Menus just won't work

[jerrick1]

I have stated designing my website in Xara Web design 6 and imported a menu from the gallery figuring it would be easy and work right away, but no matter what I do it will not link to any pages when I view it.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Don

Included the site.

[gwpriester]

Hello Jerrick - Welcome to TalkGraphics

First of all, your mouse off buttons need to be on the bottom most layer with the mouse over buttons in the next layer up from the bottom.

I looked at your home page and I am totally flummoxed, each button has 8 objects or something like that.

I would suggest you start over again with the navigation bar. And move your mouse off and mouse over layers to the bottom of your layers. Mouse off bottom layer and mouse over the next layer up.

Import the menu with Mouse Off layer selected. Double click on the navigation bar to open the Navigation Bar Properties and relink the buttons.

Let us know if this works.

[gwpriester]

I looked some more and I think the problem is all the layers you have created. I know that several layers make it easier to manage a page but it is causing major problems with the buttons.

I suggest that you put everything that will be visible when the page loads on the mouse off layer. Bring your buttons to the top on the mouse off layer.

So you should only have a mouse off and mouse over layer.

This is going to involve cutting all of the content on each layer and pasting it onto the mouse off layer. And sadly, you cannot use an Adobe like command to Flatten all Layers. You have to do this manually.

[jerrick1]

Thanks for the speedy reply, I just grabbed the nav bar from the pre-made ones.

Ya lots layers, I am a photoshop guy. So basically its ok to have only 2 layers?

Don

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Hello Don

Re: Only two layers

Yes! Xara handles things differently. Each object is still an object...editable and able to coexist with other objects on any given layer. Moving from Photoshop to Xara, having layers and layers is a paradigm that needs to change. (you can use multiple layers only when/if you need them)

One other thing... if you're used to working in layers... in Xara, if you group objects, they will be on the same layer after grouping.

Peace

James

[zaphodeist]

in Xara, if you group objects, they will be on the same layer after grouping.

In version 6 of Web Designer and Designer Pro you can soft group (CTRL+ALT+G) which retains object layer positions. Gives almost all the advantages as old layers but without the merging

old layers = old groups

[PhilM]

It's a common misconception that Photoshop layers equate to Xara layers simply because they both have the same name. They don't.

The closest equivalent to a Photoshop layer is a Xara object.

Phil

[gwpriester]

You mean if you add a dozen objects each one will have it's own virtual layer? And that each object will be independent of the others?

[PhilM]

Er, yes, broadly speaking that's right. Objects don't have "virtual layers" but they do each have a unique position in the depth of the drawing much like layers.

Phil

[jerrick1]

Thanks all, I got it going now, so the moral of this story is tons of layers = bad!

Don