Joe, I await your reply to my previous post above. In the meantime, I have another question. But before I start on that, I’ve got a rant…
I absolutely, positively, 100% hate the lack of WYSIWYG layout functionality with respect the CSS Menus. It annoys the heck out of me, and it is a slap in the face to the easy of use that the Mac OS and legacy versions of Freeway are famous for.
No, I do not mind sketching out an HTML item, composing a text list and then applying the CSS Menus action to that same HTML item. That’s quick, easy and makes logical sense (i.e., an indented list directly corresponds to a menu with submenus – in my mind at least). So no problems there. But the part I “hate” is what comes immediately AFTER you apply that CSS Menus action. I want my list and HTML box to immediate transform into the very menu I get presented with when I Preview. I want to see that in the design mode, not be forced to use Preview to see it. Why tie my hands and force me back to the 1980’s? In 1982 we had CPM and DOS text editors that forced you to use special coded tags in order to format text as Bold, Italic, etc. You couldn’t see how the text really looks until you printed. In like manner, Freeway is sticking this same, out-of-date, brain-dead, 1980’s style lack of WYSIWYG down my throat with respect to CSS Menus (and some other actions too, in fact). I chose Freeway 2.0 back in the 1990’s because it was different from other web design tools of the day in regard to WYSIWYG design. I still love Freeway, and indeed that is why I write this impassioned rant! I want to see it get back to its roots.
Here’s the deal. Right now, there’s no WYSIWYG CSS Menus “design.” The big problem with that is that you end up with several HTML boxes which are by no means as compact as the menu bar you are making. So to clean up that big mess, SoftPress needs to make CSS Menus WYSIWYG in design mode. What I mean is, when I apply the CSS Menus action to an HTML item with a list inside, I immediately want to see that HTML item transformed into the very menu I am creating (i.e., what it looks like in Preview). Then, if I double click that menu in design mode, it will revert back to the HTML item and allow me to edit the list contents. THAT is WYSIWYG, and I certainly want that right now!
Rant over. (Hope SP engineers are listening.)
Joe, my second question to you is about the “width” of individual CSS Menus. As you know, there is a slider in the Actions palette that allows us to change this width in “em” sizes. I somewhat understand this as ‘em’ is a relative sizing scheme. But I have a problem. My page is 800px wide. I have 6 buttons in the menu bar I am creating with CSS Menus. Five of those buttons are the same width. The 6th button is wider than the others, and sits to the far right side of the menu bar.
I want my entire Menu bar to span the exact 800px width of the page I am creating. No more, no less. That is what I want. But I simply cannot do this with the slider in the Actions palette. It’s not exact. The overall length is just a tad too long or a tad too short.
How do I use CSS Menus to span the entire width of my menu bar to exactly 800px?
Thank you,
James Wages
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