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  1. #81
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Ukraine
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    3,904

    Default Re: Leaving XWD Because of Immense Frustration

    Suzzie, you have said that you have a Webstyle and even used it before. Is this correct?
    Now, have you tried to use Webstyle menu with your WD project? I have given you some links about it in another thread.
    John.

  2. #82

    Default Re: Leaving XWD Because of Immense Frustration

    Hi John,

    Yes I did try out WebStyle initially... but without much success at the time unfortunately. That was one of my earliest hopes for XWD...that it could import the absolutely beautifully managed WebStyle type menus. When that didnt pan out well...then i migrated to the buttons here in the XWD templates... because some of them were very pretty looking and somewhat functional.

    The challenge came in when I wanted to change the wording on the template buttons, or to move the buttons around slightly, or to maybe add another button or two by copying them. Then it REALLY got unpredictable.

    Adding in that second layer of navigation... that we are working on here in this thread... by the use of popups and rollovers and layers... has been the real challenge...because few of us have discovered the rules and the methodologies for creating, controlling and managing them.

    I am really liking Cursors mind set and the disclipline he is adding to the process. It does seem like Xara does have the capabilities to add in that very widely used second line of navigation buttons that we all see everywhere on the net. Problem is...we are in a discovery process of what the rules are...and are creating wild workarounds...to get to the functionality. Through much frustration...we are getting close to being able to get this very common navigation capability here in XWD. Right now its an evolving manual process at this stage.

    What Im really praying for...is someone at the factory to say...I see...it is a problem...most every other web site on the net does have cascading menus...We have had beautiful and stable cascading menus for 6 years now using our other Xara products...how can we do that for our Web Designer Product too!!!

    John...that would be a real home run for XWD... and its user base... and for making XWD the killer product it could be in the marketplace. We either have to go through developing these wild manual workarounds...or maybe someone at the factory can come up with something in the next release...I for one can barely wait!!

    Can we take your previous expertise in making Killer Gorgeous Functional Navigation Menus...and extend that into being a strength of XWD as well?

    Hire a temporary outside consultant at the factory for 3 weeks... to help you come up with the answer for you...if the rest of the staff is prioritized elsewhere.

    Thanks,

    Suzzie1234

  3. #83
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Ukraine
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    3,904

    Default Re: Leaving XWD Because of Immense Frustration

    Well, I think you hadn't noticed this link: http://www.talkgraphics.com/showpost...1&postcount=23
    John.

  4. #84

    Default Re: Leaving XWD Because of Immense Frustration

    Hi John,

    Ive been physically away from XWD in the last few weeks... to take some R+R from dealing with manual workarounds...and it may be that my notification was not turned on in that thread. Ill see if I can subscribe to that thread now and follow it. Thank you. (EDIT: I unfortunately did not see or join this parallel thread for some reason...thank you for the link John!)

    It seemed like there was one solution posted about WebStyle in the past that I saw... but it was also a convoluted solution...and only hinted at limited success with a lot of jumbled manual workaround.

    Id love to explore the capabilities of a Xara Like Menu Maker being called out by WXD. WebStyle/MenuMaker according to some posts is almost dead and barely supported anymore unfortunately.

    Maybe financially for the XARA...there is a way to breathe new dollars into the company coffers... by resurrecting the old money maker. You spent years developing a Beautiful, Elegant, Highly Functional Menu Making System...and its time Died! Maybe XWD is the place to bring it back to life "ELEGANTLY" (not with crude, cluge, cryptic integration) and have that expertise of Xara begin Making Money for you AGAIN. Some of the buttons in there were beautiful, functional and highly flexible. Is there any re-usable code in there that can generate NEW DOLLARS for XARA. We are certainly suffering here on this thread... trying to do... what you once did The Best in the World!

    Id say...stop treating this navigation menu as a problem and as a resource drain for Xara...and see it as a MONEY MAKING...Product Enhancing... Opportunity for the company! This could create extra SUPERIORITY in the marketplace for the XWD product...and make money too!

    Whats not to like... for an internal Xara resource manager... and a chief financial officer? Re-shift those internal priorities...and bring in a short term, temporary, project coder to make XWD EVEN MORE AWESOME!!!

    Ill be away for a few days teaching a seminar on Photoshop...Cant wait to see what we come up with!

    All...thanks for all your helps along the way...and especially Thanks for all your patience.

    Suzzie
    Last edited by suzzie1234; 02 July 2009 at 01:43 PM.

  5. #85

    Default Re: Leaving XWD Because of Immense Frustration

    I'm looking over your last submitted .web file, Suzzie. I thought I'd make a few observations:
    • I have the best luck when I respect absolute pixel alignment. For example, when I create a button, I make sure that its dimensions are in integer terms (no decimal values). Let me give you an example.
      • Your buttons are 109.9 x 47.6. Instead, I might make them 110 x 48.
      • The gap that you have between buttons is 3.4. I might make them 4.
      • The underlying blue box that houses the buttons and your graphic is 919.3 x 171.4. I might make it 920 x 172. Or, better yet, calculate a width based on its contained elements: width = (8x110) + (7x4) + (2x5). That translates into the sum of (8 buttons that are 110pix each) + (7 spaces that are 4pix each) + (start & end spaces that are 5pix each). The blue box might then be 918pix. If that's too narrow, then make appropriate adjustments ... but in whole pixels.
        __Of course, you don't have to calculate a width, simply nudge your elements around using the cursor keys. By default, each tap of a cursor key moves a selected item (or group of items) exactly one pixel. Using the Ctrl key in combination with cursor keys nudges five pixels at a time. Using the Shift key in combination with cursor keys nudges ten pixels at a time.
        __You can also precisely position by using the 'Grid' and 'Snap to objects'.
    • It looks like after creating your eight buttons, you marquee selected the elements and dragged them into position over the blue box. Apparently, you didn't have the MouseOver layer set as selectable when you lassoed the elements. You can fix that by 1) making the MouseOver layer both selectable and visible, 2) select your darker blue buttons, then (with 'Snap to objects' turned on) drag the set of button elements directly over the set of MouseOff button elements.
      __The same corrective action can be done with your two btn2 and two btn3 groups (pop-up and rollover layers).
    • Your button 5 is wrongly set to 'Show popup layer' mouseOver_btn5. Instead, it should trigger btn5 on Mouse-over. Your button six is properly set, for reference.)
    • The text menu and its underlying box on both btn5 and btn5 popup layers are grouped together. This makes it so that the text will be exported as graphics, and will not respect the link colors that you set at Web 'Properties > Website > Website link colors'. This can be fixed by ungrouping the text from the underlying box.
    • Your menu text on layer btn5 has been scaled from 13pix to 12.73pix. For true WYSIWYG results, stick with integer values for text sizes.
    • The text on your main buttons should be center-justified text (not left-justified text ... centered on the button rectangle). This makes text positioning much less of a headache.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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    Attached Files Attached Files

  6. #86

    Default Re: Leaving XWD Because of Immense Frustration

    I've created a short video tutorial that illustrates how to create a single button with drop-down menu. It pretty much goes hand in hand with the written tutorial that I did earlier in this thread. I hope that it adds some clarity as to how popup and rollover/mouseover layers can be used for creating web navigation systems.

    Take a peek.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by cursor; 03 July 2009 at 01:32 AM.

  7. #87

    Default Re: Leaving XWD Because of Immense Frustration

    Cursor,

    Youre Brilliant! My Gosh. I think you have nailed the process and its elements!

    Continue doing this!!! Are there other things we should know? Teach me more!!

    You were great! Clear and methodical... and you explained the importance of the key steps. The parts about centering the text first and soft grouping and changing the text After you had all the positions in place was so helpful. Thats is where I was getting tripped up...I left it on the default left justified and my text wouldnt align consistently across the layers after I moved the first layer.

    Thank You Cursor, Slavelle and Coxover...You guys deserve a trophy!!! I really do appreciate all your helps!!

    Suzzie1234

  8. #88

    Default Re: Leaving XWD Because of Immense Frustration

    I'm glad that it's now making some sense to you Suzzie. Did you happen to see the repaired version of your navigation block that I posted above?

    In a future video tutorial (soon) I'll expand the single drop-down to several buttons wide, explain when additional layers (pop-up & roll-over) are required, and delineate just how to move the various elements to those layers.

  9. #89
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Squamish, BC, Canada
    Posts
    963

    Default Re: Leaving XWD Because of Immense Frustration

    Quote Originally Posted by cursor View Post
    I've created a short video tutorial that illustrates how to create a single button with drop-down menu. It pretty much goes hand in hand with the written tutorial that I did earlier in this thread. I hope that it adds some clarity as to how popup and rollover/mouseover layers can be used for creating web navigation systems.

    Take a peek.
    Hi Cursor,

    This is an awesome tutorial, exactly what us beginners at XWD need. I was having trouble following Egg's video tutorial, probably because he didn't start from the beginning like you did. Any chance of you doing a tutorial starting from the beginning on creating framed picture galleries to show how they link up, group up....etc.

    Thanks for you time and the great tutorial on buttons,

    Ed......:-)
    Last edited by Karateed; 04 July 2009 at 09:48 PM.

  10. #90
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    England
    Posts
    2,044

    Default Re: Leaving XWD Because of Immense Frustration

    Excellent video Cursor

    Drwyd

 

 

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