I have a small problem concerning hidden items in fw pro 5.5.
Let say I draw a graphic item taking the whole page width. I fill it with whatever graphic/photo. Then I add smaller items on top of it, logos, menus, etc.
For some reason, the newly created items are hidden, and the only way to select them is to draw a select area from the page margin over extending to the item, then deselecting (shift click) the unwanted underlying wide item. Then, even once selected, I cannot edit its content, and clicking over it deselects it. This is IMO weird. Clicking the small white square to grey does seem to do anything either.
The only workaround to that is, once selected, to physically slightly draw the item toward a margin with the keyboard arrow keys, then once outside the wide item, double click, do my editing job and drag it back. Phew!
I have to do that workaround every time I need to modify the content, clicking the Item->send to front / Bring forward options don’t seem to do anything.
Yes - In the view of the document there is a column at the left hand side of the screen which is the site/page panel. Usually headed up site and in there is displayed your Master Pages your Site Folder and the list of all your pages.
If you click the ‘site’ header it will change to ‘page’ view where all the items on that page will be listed.
Selecting an item in that list and using the enter Key will select that item on your page for editing -it helps to give your items meaningful names in the inspector to help with their identification.
It is also worth noting that items at the bottom of the list are ‘in front’ of items higher up and you can change their ‘stacking’ order by dragging them up and down the list.
So it seems, yes, tx for pointing it out. But their default at creation time does not seem to be the front layer, so new items are not accessible by default. Worse, the inspector does not seem to say anything about the layer they are in, back or front. That would be nice it would be possible to see/select the back/front layer from the inspector. Or again did I miss something here?
Yes - In the view of the document there is a column at the left hand side of the screen which is the site/page panel. Usually headed up site and in there is displayed your Master Pages your Site Folder and the list of all your pages.
Interesting and usefull. I saw it but I wrongly assumed the “Page” title meant page instances which I am not really interested for now, since I develop my master first.
It is also worth noting that items at the bottom of the list are ‘in front’ of items higher up and you can change their ‘stacking’ order by dragging them up and down the list.
That is very interesting indeed. Trouble is that when I try to move an item from one place to another, say to the bottom of the list at top level, nothing happens, although moving symbols like an horizontal blue placement key symbol. In some other case, the moving works. Frustrating. What did I did wrong, as it is not obvious why it fails?
In the inspector you need to first check the ‘layer’ box. Click the item you’re working on, and on the left hand top option you’ll see the ‘layer’ checkbox, then you can move it up or down. Then do this with each item you’re working on in turn. The alternative is to click the CSS button on the menu till it becomes blue. There are pros and cons to this method which is for a whole different discussion!
Good luck with this - persevere & you WILL get there. As my great hero John Muir says ‘perseverance FURTHERS!’
all best wishes
Dick
On 12 Sep 2010, at 12:42, claude wrote:
On 12 Sep 2010, 10:29 am, DeltaDave wrote:
Yes - In the view of the document there is a column at the left hand side of the screen which is the site/page panel. Usually headed up site and in there is displayed your Master Pages your Site Folder and the list of all your pages.
Interesting and usefull. I saw it but I wrongly assumed the “Page” title meant page instances which I am not really interested for now, since I develop my master first.
It is also worth noting that items at the bottom of the list are ‘in front’ of items higher up and you can change their ‘stacking’ order by dragging them up and down the list.
That is very interesting indeed. Trouble is that when I try to move an item from one place to another, say to the bottom of the list at top level, nothing happens, although moving symbols like an horizontal blue placement key symbol. In some other case, the moving works. Frustrating. What did I did wrong, as it is not obvious why it fails?
First, you can click ‘through’ items that are in a stack, so you don’t have to use the Page view in the Site panel. Just hold down the Command and Option keys (that’s Apple and Alt if you prefer) and click, click, click. Each click selects the next item below. Keep track of which item is selected by looking at the name in the Inspector palette. (You did name things usefully, right?
Then, when you have the right item selected, just hit the Enter key (no, NOT the Return key - there is a difference!) and the selected item will be ‘opened’ for text editing with the content shown above all other elements even though the item remains where it is in the stack. You can’t click and drag with the mouse to select text, but you can use keyboard commands. Use the arrow keys to navigate around the text, use those with the Shift key to select chunks, and simply use Command-A to select all text. Command-Option-click once more to ‘close’ the item and keep it selected - so you can Command-Option-click again to keep tunneling down the stack… or just click elsewhere to deselect.
If you still want to move something off the page onto the pasteboard so you can work on it separately, look in the Inspector palette and try just setting the item’s left inset to a different value and hitting Return. Stick a minus in front of the number, or use some value that relates to the original number. That way it will be easy to send it back to the original location in your page: just put in the original left inset number ( or whatever you changed) and you’re done.
First, you can click ‘through’ items that are in a stack, so you don’t have to use the Page view in the Site panel. Just hold down the Command and Option keys (that’s Apple and Alt if you prefer) and click, click, click. Each click selects the next item below.
Tx again Richard, this is indeed a very useful function. Funny I missed it.
As someone (Laura?) said in some other thread, this forum is very much part of FW. That makes me think that some kind of FWwiki dbase would be great, just to keep a structured track of what has been said. I happily volunteer to help.
Tx to all of you for your time and help, case closed for what I am concerned.
