Dreamweaver Design Cascading

[leehack]

I like the way you can specify to use your external layout across all layouts on your site, meaning that everything looks uniform (as long as you give the central column enough room).

There is one exception though, that being the receipt page. To make the receipt page of any use and able to print easily, it cannot use the external layout also as it becomes too wide and it ALSO uses more width than any other layout, therefore it can break fixed layouts.

The vast majority of site owners (if not all) will do far better providing the standard receipt page, rather than one included into their external design, i therefore think it should be standard that the external design is not applied to the receipt page. Still have it selectable for people who do wish to use it, although providing users the ability to print a pretty unprintable receipt seems crazy.

In other words as part of integrating an external design, make the standard move, one that does not change the receipt layout.

Also, can we PLEASE have the "Actinic Stylesheet" moved up or dropped down in the drop down box, so that it is easily accessible. It's the most common selected from the dropdown box, yet in the most awkward of locations. I would also like to see the drop down box split into at least one more. Majority of the selections in that drop down box will never be selected, so make one for the common stuff and one for the obscure stuff.

All about user-friendliness i guess.

[Duncan Rounding]

[QUOTE=leehack]...the "Actinic Stylesheet" moved up or dropped down in the drop down box, so that it is easily accessible...QUOTE]

We know that some layouts are more common than others but Alphabetical makes more sense surely.

[leehack]

Alphabetical would do fine also and would be a pretty simple change for them. Can the stylesheet be renamed to Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaactinic Stylesheet, just to make sure it never comes off the top?

[jont]

Prefix it with a number and it will never shift off the top ... unless you start dealing with a taxi company and they will always get to the top

This is another one of the reasons why I don't use the actinic.css but link straight to mysheet.css and have that open in DW ... ALT+Tabbing between the open stylesheet and the page layout in Actinic .. no messing scrolling in the list to find the stylesheet

[leehack]

Do you mean that you copy the actinic.css file content into mystyles.css, giving you the ability to edit in dreamweaver and use it as an external css file? I do this with my css files for external layouts but never done it with the main one.

Have you finished the slimming down of the stylesheet yet? What did you get it down to?

It may also be wise to rename it from "Actinic Stylesheet" to "Actinic CSS File" in the drop down box, this would help many newbies to find it as when you state it's in the css file, i don't think the knowledge is always present to know this is the stylesheet.

[jont]

Yep - copy the code into an external sheet and delete the contents of actinic.css .. best to add just a /* moved */ to the top to prevent the page not found error if you click on it by accident.

I started on a mission to compact the code down but got bored (and a flash of reality) after 15 mins and decided time would be better spent adding more products to the site

[cdicken]

There is one exception though, that being the receipt page. To make the receipt page of any use and able to print easily, it cannot use the external layout also as it becomes too wide and it ALSO uses more width than any other layout, therefore it can break fixed layouts.

Hi there.

As soon as an external design is registered with Actinic, an option called 'Receipt Page Layout' appears in 'Settings | Site Options | Layout', which allows you to change to the receipt page layout back to what it was before.

With regards to the 'Actinc Stylesheet' option in the drop down list, have you tried the new 8.5 option of being able to right-click anywhere and select 'Lookup in Actinic Stylesheet'. This will open the Actinic Stylesheet wherever you are.

[leehack]

Hi there.

As soon as an external design is registered with Actinic, an option called 'Receipt Page Layout' appears in 'Settings | Site Options | Layout', which allows you to change to the receipt page layout back to what it was before.

I'm aware of this Chris, that was how i found the problem during testing and posted about it. My point is that Actinic takes an action that will make things fail 99% of the time. Many novice site owners won't really relate to the fact that printing of a website onto normal A4 is problematic, so remove the option for it to fail.

With regards to the 'Actinc Stylesheet' option in the drop down list, have you tried the new 8.5 option of being able to right-click anywhere and select 'Lookup in Actinic Stylesheet'. This will open the Actinic Stylesheet wherever you are.

Aware of this also and use it myself, that is not the issue. If i want to just go to the stylesheet to take a browse or look at the styles i have included (i always add at the bottom), then the problem prevails. The more you work with the software, the more you learn what is styling what and don't need to go to the layout and then right click.

If the stylesheet was your best selling product in a drop down list, where would you put it in the list? Needs the same importance IMO. There is a strong argument to say that the stylesheet should have its very own button on the toolbar, it is accessed constantly on custom designs.

Both of these requests are somewhat small and simple to apply. Little quick improvements like this make software jump out of the "good" box and move towards the "excellent" box, where user friendliness and access is a very important factor. We're on V8 now, the software should (IMO) be looking to add a bit of class where possible, not just dumping into lists and considering the job done.

As you are quite clearly seeing it, they are not showstoppers and there are ways round it, but they are annoying as there is no need for it. Somebody could spend a day on adding user friendliness to the software and those of us who use it daily would undoubtedly have a better experience (nothing to gauge really, just a general feel).

[cdicken]

Cheers Lee

I did pass your requests on to the developement team, but I guess I always have my 'support' hat on, and I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of all the things you could do today that might help.

I'm currently in the process of reviewing the usability side of Actinic, and this is useful input. Thanks for that.

[leehack]

Cheers Lee

I did pass your requests on to the developement team, but I guess I always have my 'support' hat on, and I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of all the things you could do today that might help.

Cheers Chris, i have just reread what i wrote and it does read a little like "i know that FFS", that was not my intention, just my style of writing. It may be exclusive to me but little annoying things like this really bug me in software and taint my opinion somewhat. The design library, design tab and the stylesheet are the 3 most commonly accessed items within actinic (for me) and i would like to make them all very easy to access.