[Pro] I cannot set html tags to a scripty accordion

Huh… I just get repetitively lost in the “simple” instructions that I downloaded from ScriptyAccordion

The downloaded demo works…

I try to recreate the demo and, as a naive FW newcomer, I cannot figure how to apply html tags to whatever text portions I want, in particular h2 tags from within the text I pasted in the scripty accordion html item.

I started a new project afresh, created a new page from Master 1, created an HTML item, applied a scripting accordion to it, but cannot format my text trying from the inspector text dialog. The h2 tag is just missing (as any other h-items). I tried to add it to the page pop down menu to no avail. I get an item:item1 and a text menu item as well, but I am not sure what I should do with these… In anyway the text is not hidden neither seems to be formatted.

Claude


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Make sure that the Styles palette is visible, and you should see the
control to add these styles to your text. Just make sure that the text
box in question is an HTML box rather than a Graphic box, and it
should Just Work™.

Walter

On Sep 7, 2010, at 3:05 PM, claude wrote:

I try to recreate the demo and, as a naive FW newcomer, I cannot
figure how to apply html tags to whatever text portions I want, in
particular h2 tags from within the text I pasted in the scripty
accordion html item.


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Good point Walter and tx for your quick answer. I managed to find the Styles palette from the inspector-Size and Colours dialog. It shows a selectable list of tag names like this:

[no style] /
em /
h1 /
h2 /
h3 /
p /
strong

From the h-tags, h1 is the only tag I can apply on selected text (double clicking a line). Nothing happens if I try to click h2 or h3, even if I try to click on [no style] first. What I did was editing the style so that it would actually change to bold and decrease the font. That part seems to work, but…

Selecting a whole paragraph and clicking on “p” pops up an error: “this style cannot be applied to text”, huh?

I tried to edit the “p” style but again, I got lost. My accordion is still not working…

Did I do something wrong?

One comment: Learning to use the FW actions is indeed very slow and frustrating all together.


Claude


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On Sep 7, 2010, at 4:32 PM, claude wrote:

Good point Walter and tx for your quick answer. I managed to find
the Styles palette from the inspector-Size and Colours dialog. It
shows a selectable list of tag names like this:

[no style] /
em /
h1 /
h2 /
h3 /
p /
strong

From the h-tags, h1 is the only tag I can apply on selected text
(double clicking a line). Nothing happens if I try to click h2 or
h3, even if I try to click on [no style] first. What I did was
editing the style so that it would actually change to bold and
decrease the font. That part seems to work, but…

Try triple-clicking a line. Double-clicking doesn’t get the invisible
“Paragraph” character at the end of the line, and until you select
that, you haven’t got the entire line and the H tags don’t apply.

Selecting a whole paragraph and clicking on “p” pops up an error:
“this style cannot be applied to text”, huh?

The p tag in the list is automatically applied to any text that
doesn’t have another style applied to it already. It’s a sort of page
default, so you can’t apply it to anything, only edit it and see the
result cascade across your page. Counter-intuitively, the way to apply
it is to select the text and click [no style] to take it back to
defaults.

I tried to edit the “p” style but again, I got lost. My accordion is
still not working…

Did I do something wrong?

Almost certainly not. But you are probably over-thinking this
somewhat. This particular Action is designed to “ski the fall line” of
one particular use-case, and not require much if any configuration in
order to work.

Try drawing a new HTML box on the page, double-click into it to get a
text cursor, and type six lines of text, separated by a single return
between each:

Header 1

Paragraph 1

etc…

Then triple-click each of the “Header…” lines and apply the h2 or h3
style using the palette. Don’t worry at all about what it looks like
(initially), just get the success of making the effect work for a
starter.

Finally, click on the pasteboard somewhere, then single-click on your
HTML box to select it, and apply the Action to it. Check that the
headers and bodies are set the same tags as you used, and preview.

You should see the first paragraph open and all the others closed, and
when you click on another header, the animation should fire. Once you
have it working, you can style it up to look fabulous. That part is
simple, because all you need to do is style up one of the headers,
then convert the temporary style Freeway makes into a new permanent H*
style. Triple click each of your headers, click [no style] then click
your new fancy style. Done and done, as the kids say.

One comment: Learning to use the FW actions is indeed very slow and
frustrating all together.

That’s valuable feedback. I’ve been writing and using them for nearly
20 years, so it’s often hard for me to see the forest for the trees.
But compared with writing all the code long-hand in a text editor,
Actions are often a rocket-sled of productivity once you crack the
initial learning curve.

Walter


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On 7 Sep 2010, at 21:32, claude wrote:

Selecting a whole paragraph and clicking on “p” pops up an error: “this style cannot be applied to text”, huh?

You don’t need to apply it, it’s automatic. Whenever you type some text in Freeway, then hit Return and type some more, those are paragraphs. They’ll automatically take on the styling of the ‘p’ style. You can adjust the styling of the ‘p’ style using the ‘Edit Styles’ dialog.

best wishes,

Paul Bradforth

Buy my eBooks at:
http://www.paulbradforth.com/books/


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Tx to you all, Walter and Paul for your time and help, I managed to get it work. On essential problem is that my html item was not layered. Even if I am smiling back again -so far-, I maintain my comments, I even add a few ones Walter, pardon me for that! In any way tx for a great job of yours and a very good tool. Meaning FW.

  • I understand your strategy in FW is to keep the designer away from generated code. Even HTML. My career path is from… hand HTML, hand everything with emacs to WYIWYG editors. Great, I like it. But still, I am missing an “html item source viewer”, and the browser code view helps very little. Just to make things sure…

  • Editing styles is not yet clear to me. The behaviour, content and use of the inspector/style dialog is yet not clear to me. so far the learning curve is very much random try and check. The rubik cube approach (no, I won’t bring here the undo gremlin). The manual “using freeway 5” does not say much. A whole video on the subject may be a good idea.

  • Applying/creating an action is not always very clear or imo consistent and must follow the pulling of 2/3 long pulldown menus. I may know by heart these one, one day…

  • and again, Paul and Walter, tx for a great job of yours and for reading my complaints/suggestions. You are very helpful.


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