I have a ro set-up with “graphic link to pdf”: The Download Application button on this page. http://oilsofalohavendor.com/businessinabox.html
It works well unless you try to click right where the type is, then it’s dead. If I try to link the type to the pdf I get this horrid blue underline text, I tried text link style but I can’t make it work, any suggestions?
How do you make a ro button where the text doesn’t prevent the ro from doing its job? Is there someway to make it pass-through?
Did you draw the text as a separate element from the underlying button? If so, try grouping the two elements (text box and button image box) and then apply your Action to the combined element.
Walter
On Nov 1, 2013, at 12:41 PM, Louise Ann Donahue wrote:
I have a ro set-up with “graphic link to pdf”: The Download Application button on this page. http://oilsofalohavendor.com/businessinabox.html
It works well unless you try to click right where the type is, then it’s dead. If I try to link the type to the pdf I get this horrid blue underline text, I tried text link style but I can’t make it work, any suggestions?
How do you make a ro button where the text doesn’t prevent the ro from doing its job? Is there someway to make it pass-through?
I believe I tried that and then the ro won’t work at all, I could just put the type on in PS so it would be integrated with the graphic but…what a nightmare!
I’m sorry you’re having all this trouble with Freeway, it’s usually a lot more “It Just Works™” than that. The Rollover Action really expects a stack of peer elements, grouped together, to work with. So if you were to group your text and the underlying button graphic for both the normal and “over” forms, and then group those two groups, and then apply the Rollover Action to that, it should disambiguate things sufficiently. You will end up with all of the layers in the Rollover interface, but if you switch off the text and the button, you should see the next pair with the different button. I just tried this and it does work as expected.
Walter
On Nov 1, 2013, at 12:52 PM, Louise Ann Donahue wrote:
I believe I tried that and then the ro won’t work at all, I could just put the type on in PS so it would be integrated with the graphic but…what a nightmare!
I have it all grouped, I’m bewildered. I did it as shown in your tutorial. Could my freeway program be corrupt? I have other problems, like the pngs I imported and speced as png change inexplicably to jpg. Why would that happen? Also the type on my ROs seems too pick up an extra bold setting and it looks like trash. I found a work around but it’s exhausting my efforts. I have to respec the type as verdana regular then reapply the bold setting. Admittedly, I’m not html savvy but that’s why I use Freeway, I’m probably trying too many different settings…grrrrrr.
Are you using graphic text or HTML text in these buttons? If you are using graphic text, try this trick: import your button image into a new empty graphic box. Then, while it is still selected (corner handles showing) select the graphic box tool and draw a second graphic box entirely within the first one. Double-click into that box and add your text. The two will be grouped together automatically. Now, if your button image is basically a certain color, either add that color as the background of the graphic box holding the button image, or, if your button image has transparent edges, select the graphic box that holds the text and in the Output tab of the Inspector, choose a similar color to your button image in the Anti-alias picker. What I suspect may be happening here is that the text box can’t figure out what its background color should be, and so the Automatic anti-alias setting (the default) is picking badly and fringing the edges of your text with a too-dark color.
As far as bringing in a PNG and having it change to a JPEG, that’s another default. Normally, if you draw a graphics box and import a photo that has more than 256 colors in its palette, Freeway will convert that image to a JPEG. You can change this by looking in the Output tab of the Inspector for that image – there you will be able to change it to PNG (and PNG-24, by changing the Colors picker to Millions). However, if you have already optimized your image in Photoshop, you can simply import the image as a pass-through image. (File / Import, select your photo, check the Pass-through Image checkbox in the dialog.) This disables all of Freeway’s graphics optimizations, and just uses the photo as binary art. Freeway won’t modify it in any way. But by doing this, you lose the ability to scale or crop or rotate that image directly in Freeway.
Walter
On Nov 1, 2013, at 1:18 PM, Louise Ann Donahue wrote:
I have it all grouped, I’m bewildered. I did it as shown in your tutorial. Could my freeway program be corrupt? I have other problems, like the pngs I imported and speced as png change inexplicably to jpg. Why would that happen? Also the type on my ROs seems too pick up an extra bold setting and it looks like trash. I found a work around but it’s exhausting my efforts. I have to respec the type as verdana regular then reapply the bold setting. Admittedly, I’m not html savvy but that’s why I use Freeway, I’m probably trying too many different settings…grrrrrr.
Wow, it looks so easy in your tutorial! Really disappointed but thank you for giving the procedure. It was just supposed to be a simple RO that I could copy and paste and edit…
See the type on the RO, now it’s changed of its own volition, I didn’t touch it, why would it do this? I know how to fix yet again but should I have to?
Rollovers with multiple layers are complex. The easiest way to make sense of this is to go through all of the stacked elements and give each of them sensible names. This will make what you see in the Rollover Action dialog easier to figure out. You can make this button with three layers if you like. Please follow these steps exactly. Once you have done this, you should have no trouble at all copying and pasting the grouped item from one page to another. If you start this process in a completely blank part of the page or the pasteboard, you will have the most success with selecting all of the layers at once.
Draw a graphic box to become the base of your button. Import your button image. In the Name/ID picker, call this image “base”.
While this box is still selected, use Item / Duplicate (with 0,0 offsets) to create another copy directly above the first. Fill this with your “over” button image. Name it “over”.
While that second box is selected, choose the Graphic Box tool, and draw a third box entirely within the bounds of the second box. Double-click into this box and add your text. Name this box “buttonText”.
Drag a selection rectangle entirely around the stack of boxes. The Inspector should change to read “Combined Graphic”. From the Item menu, choose Group.
Apply the Rollover Action to the group. Look in the Actions palette. You should see a “spreadsheet” interface showing four layers: base, over, and buttonText, along with an anonymously-named fourth item, which is the group itself.
With the Normal column selected, uncheck the “over” checkmark.
Click once on the buttonText item, and move to the third tab of the Inspector. Change the Anti-alias setting from Automatic to a color that is half-way between the two shades of your “base” and “over” button images.
Back in the Actions palette, click on the group’s name (item9 or something similarly cryptic) in the Rollover Action’s interface. From the main menu, choose Item / Actions / Graphic Link to PDF. Configure the Action to point to your PDF. (Use this same technique if you wish to create a normal link – make sure that your link is applied to the group, not the individual buttons contained within it.)
Now, the only final trick to this is moving it around on the page. Once you have grouped two or more things, they become impossible to move with the mouse. You have to drag a selection rectangle around the group and then use the arrow keys to move the group around. If you have the group in the spot where you want it to appear on several pages, then copy and paste will pick it up from one page and paste it in precisely the same location on any other pages.
Walter
On Nov 1, 2013, at 2:18 PM, Louise Ann Donahue wrote:
See the type on the RO, now it’s changed of its own volition, I didn’t touch it, why would it do this? I know how to fix yet again but should I have to?
Thank you Walter, I’ll try this next time, I’m exhausted with it for now. Is there a problem with 5.5 and 10.8.3 on iMac? Freeway seemed to work better with my old G4 & 5. maybe I should download it again…
No, you shouldn’t have any trouble specific to the version of Freeway or Mac OS. If it opens, it will run and work the same.
Walter
On Nov 1, 2013, at 2:59 PM, Louise Ann Donahue wrote:
Thank you Walter, I’ll try this next time, I’m exhausted with it for now. Is there a problem with 5.5 and 10.8.3 on iMac? Freeway seemed to work better with my old G4 & 5. maybe I should download it again…