Buttons?

[Tracey]

I'm having a hard time making this work.

I want to bring in three buttons from my Gallery theme, make them a lot narrower but all the same size, then add the labels Top, Map, and Back. I want to line them up like a navigation bar. Once I do that, I can handle their web properties. One of them goes to an anchor, one calls up a layer, and one executes some Javascript.

I'm having difficulty resizing them without fouling up the text, and with adding new text once they are resized. They aren't lining up perfectly, either. My position indicators indicate spacing in tenths of a pixel, which seems unusual.

I have a nav bar on the page already, and I've seen that you can only have one (or something like that). If it's OK to have a second one, this might be a good solution.

Also a simpler problem: I'm having a lot of trouble editing text on buttons and stretchy buttons. I did it once, but can't repeat it. There's something I'm not getting here. The Help and PDF manuals aren't helpful, or at least I don't know where to look in them.

[gwpriester]

You cannot resize a nav bar, at least I do not think you can.

What you need to do is double click on the nav bar to open the Navigation Bar Properties menu.

Click Ungroup to Edit Graphics.

Delete all but one of the buttons.

Now you can resize the remaining button and edit the font, style, color etc. You can isolate each of the button states by pressing the S icon next to the layer (MouseOff or MouseOver).

When you have made your edits, and with the button selected create a new button bar. Select the options you wish, change the button text, links, etc. then press OK.

It is a bit of a drag, but it works.

[Tracey]

I'm happy with the nav bar I have. It gets me around the site just fine.

What I need is three buttons on one page, whose purpose is to get me around the page, which includes a long scrollable document, links to other pages, etc., not to mention a popup map.

The page in question is HERE. What I'm hoping to do is to make some small buttons that do Top, Back, and Map. They are all done differently now.

[gwpriester]

So, create new buttons.

Using the technique I outlined, you could create a duplicate bar, break it down to one button, edit the button, and create a new bar with new links to your specs.

What am I missing here?

Priester SP5 (long retired)

[Tracey]

You are missing what I'm trying to do, probably because I didn't explain it well enough. Here's another try:

I am trying to use some of the pre-made buttons from XWD 7 Premium's Design Gallery. There are a bunch of them, all nicer than anything I could make myself. When I drag a button from the gallery to my document, it goes in there just fine, but I'm having difficulties resizing the button and changing the text that is displayed on it.

One would think that both things would be easy, so there's probably something I'm just not getting.

Once I have the buttons identically sized, and labeled as I want, then I hope to be able to line them up like a nav bar. That's the least of my worries right now, though.

[ShapeShifter]

It's quite straight forward Tracey,

* Open button from Gallery (double-click or drag'n'drop)
* Unhide MouseOver layer
* Marquee select button
* Resize
* Select 'T'ext tool
* Edit button label
* Done
* Repeat as required..

See video clip

[Lou Sander]

Thanks! MOST computer stuff is straightforward, and these days, most software will do all the things that people need it to do. The problem is usually finding how to do it in the software at hand.

PS - This is Tracey replying. My father and I are working jointly on learning Xara, and occasionally we inadvertently sign onto the forum with the other person's identity.

[gwpriester]

I am glad you explained that Tracey.

You can still modify one button as SS has so humorously demonstrated, and then once you have your button fine tuned, you can create a nav bar from that modified button.

My suggestion was for if you were using a pre-designed navigation bar and I guess I misunderstood your question.

I think it is great that you and Mr. Tracey's dad are doing this as a group project. That is really cool.

[Hwy101]

(( ShapeShifter, can I get you to email me that Video -Thanks either way! Tom aka Hwy101 ))

[ShapeShifter]

Download it from here Tom : http://minus.com/mbbgEuh