[Pro] ridiculously stupid page length

Hello,
I’m working on a site which the client would like to include ALL of the company policies on one page. I’m setting this page up with a nav pop up window, set to anchors. So far it has been going ok…but I’m not quite 1/2 way through adding the policies and the page is getting pretty difficult to work with, slow scrolling, slow typing, etc. I’m not sure if this the sheer length of the page, which is now approaching 21000px. Or if it is due to the fact that I’m copying and pasting the polices from word to text edit to FW.
Is there a better way to go about this? Can I expect FW to get boggier on this page as I trudge along?

Thanks

RIch

Here is the url
http://typexnetworks.net/MyCooperative/policies.html


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the client would like to include ALL of the company policies on one page.

This is plain daft to have a page that long - and you should tell him so.

If necessary lie and say that ‘weight’ of the page is far too much and will cause problems in older browser versions. It may well do!

David


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Yes, I think I’m going to consider asking them to have another look at the set up for this page. It seem to be getting out of hand. I think their original idea was to be able see it all one page and be able to scroll through the entire thing.

I think I might have them consider a one policy per page policy…as it were.


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You could consider an accordion style page (e.g. ScriptyAccordian
Action) to open one policy at a time - but you would still have a
heavy page, though less scrolling. To my mind, a new page per policy
in a new window would serve better, always leaving a page of policy
titles open behind it.

Colin

On 11 May 2010, at 19:58, Rich Gannon wrote:

Yes, I think I’m going to consider asking them to have another look
at the set up for this page. It seem to be getting out of hand. I
think their original idea was to be able see it all one page and be
able to scroll through the entire thing.

I think I might have them consider a one policy per page policy…as
it were.


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A lot of users don’t understand a target_blank new page/tab system. Go figure. I’d consider a Carousel Action, with a tab menu on the righthand part of the page.

As for editing that much text in FW, don’t even try. There are so many easier ways to edit text. And yes, with a page depth like that due to text, FW will die a miserable death, and you along with it.


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I don’t think that I would bother with a new window per policy - if the pages are identical apart from the policies themselves then there will be virtually no load lag from one to the next and they probably wont notice they are on a different page.

David


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I vote to set up an accordion to handle this. It’s not terribly bad, but accordions save space. and are perfect for hiding content that people don’t want to read or focus on.

You could follow the steps in the video on my site and then just widen them out so it’d fit your design.


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Sometime around 11/5/10 (at 17:43 -0400) Bucky Edgett said:

As for editing that much text in FW, don’t even try. There are so
many easier ways to edit text. And yes, with a page depth like that
due to text, FW will die a miserable death, and you along with it.

A slight exaggeration, methinks! :slight_smile: But yes, editing that much text
in your layout in one block that’s around 24 feet long (21,000 /
72ppi = 291.6 virtual inches) is not a good idea.

The question of page ‘weight’ (total page file size) isn’t really
something to worry about. As long as we’re talking about mainly text,
that’s not going to be a really problematic amount. Although you
should check browsers to see if they’ll render that length of page
properly - even if you craft the page yourself it might be a problem
for some visitors.

Frankly, if I had to do this I’d create a template-style layout in
Freeway and ‘include’ the full data on the server, using one line of
PHP. That merges files together on the fly as they’re served to
visitors, so your Freeway layout never has to actually deal with all
that content directly. Alternatively, this could be done using
Freeway’s own ‘local include’ feature, which does the same thing but
merges files together as you publish from Freeway. Same result as far
as the site visitors are concerned, but the page that’s uploaded to
the site is a single static one.

However, in design terms a page this long is a complete nonsense, a
potential hiccup or worse for the end users. The only time I’d
consider doing this is if I wanted to produce a page meant ONLY for
printing, all in one go. But even then I’d prefer to offer a PDF
instead.

k


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Thank you all for the suggestions. In the intrest of time I’m going with Dave’s suggestion on having each policy on a new page, sans new window.

I like the accordion idea, but won’t my issues of working with all of that text on one page persist?

And two things about the PHP include, 1-I don’t know how to do it…would like to try to learn though…2- The client is hosting on a server that won’t have PHP. This is going to be a new headache for me. When the site is done I will be ftping it to their in house server that can’t/won’t run PHP, (does that mean it is a Window server?)
Anyway I’m sure I will be back with more questions when that happens.

Thanks again,
Rich


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On May 12, 2010, at 9:00 AM, Rich Gannon wrote:

Thank you all for the suggestions. In the intrest of time I’m going
with Dave’s suggestion on having each policy on a new page, sans new
window.

Sounds like the best idea.

I like the accordion idea, but won’t my issues of working with all
of that text on one page persist?

Yes.

And two things about the PHP include, 1-I don’t know how to do
it…would like to try to learn though…2- The client is hosting on
a server that won’t have PHP. This is going to be a new headache
for me. When the site is done I will be ftping it to their in house
server that can’t/won’t run PHP, (does that mean it is a Window
server?)

It might mean that, but not necessarily. But if you don’t have PHP,
you might have Server Side Includes, even if it’s a Windows IIS
server. They have to be enabled by the server administrator, but once
they are, you can do most of this in Freeway, by selecting the HTML
box where you want to add the include, choosing URL as the content
type, and then toggling on the HTML radio button and entering a
relative path to the included file. Once you give your page the
correct filename extension (usually .shtml) then the include will
magically populate.

Anyway I’m sure I will be back with more questions when that happens.

Ask away!

Walter


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It’s also worth mentioning that Freeway makes working with locally
included files fantastically easy.

For example here’s a Freeway file I put together that includes a whole
host of text and each chapter is held in an external include file;
http://www.freewayactions.com/test/using-includes/

The benefits are that the Freeway file is kept light and nimble and
the include files can be updated outside of Freeway just with a plain
text editor.
The other advantage is that your final page doesn’t need any
technology on the server to do the includes.

  1. Create your includes as plain text files (they can contain any HTML
    is you want) and name them with the extension .inc or .txt
  2. In Freeway add an inline HTML item into your main text box (Insert/
    HTML item)
  3. With the HTML item selected select File/ Import and select one of
    your include files
  4. Freeway will display an icon for the file and it’s name inside the
    HTML item
  5. Publish or preview and Freeway will merge the page code with the
    included file contents into one perfect file!

Nice!

I hope this helps as includes can be a great time saver.
Regards,
Tim.

On 12 May 2010, at 19:36, Walter Lee Davis wrote:

It might mean that, but not necessarily. But if you don’t have PHP,
you might have Server Side Includes, even if it’s a Windows IIS
server. They have to be enabled by the server administrator, but
once they are, you can do most of this in Freeway, by selecting the
HTML box where you want to add the include, choosing URL as the
content type, and then toggling on the HTML radio button and
entering a relative path to the included file. Once you give your
page the correct filename extension (usually .shtml) then the
include will magically populate.

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That is pretty cool…it eliminates all of the cutting and pasting reformatting of the text. Going to give it a try.


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Just remember that if it is a Word doc there is all that baggage that will come with it unless you run it through a plain text editor first.

David


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