Index page

I'm trying out the website creation features of XX4 and a couple of things occur to me.
1. If I use Popups for navigation I could potentially end up with far too many layers to be manageble. Cue another call for a layer grouping feature!

2. (And this one has me foxed) If I were to want to put a web site created in XX4 on the web I am going to need the first page to be called index.html. To do this it seems like my site and indeed every site I make will have to be called 'Index' and then each of the pages would be index1, 2 3 etc.?

I have tried to rename the first page of my site to index but then links to the first page don't work. It also reverts to the original site name when I export again with corrected links.

Can any web type guy help me out with this? I'm probably missing something pretty obvious,

Not sure what you are trying to do. What ever links you add in xtreme will be exported into the html file.
If you have other pages with different links then you would have to have a different file for each page, such as index, links, services, etc or what ever name you want for that page. what ever name you choose for the .xar file will be the title of the page that is exported. But when you do an html export you can choose any name that you like for the page. Does this help any ?

Hi Bruce:
I am trying to do a multi page site inside of XX4.
If I want to put it on the web my first page needs to be called index.html.
If I try to name the file index it names the subsequent pages index_2, 3 etc. and not 'links' 'services' etc. It seems that XX4 doesn't allow that kind of web naming.
I'm trying to find a clean way of doing it. Maybe it's a bug? All the site samples I have seen are sub sites and not main page index html's.


Also does anyone know a way to optimise exported png's and JPG's while exporting or do you just have to go through the site once it is finished and do all the graphics one at a time? It would be logical to be able to optimise exported groups before publishing in the name gallery but It doesn't seem to work like that for me.

If you go to >File >Document Info... and in the "Comment" box, you can type in the title of your page. That title will appear at the top of your web brower when you're on that page. So you can export as "index.html" but your page title will be whatever you typed in the comment box.

I haven't tried a multi-page layout. What I do now is if I'm going to have a link take me to another paqe, I create a new document for that page. Then I can export it with any file name and page title name (by entering that in the "Comment" box)

So links on my "index.html" page that would take you to my "gallery_index.html" I would type gallery_index.html in the URL

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Originally Posted by Squeaky

1. If I use Popups for navigation I could potentially end up with far too many layers to be manageble.

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Combine pop-ups with rollovers. For navigation purposes, all buttons that are visible simultaneously (placed on page or on the same pop-up layer) can have rollover efects with only 1 or 2 additional layers (MouseOver and MouseDown). Pop-up layers can be used for dropdown menus which contain multiple links. Usualy you'll have much less layers than you have pages in your site.

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2. (And this one has me foxed) If I were to want to put a web site created in XX4 on the web I am going to need the first page to be called index.html. To do this it seems like my site and indeed every site I make will have to be called 'Index' and then each of the pages would be index1, 2 3 etc.?

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I would suggest you export it as "index.htm". You can set the page title (displayed on the browser caption) in the document comment field. It's in the "File/Document Info..." menu.

Thanks for that. I think I'm getting excited and expecting too much from the HTML export.

It is very cool though


I'll have to experiment with combining popups with rollovers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Squeaky

Also does anyone know a way to optimise exported png's and JPG's while exporting or do you just have to go through the site once it is finished and do all the graphics one at a time? It would be logical to be able to optimise exported groups before publishing in the name gallery but It doesn't seem to work like that for me.

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Please explain more precisely what do you mean by optimisation.

My web site is done in Flash and as an illustrator and animator I have a lot of bitmaps as samples of my work. I have found that I get the best file size by converting them to JPG's (smaller file sizes than png) and optimising them. For example quality 80%

As I see it the html export just exports any bitmaps at best quality without the option to tweak the file size and quality.

Yes, you can not control the quality. But you can explicitly set which object has to be exported as png and which as jpg. Just add JPEG or PNG name to the object in question.

Thought as much. I think the work flow is to chose JPG and PNG and then go through and optimise once the site is published.

I have not tried to do an xtreme file with more than one page. So it would seem that if you do an html export with multiple pages it will make the other pages with the same name and _2 _3 etc.
If you need different names than I would try to save as what ever name that you want, such as links , portfolio , etc... Then you would have several different .xar files instead of one multiple page file.
Or just take the original html file and then copy and save as what ever name you need. Then you would just have to edit the html.
I don't think the html export is meant to be used as a complete editor but it is great way to make quick layouts and have a nice CSS page that gives you a lot possibilities that you would not have with tables.
So Xtreme html export in combination with a text editor will make you some nice web pages.
Seeing how Xara has integrated some aspects of the 3D program into xtreme, I think it would be nice to integrate some of the options of webstyle into xtreme as well.
I dont think there is any option to optimize on export.
And I love your web site Squeaky

Thanks for the kind words Bruce.

XX4's html export is pretty handy but I guess there are limitations. Mind you, I can't think of an easier way to knock up a great looking web site. Way quicker than the Flash thinks I have done in the past.
This is the first version of it too. I wonder what it will be like in XX5