Stretching buttons disappear

**TXchuck2u** · 13 April 2009, 12:14 AM

Have been working on creating a web site from the Orbits theme with 5 pages, ellipse expanding buttons for navigation to pages two, three four and five, two round arrow icons at right side for next and back directions and a Home 1 icon for the HOME icon. All buttons appear the same on all pages. I kept having trouble linking the buttons to the right pages and having graphic images (.gif) expand when clicking. When working in the Web Properties dialog I tried to remember to APPLY each time I made changes. When I go to open the file this morning the stretching buttons were no longer there on the HOME page, but all others were in place. Do I just need to select, copy and paste from another page into the home page to replace the buttons or will this mess it up even more?

I realize I have to go back and make the buttons navigate to the page needed, but before the disappearing act that went on I was having trouble with page two opening up in the preview. (I have been using www.google.com) as the web page to be able to preview because I could never get the preview to work right). The file is about 3.8MB in size the last time I checked, so I don't know if this is the problem.

chuck

**razzle0146** · 13 April 2009, 12:19 AM

TXchuck2u,

You can copy and paste your buttons from another page and all will be ok, you will have to reassign the button links only if they have not been assigned on other pages. If they have already been assigned then XWD will retain those links.

If I was you, I would see if the buttons that disappeared happen to be on a different layer that isn't showing visible or something like that. It just doesnt make since that they would disappear, unless they got deleted or something, but if they got arranged behind another layer, you would get the same effect and not see them. Just go layer by layer and see if you can find them.

Hope this helps you..

P.S.
You could also attach your .web file and we could take a look at it for you and also figure out your preview situation possibly.

**TXchuck2u** · 13 April 2009, 03:13 AM

Here are the web pages I have been working on. In preview the graphics on page 2 all open at once instead of one at a time. Hope I am attaching rightly and not too large. Also, as you might be able to see clearly, even the HOME icon has disappeared now.

chuck

**razzle0146** · 13 April 2009, 04:40 AM

TXchuck2u,

Please see changed XWD file.. All is working like you want now. You may have to adjust your graphics a bit, but I got it working and will be posting the changes in a few minutes as it is going to take a bit to type.

Hope this helps you..

**razzle0146** · 13 April 2009, 05:03 AM

TXchuck2u,

#1 When you are using icons from the designs gallery, they already have the built in XWD MouseOff & MouseOver layers built in, so you do not have to create layers for those icons to act in that way, you just have to make sure and place the icons on the correct layer, otherwise you will keep getting the results that you were.

#2 Layers are very important concept in XWD. They provide you with a lot of different avenus, but if you start creating a bunch of layers and placing objects on them, then you have to keep track of what went where. So be very clear on what layers you have created and what content you placed on those layers, otherwise you will get confused, lost and well, very aggrevated...lol.. Took me a bit to figure out what was going on.. Also very important - Remember that XWD MouseOff layer is always the bottom layer and MouseOver is always the second to bottom or you will get ill desired results.

#3 Links are a great concept in XWD also, but again when you create something that has a link make very sure that you click apply afterwards or your going to go through a lot of work and at the end nothing will function properly.

If you are going to use a menu bar at the top of your page and that menu bar is going to span across several pages, then create the full functional menu bar and make it a repeating object. That way you can repeat it on all pages and when you make any changes to the menu bar, all you have to do is select update repeating objects and that will cover all of your menu bars on your pages and save you loads of time.... Also note that if you click a menu bar and click copy and paste it onto another page, but it doesn't show up, don't just go do it again or something because it pasted ok, you just have to figure out where. Make sure when pasting that you paste it onto the correct layer. I noticed while working on your project that you had several menu bars on top of one another and that will create kaos on your project when you view it and none of your menus or buttons are working..

I am by no means an expert, I just thought I would help out and throw in my two cents. There are several people on TG that are experts and when they offer advise, take it, because they can help you and save you tons of time.... Hope you don't mind the advise, just trying to help you out. By the way, your graphics look really good...

Hope this helps you in many adventures to come with XWD.. What a wonderful program...

**TXchuck2u** · 13 April 2009, 05:09 AM

Razzle, thanks for the help, but I personally didn't intend for someone to do the work for me, only to tell me what is wrong and how to correct it, otherwise I will not learn how to correct the issue or avoid it in the future. What changes did you make so I will know in the future? I did look at what you sent in the preview and some of the pictures on page 4 were X'd out. Does this correct itself or what causes this, since it did not do this before?

chuck

**razzle0146** · 13 April 2009, 05:18 AM

Chuck,

Sorry about that, but I figured I would change it and get it working, you could look at it and see what I did and then I would post the changes.

As for your x'd out images.. They are x'd out because you have them imported on the page (which is fine),but then you have XWD replace with placeholder replace with graphic file option checked and that causes it to disappear unless you have the graphoc file in the same path as the project, which I don't have on my pc - which in turn, turns into the red x. There is no need to replace the graphic file if it is static on the page and you don't intend for it to change after the page loads, but if it is animated, then you would use that place holder and supply the path to the file. I unchecked the placeholder and all worked fine.

Sorry for making all the changes, but I thought that is why you posted the file.

Hope this helps you....

**razzle0146** · 13 April 2009, 05:32 AM

Chuck,

Updated web project is attached.. No red x's and also there was some duplicate menus in the last post. This project is fully functional now.

Thanks

**jclements** · 13 April 2009, 02:47 PM

Razzle0146:

Nice job of explaining things in your post, #5.

**razzle0146** · 13 April 2009, 03:17 PM

jclements,

Thank you...

I try to help where I can... Not that my way is the best way, but I just try to pass along the knowledge that I have obtained from others on this forum as well...