Placeholders - is there a limit to html code/text?

[Acorn]

Hello again
Another question, I'm afraid, which may be related to Windjamer's query. In my latest attempt to modify Acorn's xar demo I end up with a horizontal scrollbar on the scrollbox which I don't want. And when the up or down arrows (which are linked to the next anchor) the whole menu page shifts to the left within the scroll box and becomes partially invisible. Is there a mismatch of placeholder dimensions and menu page width? I've tried specifying width as an absolute value in the widget and as 100%.
File attached which shows problem.
Apologies if I'm missing something obvious.
Ian

Iain, the problem is simply put, yes, you cannot have a 960px wide page fitting into an 810px wide Placeholder without code to hide the x-scroll.

Either make the Placeholder as wide as songs pages' width
OR
Reduce the width of the songs pages.

For the jumping left, the page is simply moving to the position of the Anchor.
Change the Anchors to be on the upward arrows.

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Seriously though, by the time you add the links and the music/video the filesize of the songs page you have will kill your website for a viewer: it will take a long time to download.
Split the songs across pages.

Acorn

[IanB]

Hi Acorn,

An obvious solution which completely escaped me - I was altering the size of the frame on the songs page rather than the page itself.

I was unsure of the advantage of splitting the songs into separate pages and now you've pointed out the loading time implication I can see why it will be necessary. There won't be any video on this menu but I can see that the song list is very long. I will be splitting it into separate pages next.

Though I've produced a few websites starting from scratch with Xara, this 'Songs of the Inland Waterways' site was started perhaps 15 years ago and written in very basic HTML with the help of Dreamweaver 8. Now some pages feature videos, Dreamweaver keeps pointing out incompatibilities with HTML Version 1 so, rather than go through the pain of attempting to learn HTML 5 or whatever is the modern language I should be using (and failing) I thought I'd let Xara Designer Pro (v18) take the strain. I have successfully produced a small section of website which I have integrated with the older HTML pages and that was encouraging. Re-writing the menu became the next obvious step and, with Acorn's help I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks again. I find this Talk Graphics site to be invaluable when I hit brick walls.

Stay safe,
Ian

[IanB]

Hi

Thanks to Acorn I have produced a version of my lengthy menu which appears to work.

http://www.waterwaysongs.info/songmenu.htm

I'm not sure if that is the result Acorn envisaged but it seems OK and similar to the ancient HTML original.

Suggestions for improvement would be welcome.

Ian

[Acorn]

Hi
Thanks to Acorn I have produced a version of my lengthy menu which appears to work.
http://www.waterwaysongs.info/songmenu.htm
I'm not sure if that is the result Acorn envisaged but it seems OK and similar to the ancient HTML original.
Suggestions for improvement would be welcome.
Ian

Ian, far slicker!

I like the 0-9 and the mainly shorter lists.

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I would have added hover text to all the 0-9, A-Z and up/downs.

I would have used white for the Pasteboard.
I would have mad the Songs page longer and its Placeholder.
These are my preferences and might change the quikiness of the site.

Acorn

[IanB]

Acorn

I've already changed the Pasteboard. It was coloured while I adjusted page sizes. I'll implement your other suggestions shortly.

Thanks again for helping me through a brick-wall.

Ian