Layer Action Problem

Hi everyone,

Hope someone can help me. I’ll try to explain the problem as best as I can.

Setting up a webpage, & have made some little lantern gifs into rollover buttons. With the mouseover the lantern changes color (as if being lit), while a nearby box shows some corresponding text identifying the topic of that lantern button & the page it will link to.

New text should appear with each rollover. Here’s the problem. Before any rollovers happen, there is some visible text directing visitors to the lanterns. When the first lantern is mousedover, that text disappears & the new topical text replaces it. (eventually people will be able to click those lanterns to go to the page that the boxed text is describing)

When you remove the mouse from that first lantern, the original text returns, as it was when there were no mouseovers. So far, so good.

But all the other buttons, result in the new topical text appearing WITH the original visible text, which only disappears on that first lantern.

All the text boxes are HTML, I’ve spent hours trying the various Target Group “color” classifications (indigo, aqua, etc,) as well as the Mouseover# and Click# but I can’t get the other lanterns to behave as that first one in the right column. What am I doing wrong?

I’ve done a lot of searches, both here & on the web. Perhaps I’m not describing the problem in the correct vernacular.

Here’s the page, check the lanterns, see what I mean.
If you can, please help me…

www.2StudioB.ca

thank you
Tanya


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Wow… you can’t edit posts here?
I forgot to put [Pro] in the title.

thanks


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This is a mailing list, with a Web interface for people who like to
check their mail without checking their mail! You can’t (though
countless elected officials would desperately desire to) edit your e-
mail after you’ve sent it.

Walter

On Apr 12, 2011, at 2:38 AM, Tanya wrote:

Wow… you can’t edit posts here?
I forgot to put [Pro] in the title.

thanks


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Here’s what I would do. Set all of your mouseovers exactly the same,
and be sure to construct them so that they are opaque. If you have a
white background on your page, for example, give the mouseover boxes
the same background color. Then create your “coach text” layer, and
send it to back, behind the stack of mouseover images. Whenever one of
those images is visible, it will hide the coach text, and whenever
they are all hidden, the coach text will return. The key is to have
all of the mouseover layers initially hidden, and to not have the
coach text in any rollover at all. It should just always be on the
page, always visible, but covered by the mouseover elements whenever
one of them is visible.

Walter

On Apr 11, 2011, at 11:20 PM, Tanya wrote:

When you remove the mouse from that first lantern, the original text
returns, as it was when there were no mouseovers. So far, so good.

But all the other buttons, result in the new topical text appearing
WITH the original visible text, which only disappears on that first
lantern.


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Thank you Walter.
I understand what you mean.
So it would be better for me to make those rollover texts that appear, as graphic elements with a solid background that matches the section they’re appearing on, rather than the HTML text that is on a transparent layer.

Thru trial & error, I found another clue to the mystery. It’s to do with the Actions settings in the Actions window that are connected to the various text boxes. There are 2 categories, Target Group & Target #. The original “coaching text” will only disappear if it is matched by a replacement text with the same Target #.

My problem is that I have to use 5 different Target #'s to trigger all my various texts. Is there a way to add additional Target #'s to my coaching text, so it will allow itself to be replaced by other bodies of text?

I’ve tried changing the number, & it will be replaced by various texts, but only one at a time. So, if Freeway doesn’t allow me to add more Target #'s to that action, it looks like your graphic suggestion is the only solution.

I really appreciate your help, on this troubling issue.

cheers
Tanya


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On Apr 12, 2011, at 1:36 PM, Tanya wrote:

Thank you Walter.
I understand what you mean.
So it would be better for me to make those rollover texts that
appear, as graphic elements with a solid background that matches the
section they’re appearing on, rather than the HTML text that is on a
transparent layer.

HTML boxes can have solid background colors, just as graphic text
does. There’s enormous SEO failure awaiting you if you use graphic
text for anything other than branding or decoration.

Thru trial & error, I found another clue to the mystery. It’s to do
with the Actions settings in the Actions window that are connected
to the various text boxes. There are 2 categories, Target Group &
Target #. The original “coaching text” will only disappear if it is
matched by a replacement text with the same Target #.

My problem is that I have to use 5 different Target #'s to trigger
all my various texts. Is there a way to add additional Target #'s to
my coaching text, so it will allow itself to be replaced by other
bodies of text?

You need to get each rollover to work independently, not assign
additional targets to the coach text. A Target Show / Hide Layer
element can be triggered by more than one Rollover, to be sure, but
this effect you’re after is at its heart considerably simpler than
this. All you need to do is set each target layer to appear and
disappear
whenever the apposite Rollover is moused over or moused out
of. Then, when a different Rollover is moused over or out, its
target layer will do the same.

I’ve tried changing the number, & it will be replaced by various
texts, but only one at a time. So, if Freeway doesn’t allow me to
add more Target #'s to that action, it looks like your graphic
suggestion is the only solution.

I really appreciate your help, on this troubling issue.

Keep at it, the penny will drop…

Walter

cheers
Tanya


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Thanks again Walter.
I’m trying to do it your way.
Here’s the new problem… The little pinkish velvet panel that the text is to appear on, has to be duplicated for each of the texts that will appear. I’ve added rounded corners to it in Freeway, so I want to stack the various panels one over the next to create the effect of appearing text. However, I can’t seem to affix the text to the appropriate panel. So when I go to move the panel into position, it leaves the text behind on the page. I’ve tried multiple selecting the text & the panel, then Grouping, which locks it on the page so I can’t move it except within a new rigid blue box that forms around the group. I’ve tried Anchor, that just locks the text to the place on the page, but not to the panel it’s sitting on.

I’ve tried using a Graphic box instead of HTML, then typing the words into it, & hoping that the Combine Graphics would combine them so they operated as one unit, but alas, no. I thought if I took the panel into PhotoShop, I could paint text onto it then bring each panel in as individual graphics to appear when triggered. But then the transparent curved corners would be gone, unless I went with a GIF but then the picture quality is diminished.

This is a mess, this Freeway is not very easy, nor intuitive on these difficult problems. But I still would really like to master it…


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If you don’t have a solid background to play with, then use a
background-image to do the same thing. Take your little pinkish velvet
panel and export it as a JPEG–low quality is fine. Then select your
first HTML box, and in the Style tab, open up the Background Image
controls and select the image you output. Set it to no-repeat, center,
center. Do the same for each of the other elements. Now you can put
HTML text inside this box, but the background image will remain behind
it – and locked in place. You will end up with far fewer elements,
and your page will load much faster because each of those HTML
elements will be re-using (from the cache) the same image when it
appears.

Walter

On Apr 12, 2011, at 3:08 PM, Tanya wrote:

Thanks again Walter.
I’m trying to do it your way.
Here’s the new problem… The little pinkish velvet panel that the
text is to appear on, has to be duplicated for each of the texts
that will appear. I’ve added rounded corners to it in Freeway, so I
want to stack the various panels one over the next to create the
effect of appearing text.


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Ahh… nice. It’s all beginning to make sense now, thanks to your expert tutelage. I shall follow your instructions, & hopefully be able to execute them properly

Thank you Walter, you have rekindled my love affair with Freeway.


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Ok, I’ve sort of got the desired effect beginning to happen, but since I can’t make rounded corners on the HTML boxes, I have to overlay them on the original graphic of the pinkish velvet panel, & try to line them up close to the pattern on the base graphic. The only problem is that when the overlaid image filled HTML box appears from rollover, the pattern is a tiny bit off so there’s a jump shift in the background behind the text.

2 Questions… is there a way to round the corners on an HTML box?

Secondly, when I have a whole stack of layers on top of each other, is there a way to cycle thru them like you can with Photoshop’s layers? Otherwise, if I want to read the action script or edit one of those on the bottom of the stack, I have to drag them off one at a time.


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Sure. Use the CSS 3 Corners Action.

And if you option click on the stack, your selection will move back one layer with each click. Watch the name of the box in the inspector to see where you are, and when you reach the layer you want to edit, press return. Your selected box will temporarily move to the top of the stack, and you will have a text cursor to select your text and edit.

Walter


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Can I aslo mention that on my 27" monitor your page is far too top heavy.

What I mean is that there is no real content on display as your header graphic is far too tall and I have to scroll down to see anything of value and that includes navigation.

How must it look on a small(er) screen or an iOS device?

There is a Newspaper expression of ‘Above the Fold’ which relates to the fact that anything of importance is at the top of the page.

David


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Hmm… good advice. I’m working on making everything smaller right now. I too have a 27" monitor, but when we looked at it today on my friend’s laptop it was ridiculously big. Hehe…

But here’s a weird thing… on my screen the colors are way different from hers. On her peecee laptop the colors were all faded & way more purple, but on the Mac they’re more reddish. What’s up with that? (she’s also using Chrome & IE - so sad) - Speaking of which, I read that Walter’s amazing CSS corners won’t show up in IE. That’s a bummer.

As for the top heavy thing, even though I’m scaling everything down a lot, we’ll still feature that picture up top because she really wants a kind of artistic feel to the site.


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But here’s a weird thing… on my screen the colors are way different from hers. On her peecee laptop the colors were all faded & way more purple, but on the Mac they’re more reddish.

The default gamma setting for PC monitors is different from the Mac and will result in a washed out color appearance like you are seeing. Especially if the monitor, or laptop screen, has not been calibrated properly.


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So how does one calibrate a laptop screen? I’m not sure she will even let me do that. She probably thinks everything else she sees on the web looks fine.


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Ok, wish I could have removed that last post. Yes, I know this isn’t a forum for calibrating windoze machines, I was merely alluding to the fact that, surely we have to have our websites calibrated for the majority of users. Sad, pathetic existence they lead, made worse with viruses, vista, IE & now inferior gamma settings.

Ok, back on track. Thanks to the marvelous help from Walter, & team here, I’ve got my rollovers working properly.

www.2StudioB.ca

Yes, the page is too red, I’m working on that. But here’s the latest, Walter said if I Option click on a stack of HTML boxes, I can click thru each layer or selection. 2 problems arise with this, first, not sure what constitutes a “stack.” Is that the correct terminology? Should I Group my pile of HTML boxes? They’re perfectly aligned obscuring one another. (Though I’m not entirely pleased with their background image, I will probably change that.) If I search for Stack in Freeway Help, I get what appears to be a view mode for the interface (in the Window Menu), not a grouping of stacked objects.

Knowing the correct terminology would help me articulate my problems.

Secondly, when I try to Option click right now over my cluster of HTML boxes, I get a little white hand that grabs things, not what I want to do… as that would move them out of alignment.

I will need to be able to click thru that stack to be able to change the background images, edit text, etc.

Where’s Walter when you need him?

thanks


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Sorry, it’s Command-Option click. I wasn’t in Freeway and was doing it
from memory. I just checked.

As far as a stack, I was not referring to a group, but just literally
to a collection of boxes that you had positioned one over the top of
the next. If you group these elements, they will no longer work as
expected using Target Show/Hide Layer.

Walter

On Apr 13, 2011, at 10:24 PM, Tanya wrote:

Secondly, when I try to Option click right now over my cluster of
HTML boxes, I get a little white hand that grabs things, not what I
want to do… as that would move them out of alignment.


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Thank you Walter. When I Command-Option click I seem to change selections in the HTML box I’m clicking in, rather than change thru the other HTML boxes beneath it.

One other thing, how can I make all my objects be exactly centered in the browser window when published on the web? So that even if the window is resized, the collection of Graphics & HTML boxes that make up my page, will always remain perfectly centered.

I’m guessing I remove my left spacing… as it seems right now my objects stay pretty much centered, except when I size the window too far to the left, then they stop at whatever that space is…

thanks as always


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Tanya - look at his another way. Calibrate your own monitor to suit your web work. Using just the standard tool in your Mac’s Systems Preferences > Displays > Color, click on he Calibrate button and make a new profile with the gamma set to 2.2 and white point D65. This is native for Snow Leopard, but older Macs had a native Gamma of 1.8.

If you use a third party calibrator, use the same values (D65 = 6500) and use similar values in any Photoshop images ‘Saved for Web’.

What you see on screen should now be close to what a PC user will see.

If you prefer a lower gamma for press and print work, save a separate profile and you can, small pain though it is, switch between the two as required.

Finally, others may not entirely agree with my settings (just Google PC Gamma for options) or you may be able to make a direct comparison with your client’s laptop and check that way.

HTH Colin

On 13 Apr 2011, at 23:06, Tanya wrote:

So how does one calibrate a laptop screen? I’m not sure she will even let me do that. She probably thinks everything else she sees on the web looks fine.


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And remember that your Client’s laptop may not be what other windoze users see.

D


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