You know what might help? If there was a click-and-hold-for-a-second needed to activate a move like this. Click on an inline object and immediately drag it, and it snaps back. Click and hold until the cursor changes to a 4-way-arrow move icon, then you can drag sort if that’s your personal favorite thing to do.
Walter
On Jun 13, 2012, at 12:01 PM, Todd wrote:
IS THERE ANYBODY WHO FEELS THE INLINE DRAG FEATURE IS WORTH KEEPING?
I remember inadvertently dragging elements many times and the resulting mess it created. Oh … the swearing.
That seems so reasonable… yet, I am actually curious if anyone sees a need
for inline dragging - period?
Personally, I’ve never designed anything where I’d ever imagine using it.
I’m perfectly fine with inserting the cursor and arrowing manually to a
position I want to affect.
If there was any reasonable case could be made for the feature - of which I
am highly doubtful - I would suggest not allowing it on the page, but
instead make dragging the order of inline items in the Page/Site pane
reorder its position.
–
Ernie Simpson
On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 12:04 PM, Walter Lee Davis email@hiddenwrote:
You know what might help? If there was a click-and-hold-for-a-second
needed to activate a move like this. Click on an inline object and
immediately drag it, and it snaps back. Click and hold until the cursor
changes to a 4-way-arrow move icon, then you can drag sort if that’s your
personal favorite thing to do.
Walter
On Jun 13, 2012, at 12:01 PM, Todd wrote:
IS THERE ANYBODY WHO FEELS THE INLINE DRAG FEATURE IS WORTH KEEPING?
I remember inadvertently dragging elements many times and the resulting
mess it created. Oh … the swearing.
Nice detective work Ernie. Thanks for the sample file.
I’ve blown a few fuses in the past when I’ve tried to select an inflow item a bit too quickly and have ended up picking the thing up and dropped it into a random container on the page. What usually follows is several minutes of swearing and reworking the page to get it back as it was. Working with inline items works but it’s a bit like defusing bombs at times.
Regards,
Tim.
On 13 Jun 2012, at 17:16, Ernie Simpson wrote:
That seems so reasonable… yet, I am actually curious if anyone sees a need
for inline dragging - period?
Well, this probably wouldn’t be too much of a problem if softpress had multiple undos.
On 13 Jun 2012, 6:55 pm, Tim Plumb wrote:
Nice detective work Ernie. Thanks for the sample file.
I’ve blown a few fuses in the past when I’ve tried to select an inflow item a bit too quickly and have ended up picking the thing up and dropped it into a random container on the page. What usually follows is several minutes of swearing and reworking the page to get it back as it was. Working with inline items works but it’s a bit like defusing bombs at times.
Regards,
Tim.
I must say this has been a very interesting discussion.
I have been playing with The Big Erns’ example and was wondering if there is a way to make the header adjustable. In other words, if you adjust your browsers width can the header space expand in height to accommodate the headline changing from 1 line to 2 or maybe three lines?
Also, without going to the extreme, I understand this is another way to build a website, but what is the advantage to going to the trouble when a static page can convey the same message without all the trouble? Todd said “while an inline design may not always be necessary it is more often than not the best option for a myriad of reasons.” What are some of those reasons?
In other words, if you adjust your browsers width can the header space expand in height to accommodate the headline changing from 1 line to 2 or maybe three lines?
In an inline layout with an undefined height on the header and a percentage width yes.
Which begs another question. Why do some people choose to design website using percentages as opposed to pixels? I’ve noticed this on HTML items, images, and even fonts.
Since I am rather new to this and web design in general. How do you achieve an “undefined height on the header”? I get the percentage width. If there is somewhere I can find more info on this subject, especially with regards to Freeway and inline construction, please let me know.
To get an undefined height box all you need to do is click on the Up/Down icon next to the height field in the Html item inspector - Dimensions section.
What you will then see on the FW page is the centre top and bottom grab points on the html container will turn red and the box will collapse to fit the content.
And for heaven’s sake, put something IN the div box before you collapse it!
–
Ernie Simpson
On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 4:58 PM, DeltaDave email@hidden wrote:
To get an undefined height box all you need to do is click on the Up/Down
icon next to the height field in the Html item inspector - Dimensions
section.
What you will then see on the FW page is the centre top and bottom grab
points on the html container will turn red and the box will collapse to fit
the content.
First, an inline layout will accommodate any amount of content because it can expand and contract as a single unit despite there being any number of elements contained within. It can also flex as the user increases the text size in the browser. Not zoom the page but increase the text size. People with visual impairments may have their browser text set to a very large size. When you place random layered objects on a page you always run a chance of content overrunning that below it when text is enlarged which makes for a bad user-experience. On top of that if you use a CMS you need a layout that can adjust to ever-changing content and there really is no option but an inline layout unless the site is absolute minimal in terms of content.
Why do some people choose to design website using percentages as opposed to pixels?
Relative units like % or em etc. are good if you want certain elements to scale proportionally with regard to the size of the browser window or when text is increased or decreased. Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish they can be extremely useful, if sometimes fiddly because you give up pixel precision for relative sizing which can be very beneficial in creating usable designs for both desktops and mobile devices. Relative units can be used for all sorts of presentation from border-width to font-size. And if you build a liquid layout (one that stretches vertically and horizontally) you have to use relative units for a lot of things to get that “stretch/contract” effect.
This subject is very interesting and this thread has been enlightening to me as a new member of the web design community, however a number of people have commented, and i have the same concern that there is very limited material to read on the How to’s etc and Why you should … in respect to Inline Layout. Is it possible that one of our more established and experienced contributors to this forum ( Softpress contribution even) could use this thread as a basis for creating an extremely useful and beneficial Knowledge Base article on the subject.
Ultimately an inline layout is in many ways, set-n-forget. If you have to readjust any number of layered items in your layout every time you add or delete content then that makes for a very inefficient maintenance plan. Completely impractical unless you rarely update your site. So what may be a pain-in-the-ass upfront pays off long-term. Not unlike how a former girlfriend once described me.
