Version 23.7 Blocks

[MB365]

Not a freeform site, the Modular Website. The whole thread is about me working with the tailor made blocks for the first time. I'm pretty keen to play, as I can see myself throwing these blocks around with abandon in the future.

The pic shows the standard modular website, with no toolbar, and no option to turn it on in the place I would expect to find it.

Solution: Go to Control Bars... and click Reset.

[Chris M]

Solution: Go to Control Bars... and click Reset.

AHA! Now I can play with the big boy toys.

I'll be back with more useless insights in a day or two.

[Chris M]

I went back for a further play after Matt gave instructions on how to make the Flex Layout Bar appear.
The site is here >>> Auzlink Home <<< Click the Xara Blocks button, and there's a download for the project file on the home page.

Earlier, I bemoaned the inability to 'Repeat On All Pages'. Solved that. All you have to do is set the repeat before adding to the block...or remove from the block and add it back.
I also said I preferred the Freehand blocks to the Flexible ones. However, pressing Shift when releasing an object stops it going into the block, and pressing Alt when releasing allows it to be part of the block, but can move around like a Freehand block. In a nutshell, you really only need a single Flexible block to achieve everything.

I did have fun trying to use the Push Photo Inside Frame function. I moved the image slightly and the whole page sprang off like opposing magnetic fields. To be fair, it was the image that scuttled off in my first report, and I prodded, poked and generally abused the block it's in. This was before I had the Flex Layout Bar.

Major moans:
Moving multiple objects can (often, but not always) make the objects disappear, or multiply. It's virtually impossible to see what you're doing.
Not being able to marquee select inside a block. The amount of times I instinctively drew a box around items only to be rejected like Oliver Twist.
Not being able to input the height of a block by typing in the toolbar.

Once you realise that doing any editing is best done outside a block, the process is very neat and tidy. Learning the Shift and Alt was a huge eye-opener, and I found I was working with the software as opposed to battling with it for the most part.

Will I be using blocks in earnest? Yes, yes I will.

[Boy]

Will I be using blocks in earnest? Yes, yes I will.

You've been converted!

[Acorn]

@Chris, when you reset your Control Bars did your Arrange menu lose these options too: Create Web Block, Ungroup Web Block, Create FlexGroup?
No amount of hocus-pocus lets me use them any longer so I'm guessing they are now vanquished.

I far preferred Open Web Block to be able to edit the objects directly. As you say the actions on them have be obscured, dramatically.
What you can do it drag the FlexGroup out of its Web block whereupon you can double-click and Edit Inside.

This means we now have two Xara objects that we cannot unpack or create.
We can actually drag out a FlexGroup and free it. It can also be used in a non-Block set-up for excellent utility.
You can even nest FlexGroups.

A Web Block copied into a no-block page just becomes a Group, pushed in at the bottom of the page?

I have yet to work out what determines a template to be WB-enabled.

I find the only sensible way to work with WBs is to set up the Main & Variant in Windows > Arrange Views.
Only then to discover, very belatedly, that you cannot drag from one window to another.

There are too many balls in the air for this to be a professional designer's toolset.

Acorn

[Chris M]

Yes, Create and Ungroup are now greyed out in the Arrange menu.

I find editing the object within a group, Flexible or Freehand, easy enough to do in situ. Resize, colours, moving around. Having said that, sometimes, and often enough to become really annoying, moving the objects around does that disappear/multiply thing. Right dragging to copy is 50/50 whether it works as expected, or looks like you're simply dragging until you release, then it copies. It doesn't appear to be consistent.

Using the menu buttons as an example, I can make glitch at will. There are 5 buttons. I can move them individually, I can move ALL of them, I can move 1 to 4, or 2 to 5. But, if I move any combination that includes 1 and 5, the non-selected items disappear until I release the mouse. This makes quickly moving objects becomes extremely hard to do as I'm guessing when to release.

Yes, dropping a Block onto a standard page is just a...thing. It isn't really a group, as you can't DO anything with it. Ungroup it and you can't even move it. Standard sites are from Venus, Web Blocks are from Mars.

I haven't even tried to determine what makes a WB template. I just opened the default Xara template, deleted the nav bar, header bar and logo, changed the default fonts to the ones I want and saved the template.

Why do you say the only sensible way to work with Blocks is the Arrange View option? I admit I don't like the forced variant, but presume I'll just become accustomed to working with it. At the moment, I'm paranoid that the variant will do something stupid, and I won't know, as it did on my first real foray into Blockland. Having played more, it would appear that it was likely something I inadvertently did, as no blocks have run off and sulked in a corner since.

It's too early for me to say which method I'll naturally gravitate to, but there are a lot of faults with the standard site system that Xara turn a blind eye to, so we should be used to juggling.

I'm now going to run the home page hero image (blue Xara logo) through Graphic Tracer. The fuzzy edges are making my teeth itch.

[Acorn]

Why do you say the only sensible way to work with Blocks is the Arrange View option?

Chris, I find toggling between Main & Variant has me guessing to what, if anything has changed.
With both views open, I can see a change in one and it effect on the other.

As to what a Blocks Template may be.

Drag any Web Block ontp the toolbar part of the XDA.
Delete any Web Blocks and File >Save As to any name you like.
Even better, save it as a Template.
On re-use, it seems to remember what it was and will accept WB drops.

Whether is it just checking for Main 1280px and Variant 480px, I don't know.

Acorn