Nav Button Question

I had to make my own navbar of sorts as I couldn't come up with what I wanted visually in either WD7 or WebStyle 4 using the pre designed navbar templates. It is made up of 3 pieces to achieve the look I am after....

1 - blank navbar like image for the base that is sort of an extension of the page info area. It is divided by lines that make sort of a tab effect across the top( similar to < text < text < text < etc... ).

2 - placed text on mouse-off layer for the various things/categories I want.

3 - the text is replicated( different color )on the mouse-over layer and is grouped with an image that fills in between the < < < areas in a different color than they appear on the empty navbar image.

4 - with mouse-off and mouse-over layers both visible each section of the navbar is soft grouped.

5 - the desired link is then applied to the corresponding soft group.

This achieved the look I was after( mouse-over shown different than mouse-off in the tab/area for that specific thing )and it works fine. It is eaxctly what I wanted for a look except for one thing. The mouse-over layer is always highlighted on the page you are on. Is there anyway to correct that easily so that it shows the mouse-off state?

I really don't want to have to redo all of this. Took me forever to do what I have done. I just don't care for the page you are on being highligted in the navbar. I can live with it but would prefer not to have to.

Thanks as always for any help you can provide me.

GS - A picture is worth a thousand words (actually your post is only 295 words--but who's counting?)

I'm confident that whatever it is you have in mind, can be done.

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

GS - A picture is worth a thousand words (actually your post is only 295 words--but who's counting?)

I'm confident that whatever it is you have in mind, can be done.

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Boy, and I thought I did a good job explaining it. Darn. :'(

Pretty simple really.

Here is what I mean that I did and want in a mouse-over state...
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...seoverwant.jpg

Unfortunately, it results in the mouse-over layer for the page you are on showing the whole time the page is open plus when you try and use the navbar to go somewhere else you end up with 2 highlighted areas and it look awful IMO. I don't want this( Home Page highlighted because that is the page I am on - Feedback highlighted because I am doing mouse-over )...
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...useovernow.jpg

I want this in the mouse-off state not what is shown in the 1st photo which is actually mouse-off on that page...
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...r/mouseoff.jpg

I used the steps outlined in my 1st post to do this. Works exactly as I want other than the mouse-over layer showing all the time on the page you are on.

If you know anyway to fix this I would appreciate it.

Thanks as always.

Hi GSThunder :)

Use the "link to web" field to bypass the current page highlighting, don't forget to un-check "correct automatically"

gs - Sorry, I have been away most of the day enjoying our fine New Mexico spring.

I have built a nav bar based on your three images. I have added a MouseDown state which identifies the selected page. The Mouse Off and Mouse Over are different images.

But for some reason, MX is making me crazy :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :-O and it is not displaying the buttons correctly on any page but the first.

It is now time for me to join my long-suffering spouse on the deck for a glass on wine so I might not be able to get this sorted into the morning.

Attached is a screen shot to show the mouse off, mouse over, and current page.

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Originally Posted by Drwyd

Hi GSThunder :)

Use the "link to web" field to bypass the current page highlighting, don't forget to un-check "correct automatically"

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Drwd;

That was it. THANK YOU! I actually had tried that before but it failed. Unchecking the correct automatically box seems to be what it was. Truly appreciate it.

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

gs - Sorry, I have been away most of the day enjoying our fine New Mexico spring.

I have built a nav bar based on your three images. I have added a MouseDown state which identifies the selected page. The Mouse Off and Mouse Over are different images.

But for some reason, MX is making me crazy :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :-O and it is not displaying the buttons correctly on any page but the first.

It is now time for me to join my long-suffering spouse on the deck for a glass on wine so I might not be able to get this sorted into the morning.

Attached is a screen shot to show the mouse off, mouse over, and current page.

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gwpriester;

Absolutely nothing to apologize over. You are one of the most helpful people here and I truly appreciate all the help you have given me as I have learned Xara over these past few years.

Drwyd above actually solved the issue and the navbar works as I want it to now. I almost got it myself experiementing but missed unchecking the box it appears.

I am sorry you spent time on this. I never intended for you or anyone to try and recreate my navbar or anything. Very nice of you.

Not so fast. This one comes under the category of make the hard ones look easy and the easy ones look hard.

I used negative spacing to get the buttons to align and I have a MouseDown state for the highlighted page.

No need to apologize. I love a challenge like this and I would have spent a week if necessary getting it to work.

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Originally Posted by gwpriester

Not so fast. This one comes under the category of make the hard ones look easy and the easy ones look hard.

I used negative spacing to get the buttons to align and I have a MouseDown state for the highlighted page.

No need to apologize. I love a challenge like this and I would have spent a week if necessary getting it to work.

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The only problem with your navbar is that the page you are on is highlighted which I did not want. I only want it highlighted on mouseover.

Using Drwyd's fix above made what I have now work exactly as I want.

Thanks again for all your help.

Negative spacing :-O why didn't I think of that. Brilliant Gary, gonna play with that now :D

Just to update this...

Drwyd's solution works but it is not permanent. Once you actually export the site once it automatically changes over to link to: page# from that point on. It takes the page#.htm out of the address/url box.

Drwyd's fix works fine the whole time you are building the site and previewing it but as said once you actually export the site it changes it. Note, it works ok on that 1st export but from there on in it changes on it's own. I discovered this after the 1st export of the site.

Everything worked fine but the client had 2 small changes they wished made. So after making the changes I exported the site again and uploaded the new info. At that point I checked the site over and discovered the mouse-over highlights on the navbar were back for the page you were on again??? A check of the Xara file showed all the page#.htm in the address/url section had been swapped down to link to: page#.

Fixed it and exported again and the same thing happened.

It was easy to fix though. I just used the actual URL of each page to do it( www.pageinfo.com/page#.htm ). This keeps the mouse-over highlight from showing on the page you are on in the navbar.

Hi GS

Very odd. I've not seen this in any version of WD or DP. No matter how many time I export it does not revert to highlighting the current page.

Does it to me every time? WD7

Have you got an example file handy ? I'll see if I can find what's causing this. It may be a bug.

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Originally Posted by Drwyd

Have you got an example file handy ? I'll see if I can find what's causing this. It may be a bug.

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I am attaching a zipped folder that includes the Xara file( I did a quick one just to show what I mean )plus 2 folders( see below ).

To create the navbar buttons I made some mouse-off/mouse-over buttons and pasted them on the mouse-off and mouse-over layers. With the mouse-off/mouse-over layers both showing I applied a softgroup to the buttons on both layers. I then closed the mouse-over layer and clicked the softgroup to apply the link. I used your tip about page#.htm with correct address automatically unchecked. So it is index.htm/page2.htm/page3.htm.

It works just fine when I 1st do it. I checked it more and it will stay that way as long as the Xara file is open. It will export properly as many times as I want and save as many times as I want. As it turns out, upon further review, it changes things when I close the Xara file.

The next time I open the Xara file it has changed the links from what I entered in the URL/address spot to the Link To: page# area below it. All except the index.htm one. That stays without changing?

In folder 1 it is the 1st time I exported the site. Works properly. Once I exported the site I saved the file, checked to see if the links stayed how I set them( they did ), and then closed the file. I then reopened the Xara file and looked and the links were changed for page 2 and 3 but the index link stayed the same. I exported the site to folder 2 and you can see how the navbar works different( i.e. showing the mouse-over layer on the page you are on for page 2 and 3 ).

Currently the Xara file is linking via the Link To: area on page 2 and 3 as there is no way for it to stay like it is on the index page. Everytime I close it it changes it on me.

Hope I explained this clearly?

In the end I solved it by just linking directly to the page using the full URL( www.sitename.com/page#.htm ). It would be much easier if your method would stick as it allows for previews and testing links whereas the way I did it does not because the links take you to pages not there or different than the new ones.

Why not just disable the auto highlighting using the tweak provided by Covoxer since WD6? "NoAutoHighlight"

See thread ► http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...NavBar-buttons

I think I have found what is going on. If the pages are names "page2, page3" etc. then when the file is saved WD will pick this up and change the links to match.
(This may be why the noautohighlight tweak was introduced)

If you name them "pagetwo, pagethree" etc. then the "pagetwo.htm, pagethree.htm" links will stick.

Also I noticed that the buttons on your example are duplicated on each page rather than set to repeat on all pages. This can cause problems as when you change a link on one page it is not updated across all pages.

BTW non descriptive page names are not good for SEO.

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Originally Posted by Drwyd

I think I have found what is going on. If the pages are names "page2, page3" etc. then when the file is saved WD will pick this up and change the links to match.
(This may be why the noautohighlight tweak was introduced)

If you name them "pagetwo, pagethree" etc. then the "pagetwo.htm, pagethree.htm" links will stick.

Also I noticed that the buttons on your example are duplicated on each page rather than set to repeat on all pages. This can cause problems as when you change a link on one page it is not updated across all pages.

BTW non descriptive page names are not good for SEO.

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I only duplicated for the example file. I use repeat on all pages for real sites.

No page name/description needed, again, as it was just an example site I did for you. Shouldn't impact things changing on their own.

I will just continue to link directly to the URL. I am tired of having to remember to do all of these "tweaks" that Xara should have as options in the software just so a site behaves properly.

Thank you as always for your help. It is appreciated.

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Originally Posted by gsthunder

I am tired of having to remember to do all of these "tweaks" that Xara should have as options in the software just so a site behaves properly.

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The tweaks are provided for power users who want to change or override default (intended) functionality, just as you might add your own code snippets to add features that aren't part of the software.

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Originally Posted by sledger

The tweaks are provided for power users who want to change or override default (intended) functionality, just as you might add your own code snippets to add features that aren't part of the software.

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I like WD overall but feel that Xara take a little too much liberty in deciding what we want; or should want. I would like to see a little more user ability to change things built in vs having to use tricks and tweaks to do something that should be a built in option/feature.

JMHO.