[Pro] Help With Styles

Freeway
1

Hi all. Can someone help me understand how to set styles the way I want? I have read the manual over and over, and read the threads here.

It’s a trivial “site” (used as a handbook) with no widgets or graphics or user-entry of anything.

I want to have just 2 Masters - Table of Contents and Bullet-List Page.

In the Bullet-List Page, all I want is a Title element at the top, and an HTML item that can hold a bulleted list of paragraphs, with some “after” paragraph spacing.

E.g.

Title Of The List

• Paragraph one that can wrap lines as you’d expect a paragraph to do - as many as needed

• Next paragraph

etc.

That’s all.

So I draw an HTML item on my Master, select it, and try to apply a style that has an Helvetica font for text, and in Paragraph I choose left aligned, bulleted list with round bullets, and spacing after of 12px.

Trying to apply this style gives me “this style can only be applied to text.” Well, there is no text on the Master - that gets filled in when a Page is created and content added, from the Master, right?

Even if I add a dummy text to the HTML item, still I can’t apply the style to the box itself.

How does one apply a style that specifies text and paragraph attributes to an HTML item box? Is it not possible? If not, how would I go about just defining these two styles and have them work when I create a new Page based on this Master?

This really has me stumped. I really want to use styles so I can change the Master in the future and have all of the Pages based on that Master update, say with font or paragraph spacing or a different bullet or a hanging indent. Isn’t that what a Master is for?

Maybe this can’t be done in Freeway Pro. I’d just appreciate hearing from people as to what I am doing wrong. Thanks.

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2

You could create a new class style other than trying to use the p (paragraph) tag. I know that you can apply specific style properties and values to the p tag, but I wouldn’t recommend using that as a usable class style since any new text, if added, would then have those traits and it could open up a whole new can of worms.

I’d recommend that you create a new separate class style and put those properties and values inside that style and then select the text you want to apply the style to, by clicking and dragging to select the text in question, and then apply the style by clicking on it in the CSS palette. Then it should attach the style to it and it should work.

If you’re applying a class style to a list sometimes FW will attach the class style to the UL tag and sometimes it’ll attach it using span tags for each individual list item. It’s anybodies game when that happens, but they will both achieve the same thing.

If you’re unfamiliar with what I mean between class and tag styles I wrote a tutorial a while back on it. Step #2 gives a brief description of what each phrase means.

http://home.comcast.net/~fwtuts/using_css/

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3

Thanks. All I’d like to do is draw the box, select the box, and set character and paragraph attributes for the box as a style.

Is it not possible to assign a style to an HTML item?

When writing the handbook, I’d want to drag the Page Master down to create a new page, enter the title, and the created page would format the title as it was typed in the title box and format the bulleted list as paragraphs were typed in the other box.

I thought this was what Master Pages were for - to have preset formatting for specific areas of the page, so that if you had 100 pages based on a Master, you could just change the formatting of the Master and all 100 pages would get changed to match (unless they had custom formatting).

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4

Is it not possible to assign a style to an HTML item?

Absolutely. You can even set the style so that it is automatically applied.

However, you will have to create a new style in the Styles Editor to do it.

First things first - give the html object a unique name (something other than item1) for clarity. Lets call it masterp just for now.

Next - open the Styles Editor and click the + symbol at the bottom of left column. In the left (tag) field type #masterp then delete whatever is in the name field and tab out of field for entry to be accepted. The style will show up in the styles list with this name.

Next - while still in the editor add your styling choices in the center editor area and OK out and save.

Now every html object with the name masterp will have the same styling.

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5

Thanks so much. Worked fine except I didn’t get the bulleted paragraphs I selected.

I got the text font, and the after-paragraph spacing, but no bullets.

I have gotten the bullets before, but don’t remember what I did to get them.

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6

If you have the PDF version of the manual it’s right in the search area when you type in Lists and it’s on page 98 or page 118 of 468. It shows you how to create bulleted list items and so forth.

Search the manual and yee shall find.

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7

Hey Dan, yes I have the PDF, and I have used the command-option right arrow to insert a bulleted paragraph.

But I want to set the style on the HTML item so that anything typed in or pasted in there automatically takes on the bulleted paragraph style with a 14px “space after.”

What I don’t understand is:

• if I have to type the bullet myself, by command-option-right arrow, what is the purpose of the “list” attribute in the paragraph style area?

• It’s not adding the 14px “after” space that I specified - just ignoring it. I want these bulleted paragraphs to have a little space between them so the user can tap them accurately.

• When making a linked page, is there any way to have it set the new page title to the text of the link, instead of having to copy and paste it? I have 150 pages in here.

• It seems if you Reapply Master, it pastes in whatever text is in the Master. I just want it to reapply the formats, not the text.

• Actually, I don’t want any text in the Master at all, just formats. But I can’t get it to apply, for example, “center” to an empty HTML item - it insists that it has to be applied to text. Therefore I have to put placeholder text, and once I do that, Reapply Master is going to put placeholder text over my page that I am trying to reapply the Master to.

I must be doing something seriously wrong. I only have 2 styles - Title and BulletList, and I just simply want those styles to apply to the two HTML items I have on the page, and be present in any pages I make from the Master.

If anyone can tell me what I am doing wrong I would appreciate it. Especially the Space After thing and the need to select text before changing a paragraph style - I don’t get that at all.

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8

You can create name-only styles in the Styles palette, and those certainly can be applied to a text container.

Make a new style with NOTHING in the Tag field, and call it center (or, if you already have a style by that name, call it centerBox or whatever else amuses you).

Click on the Paragraph (+) icon and select Align from the list, and click the center icon.

Okay out of the New Style dialog.

On your master page, draw a new HTML box, and while it is selected (all 8 handles showing on corners and sides) click once on the “¶.center” style in the list of styles in your Styles palette.

Now make a page based on this master, double-click the empty box (based on the master) and start typing. Your text will be centered.

Go back and fiddle with the style using the Control-click shortcut to Edit Style… and add your space-after, font specification, whatever else you like.

As long as you don’t try to apply too many other local styles to your text, it should remain uncomplicated. Styles “cascade” like this, if you apply a particular style to a container, the text within it inherits those properties of that style that they “understand”. So if you were to apply some property in your style that your text couldn’t inherit, the browser would simply ignore that part while applying the parts that work.

In the Freeway design interface, you will see all of the style attributes that you have applied through the “normal” style editing GUI controls. Anything you have tacked on using the Extended dialog will only be visible when you use Preview or preview in a browser.

Walter

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9

Thank you Walter. I had perfect success with the centered Title box.

I wasn’t able to get bulleted paragraphs that also have a “space after” - it seems that you absolutely have to manually type the command-option right arrow to generate a bullet, even if the paragraph style for the bare box is set to Bullet List.

And if you DON’T do the indent to get the bullets, then the box obeys the “space after” property of the paragraphs. But as soon as you indent one, it does not have the space after.

I think this is just a limitation of the application.

If anyone knows of a workaround to get space after AND bullets, please let me know.

Again, thanks a lot.

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10

It is possible to do this, but it unfortunately won’t show up in Freeway’s layout view. To do this:

  1. Create a new style
  2. Enter “li” (without the quotes) in the Tag field and make sure the contents of the Name field are empty
  3. Add the Space After attribute and enter the space after you want in the text field
  4. OK the dialog
  5. Preview your lists in a browser - they should now all have a space between the individual list items

This is a bit of a blunt hammer approach as this will affect every list in your site.

If you are using a DIV to contain the list (green item in Freeway), you can restrict this space after to just the contents of that particular item by preceding the “li” in the Tag field with the name of the item preceded by a # e.g. if the item’s name is item1, your tag field should contain “#item1 li” (again, without the quotes).

Cheers

Stewart

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11

I have used the command-option right arrow to insert a bulleted paragraph.

Here’s what I would do:

Select my text and use the List section of the Inspector to indent
the text one level. This turns it into a proper list with bullets
appearing automaticvally.

Then make a new style, leaving the Tag field empty and giving it a
meaningful name - for example, “leading”. In the Paragraph settings,
pick Leading and set it to 150%.

Apply this style to the list text. It will show the line spacing
(leading) settings within the Freeway design view AND in the browser.

No fuss whatsoever and you have a proper list structure with no
fakery involved.

k

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12

I agree with Keith. That’s a much better way of doing it. I didn’t get what you were meaning with space AFTER and BEFORE. It should have just been a leading adjustment.

Also if you took Stewart’s suggestion I’d create a class style attach to the list items then you could target them using

li.classname

or depending if FW added the class style to the UL tag or spanned all the LI tags (it’s random sometimes) you could then have the style be

ul.classname

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13

Thanks to you both. I’ve now got what I need. I didn’t realize that “leading” did the same thing.

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14

Me again. Does anyone know how to change the folder that FreeWay is saving new pages in? I somehow wound up with a folder within a folder.

Even if I change the folder in the Finder, Freeway still keeps the original name.

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15

If you mean your Site Folder then go to the File Menu > Document
Setup… and click the Document button at the top (usually the default
on opening). Click on the Select… button in the middle of the dialog
box and navigate to (or create) a new folder.

(If you mean the FW document itself, just do a simple Save as… and
choose where).

HTH Colin

On 16 May 2009, at 02:20, Johnnylundy wrote:

Me again. Does anyone know how to change the folder that FreeWay is
saving new pages in? I somehow wound up with a folder within a folder.

Even if I change the folder in the Finder, Freeway still keeps the
original name.

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16

Thanks. Worked great. I was also able to drag all of the created pages into this new folder.

Now I’m good to go, churning out my 150 pages with links.

Thanks to everyone.

If there are shortcut tips for making a linked page from text, I’m all ears. What I am doing now is selecting the text (avoiding the trailing paragraph mark), choosing “Copy”, then choosing “Hyperlink…”, then clicking the New Page button, then pasting in the copied text as the page title, then clicking OK twice.

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17

I was also able to drag all of the created pages into this new folder.

You don’t need or want to do that! Think of it like Freeway OWNS the content of your site folder. It will manage it and add, replace pages and files and the Resources. FW reviews the content of that folder every time you do a preview or publish and makes sure they are right.

David

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18

On 16 May 2009, 4:18 pm, DeltaDave wrote:

I was also able to drag all of the created pages into this new folder.

You don’t need or want to do that! Think of it like Freeway OWNS the content of your site folder. It will manage it and add, replace pages and files and the Resources. FW reviews the content of that folder every time you do a preview or publish and makes sure they are right.

David

Oh, I meant I did it IN Freeway. Once I was able to change the folder name for the site folder, in Freeway’s list I could consolidate all of the pages in that folder.

I have 3 backups in case I mess something up, but so far the links all seem to be intact.

I had to do that because at some point I wound up with a subfolder in there that had the first 30 pages or so, and Freeway was adding new pages to the “new” folder which somehow became the parent folder for this subfolder. I think I made the mistake of choosing New Folder and it made a subfolder.

Anyway, now I have a single folder with 50 or so pages, and that’s the simplest way to include them in an iPhone app - just have them all at the top level of the app bundle in Xcode. That way I can just point Xcode at the folder and when it builds it will copy all the files in the folder to the app bundle.

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19

That is fine Johnny.

There is no problem about renaming pages or subfolders within the FW application itself (or moving pages between subfolders) as FW is smart enough to track your pages and keep all your links between them intact.

David

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20

Another thing that will help you sleep better is the understanding
that Freeway tracks the external images and files you attach to your
site (either by placing images, or by using Actions to attach files or
images to your pages) using Mac Alias references. These are extremely
durable links, and they will survive the renaming of the original
file, the moving of the original file into a different part of the
same disk hierarchy (but not a different disk). It’s pretty hard to
screw up these references, in other words. And if you or someone else
edits a referenced file, the next time you publish, the latest version
will be added to your site and the older version removed.

Walter

On May 16, 2009, at 8:06 PM, DeltaDave wrote:

There is no problem about renaming pages or subfolders within the FW
application itself (or moving pages between subfolders) as FW is
smart enough to track your pages and keep all your links between
them intact.

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