How does one go about styling the text + image part of this page assuming it is being added to constantly?
do I use the css ‘box model’? I find that way extremely fiddly and adding new boxes in the wrong way can make a mess of a previous set up.
do I add all the text to a css box and then style that text bit by bit? I have found that FWY can sometimes get confused with text styles especially when paragraph styles meet non paragraph styles as in the ‘read more’ links
do I add each feature as a separate css box? doesn’t that break up if a reader enlarges the page?
how do I deal with the positioning of the images so as to be sure they stay?
I realise that I may be asking some dumb questions here but I have been using FWY for years yet remain in the ‘intermediate’ user category. unfortunately sometimes the simplest things in FWY can be irritatingly confusing if not unpredictable. So I thought I would ask how the other pros here might set out their workflow on this.
select the last box in the flow,
copy it,
move the cursor to the right by pressing the right arrow
press return to add a bit of space (although not necessary if you use
top or bottom padding)
paste
and finally change the images, text and links
These steps assume you have one main container and further items
inflow inside this that contain each entry (see http://users.softpress.com/joe/CSS
Layout.zip )
Once you have one you have them all using the method above
Yes and not if using CSS layout (box model)
As long as they are in-flow then they should stay in the same
place, the steps in 1) should take care of this too
They were not dumb questions at all, using CSS layout in Freeway is
totally different to using table based items and not altogether
obvious at first.
Joe
On 13 Jan 2009, at 12:46, John-Paul Kernot wrote:
Hello,
I am going to pose this (possibly dumb) question in the hope of
settling a workflow issue.
How does one go about styling the text + image part of this page
assuming it is being added to constantly?
do I use the css ‘box model’? I find that way extremely fiddly
and adding new boxes in the wrong way can make a mess of a previous
set up.
do I add all the text to a css box and then style that text bit
by bit? I have found that FWY can sometimes get confused with text
styles especially when paragraph styles meet non paragraph styles as
in the ‘read more’ links
do I add each feature as a separate css box? doesn’t that break
up if a reader enlarges the page?
how do I deal with the positioning of the images so as to be sure
they stay?
I realise that I may be asking some dumb questions here but I have
been using FWY for years yet remain in the ‘intermediate’ user
category. unfortunately sometimes the simplest things in FWY can be
irritatingly confusing if not unpredictable. So I thought I would
ask how the other pros here might set out their workflow on this.
Sometime around 13/1/09 (at 13:19 +0000) Joe Billings said:
using CSS layout in Freeway is totally different to using table
based items and not altogether obvious at first.
Absolutely. BUT this could be taken to mean that this is the only
true CSS layout method. This is the box-model layout method, and it
requires CSS. But Freeway’s standard ‘layered objects’ layout
approach is also a form of CSS layout, not table-based layout [*]. It
is a heck of a lot easier than the box-model process but it doesn’t
have the advantage of things growing/moving together.
[*] (And even the term “table layout” is probably better stated as
“table-based output”. The user-layout process doesn’t use tables,
that’s purely how the code-output process builds the HTML facsimile
of the layout. Sorry - I’m back into pedant mode. Can you tell the
Spring term has started?
So, although the box model is ‘preferred’ in that it expands and contracts nicely, it seems it is at least in its present form, slightly complicated to deal with.
So what is the answer? Perhaps to have some pre made box templates to drop into a page so that the formatting is correct? Or, for Softpress to work on this aspect of the software and make it more intuitive/ easier?
It took me about two minutes to make the file that I linked to in my
last email and once you have one box containing the formatting you
don’t need to do any other formatting, just typing and you’d need to
do that anyway.
Joe
On 13 Jan 2009, at 15:31, John-Paul Kernot wrote:
So, although the box model is ‘preferred’ in that it expands and
contracts nicely, it seems it is at least in its present form,
slightly complicated to deal with.
So what is the answer? Perhaps to have some pre made box templates
to drop into a page so that the formatting is correct? Or, for
Softpress to work on this aspect of the software and make it more
intuitive/ easier?
Ok my take on this is looks easy, BUT.
So, I go to try to recreate it. I can’t.
I know how to insert boxes within boxes - have watched Dan’s video 5 times! But, it still isn’t coming out right. It’s simple but only if I cut and paste your already set up boxes. I struggle to get the text lined up properly when I do it myself.
Do I set up the boxes first or is there an order? Do I pout the graphic in after the text or before?
Am I that stupid? Anybody else have issues like this?
How about looking at this from an old school pasteup direction. Every pasteup started with a grid on a board. The grid respresented columns, headers, footers, gutters, etc.
Ok, moving this concept to Freeway, put together a grid of boxes first. The main boxes are strictly for keeping the headers, columns and footer shapes. All subsequent boxes “inline” in those boxes hold your content. Make all your columns, footers, headers, text boxes and graphic boxes first without any content.
If you are worried about not being able to select and object to edit, remember you can access all objects from the page listing on the left.
We are a shopping guide - an all advertising newspaper. I’m wanting to
create online coupons from our website as a bonus for our advertisers
as a thank you for their business. Basically car dealers, restaurants,
grocery stores, etc., receive 1-4 coupons, that we neatly design to
fit on 8-1/2x11 paper. I would save the coupons to a PDF. I am
considering using the iFrame action and the Graphic PDF download
action, and create a page for each advertiser that would show a JPEG
(or whatever Freeway 5 Pro chooses) of the PDF in an iFrame, and the
reader would simply click on the thumbnail of the PDF to download the
actual PDF to print out the coupon. I could easily have 50 to 100
businesses each with a page of coupons, which would mean 50 to 100
additional pages on top of the 30-40 pages I already run for the
website. Will Freeway be able to handle that number of pages, or
should I consider an alternative method to organizing my coupons
(different actions, etc.)? I want something that is fairly easy to
build and simple to update content.
Sometime around 13/1/09 (at 11:12 -0500) John-Paul Kernot said:
Am I that stupid? Anybody else have issues like this?
With box-model layout in Freeway I find that things just aren’t quite
as predictable as I’d like, and the design process doesn’t work in
quite as laid-back, suck-it-and-see a way as it does in the more
‘traditional’ Freeway manner. This is nothing to do with differences
between CSS and table-based output, it is the difference between the
box-model design approach, which is new in Freeway and still needs
sorting out, and the ‘objects on a page’ approach.
The box model approach has its advantages - but it is still a bit of
a hack. Dammit.
So given the ‘hack’ of the css box model approach and the variability of success in its application, do you all keep box concepts like this in one place to be reapplied? Or do you ‘create’ a new box every time/
I for one would like to see a FWY document created of some commonly used structures (not necessarily whole pages) that can be copied and pasted when assembling a new FWY page. A sort of modular approach that could still be tweaked by those who wanted. This would essentially help speed up the building process and keep the layout clean.
I for one would like to see a FWY document created of some commonly
used structures (not necessarily whole pages) that can be copied and
pasted when assembling a new FWY page. A sort of modular approach
that could still be tweaked by those who wanted. This would
essentially help speed up the building process and keep the layout
clean.
Too true, take a look at some of the new Pro templates here. We tried
to use CSS Layout where possible without losing the ability to
continue working on the template to make them your own.
Just a quick thought/question… how do you stop any one of the other businesses just download everybody else’s intended coupon?
Are the coupons business specific ?
Do the other businesses even see the other pages/coupon download links?
Once the coupon is used what happens, how do you stop it being used again?
Depending on the answers from the above… this could be done using a simple CMS.
WebYep is one, the others which Freeway actions have been written for are: mini CMS and you could use expression engine too.
Depending on some of the answers above and taking WebYep for example, this would be how I may do it.
I would create a WebYep submenu which would be alphabetically split
so it would something like:
Then when a person clicked on the one of the buttons it would open up the relevant page which would contain a list of business and each one would have its download link (for the PDF download)
You could make the whole lot from 1 freeway page which would contain: 1 webyep menu and 1 webyep loop which would in-turn contain the place holders for items like businesses name or title a description and PDF download link.
After that you wouldn’t need to republish from freeway if the list needed to be amended in any way because you can make all the pages and the individual business area changes from any normal web browser.
