this so I am at a loss to know what is causing it. Thanks for any help that can be afforded me.

JRG

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2

I am not the best person to explain this but basically your HTML objects can grow depending on text size etc whereas your graphics remain unaltered. FW will divide your graphics into sections and these sections get pushed apart when text objects grow.

If you go to the View Menu and tick HTML layout then you will see on the page the HTML structure of the page and the potential problem areas.

Bear in mind that Express builds its pages using a table structure/scaffolding so everything on the page is in its own ‘cell’

David

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3

Thanks for the response. I compared two pages using the same master, one that had the graphic splitting problem and one that did not. I noticed that the one showing no splitting of the graphic parts of the background had a html box that extended past the bottom of the graphic, but the one that showed the splitting did not. I increased the size of the html object on the problem page so it extended below the graphic that was being split and the problem went away. The html object has lots of empty space in it but that doesn’t affect the page display.

I think that I begin to understand how Freeway is set up to work. The spaces appearing in the graphic are the margins between the underlying table cells. Interesting! The more complex a page becomes, I imagine the more problems that potentially could develop from conflicts in the underlying table structure. Is that the case, or not?

Thanks again,
JRG

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4

The more complex a page becomes, I imagine the more problems that potentially could develop from conflicts in the underlying table structure. Is that the case, or not?

Well if you are building complex pages then you should really be using FW Pro and CSS

D

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5

Dave,

Thanks for the interest in my inquiry. I find your comment intriguing, but it doesn’t give enough information for me to understand. I have looked at the comparison between Pro and Express and both seem to do the same thing, Pro a little more elegantly. Of course, without actually working with the program that is just an impression. I know what CSS is but have never really understood it enough to use it, and I am sure this comment pegs me as a real novice. Just wondering if you could direct me to some place that I might learn more about both Pro and CSS. The two PDF files, Freeway5Reference, and UsingFreeway I downloaded from the site help, but are lacking in examples of the things Pro does and how CSS helps as you suggest.

Thanks,
JRG

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6

The main difference between the 2 (as I understand it) is that Express can only build table based pages. ie the whole page is formed with a table scaffolding holding it all together. This has its limitations when it comes to item positioning etc as you have found out.

Pro on the other hand uses CSS and a Div structure so that items can be ‘layered’ more in the way that PShop etc use layers so that items can sit on top and overlap other items.

The differences here http://www.softpress.com/products/proexpress/

It may be that if you are only wanting to create ‘uncomplicated’ sites then Express will do the job fine - and there is always the Upgrade to Pro option if you need to do more at a later date.

It is not just the CSS that sets it apart but also the extensibility of the numerous Actions that can set your sites apart from others. You only need to look through the possibilities at http://www.actionsforge.com/ to see what is available for a Pro user. There are quite a few for Express users too.

I am not the one to explain the benefits of CSS - I don’t know enough about it. Here is a page that will tell you a bit more http://www.html.net/tutorials/css/lesson1.asp - but it is the future of website construction as table-based layouts are considered ‘old hat’.

David

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7

David,

I very much appreciate your patience an willingness to share what you know. This is helpful information and I will check out the information you suggested.

BTW - I just noticed that you are in Glasgow. Scotland is a place I would like to visit, and a romantic place in my mind. I enjoy reading historical fiction concerning England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. I have always admired the Scottish desire for independence and self reliance. From what I have read it seems the climate and geography lends itself toward strong people. Being a retired American of Swedish descent living in Minnesota, I doubt I will ever be afforded that pleasure.

Thanks, Again
JRG

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