Vertical Nav Bar problems - on ADMIN page + overall frustration with using WDP-7

[MRuth]

Hi. It's me again.

Maybe Xara and I are not a good match. I am breaking my teeth on this program (Web Designer Premium 7). My frustration level has been cranked way up there, and not over just 1 or 2 or 3 things.

I used to design websites using Homesite and Dreamweaver. I was impressed by what Xara can produce, so I bought the program. But, unless I can find some video instruction about how XARA 'thinks', then I'm going to have to abandon using it, and talk to customer service about a refund.

Is there not a video on understanding how the 'canned website' is built?

At every step of the way I am encountering bottlenecks and creating more 'ugliness' in the webpage that I do not know how to fix in Xara. In Dreamweaver or Homesite, I had a handle on things.

Please see online webpage: http://www.oasiscarrick.com/roughdraft/admin.htm

I have no idea why it has resulted in such an UGLY vertical nav bar. I have had to re-make this page over 4x, and it still is not right. I just dragged over this navbar from the Design Gallery. I did not add any rollovers. All I did was to change the color of the text on the buttons.
Ugh! now it looks like this (see link above)!

Is there not an ONLINE COURSE that will take me step-by-step through Xara Web Designer Premium 7? Can I subscribe to private tutoring? At the rate I am going, I would not use WDP-7 again for another website.

Very sad and frustrated, MRuth

[gwpriester]

My guess is that you re-published part of the website in an FTP application and not the whole website. Am I correct? For example, uploading some of the pages but not the index_htm_files folder.

When Web Designer publishes a site even if you have just added one graphic, it often renumbers all or some of the images. So if the index.htm document says put 05.png in such and such a position, and the file names have been changed, you can get the dog's breakfast you are seeing on your nav bar.

In this month's Xara Xone Workbook The Basics of Website Design, I have tried to cover the basics of creating a website using Xara products.

I also notice that one of your buttons is titled Button Text 1. Which makes me wonder if you accidentally placed one nav bar on top of another?

Every program has a learning curve. Please be patient. You did not learn Dreamweaver in a day or even a month of Sundays. Xara is a complex product even though on the surface it appears simple. There are always things that can and do go wrong.

Can you post your .web file here and let some of the members have a look see at what is going on?

[Tracey]

I feel MRuth's pain, but I'm getting over my own. Xara was VERY frustrating at first, mostly because I was totally unfamiliar with its controls. Watching the videos helped. First time through, I didn't know what they were even talking about. Fooling with the program a while, then watching the videos again, things became much clearer.

I've done a lot of web sites with a very old program called Cute Site Builder. Xara "thinks" a lot like CSB, but everything is much easier to do in Xara. I still have the problem of not knowing all the controls, but after almost a week of working with it, I'm getting the hang of things.

Keep working, MRuth... what seems ridiculous today may seem pretty cool the day after tomorrow.

[MRuth]

Sure. Thank you so much. I have been grinding it out again today..... hours & hours & hours. I do much better with a teacher showing me the correct way to do something, rather than getting myself more confused by trying too many things that then create other problems. I think I have fixed one thing and I've broken something else! Whew! hard-going.....

HOW do I post my .web file here to let some of the members have a look see at what is going on? oasis_carrick_3.web

When publishing I do it through XARA. Please correct me if I am doing it wrong.
(1) First, i FILE --> SAVE AS: oasis_carrick_3.web
(2) Next, i FILE --> EXPORT WEBSITE. THEN:
(3) Thirdly, i FILE --> PUBLISH WEBSITE. I do everything from within XARA.

I did watch a xara youtube video on creating a navbar button ---> compete navbar FROM SCRATCH, which I managed to follow, except he was working from Web Designer 6 and had a button ('solo' ?) that does not seem to appear on WDP-7.
Here it is in YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgsg2dUNxq0

PROBLEM #1: On ADMIN PAGE 2 - Somehow the MouseOver text on VERTICAL NAVBAR is not getting updated. I threw away the entire navbar and started from the beginning, many times over. But, I cannot get it right. It is a MESS. Comical.

PROBLEM #2: On INDEX PAGE 1 - I cannot get the WHITE BACKGROUND to resize. How? This problem is perplexing me to NO END!

PROBLEM #3: On INDEX PAGE 1 - I cannot get the text to repel from BOOKING ONLINE SOFTWARE BUTTON. It used to, but now that benefit has gone away. What happened?

PROBLEM #4: On INDEX PAGE 1 - I cannot get the ANCHOR LINK on the BOOKING ONLINE SOFTWARE BUTTON to jump the viewer DOWN to the bottom of the page, to the musical notes (gif image) and the text which lists the 'Musical Instruments We Teach'. I wanted to add more and more of those musical note GIF images, but I could not get them to appear above the one that does appear.... only the corner handles appear. What is going on?

PROBLEM #5: On RESALE PAGE 6 - I created a perfect CONTACT DETAILS TEXT OBJECT (with white lettering AND a link to an email) that I want to repeat on ALL pages (to the RIGHT of the LOGO: Oasis school of music), except page 1, which already has one (which I can't seem to remove: i was told shadowed text becomes a .png ?). However, this CONTACT DETAILS TEXT OBJECT floats BEHIND and I cannot get it to be visible all the time. It seems to come & go. We are PLAYING CAT & MOUSE! When i click on it, it disappears except for the corner handles. Why? What is happening? I cannot then bring it forward. Where did it go? But then it comes back to peek at me, but disappears again.

PROBLEM #6: On most of the pages - I am unable to IMPORT AN IMAGE and actually SEE IT. All I get to see are the corner handles. Again, no amount of trying to BRING IT FORWARD works. HOW can I import images that do not have previously defined locations to land in?

PROBLEM #7: On the FIRST PAGE - INDEX - the LEFT LIGHT BLUE COLUMN used to repel text. Now that funky shape does not repel text. I can't get the repel text feature back? The funky shape is supposed to point up to the text line: "It's really NOT TOO LATE to learn a musical instrument as an adult."

I am very, very grateful for your help and words of encouragement.

Right now, it feels like I am in a sinking ship. I used to create websites quickly and without all this 'anxiety'. With 3 young sons under 10, I no longer do this, but here is one of my websites from years ago: http://www.appliedaromatherapy.com/ ...and... http://www.ruthtoal.com/aroma/qualifications.html ...and...
http://www.altiquinlabradors.com/winnings_gip.html ...and...
http://www.altiquinlabradors.com/iri...tr2003_uk.html - which looks 'old-fashioned' now, by XARA's standards.

Time moves on, and so must we all.
Thank you again. So much.

[jeb]

Ruth, about your text going away when you changed the color, I had the same problem and also started over and over again and again. What I had not done was "ungroup" the button before changing the color - if you don't do so, the text is still there but is the same color as the new colored button. For some reason, I never had this problem with Xtreme -5 - at least, I don't remember having it.

Hope this helps with at least one of your problems. - jb

[MRuth]

Thank you Jeb. I'm ready to tackle these problems again.

Gwpriester, does anyone have any answers to my questions. I did post my .web file here.
I want to go forward, but the problems I listed in my above note are major obstacles to me that I cannot work out.

filename: oasis_carrick_3.web

[actionit]

MRuth
#2 - The white rectangle is longer than the page area. Just select it and drag it upwards. Then you will be able to resize page area.
#3 - The text itself is set to repel text. Turn it off
#6 - All your pages are working on the page background. Set this to mouseoff in page and layer gallery
#7 - refer #3 above. Move graphic to front