Layout headaches

[bangers]

Okay, remind me again...how is v8 easier than v7 to use as a designer?

I'd really appreciate any help, How to add another cell in a product layout would be a start?

At the moment I'm only a few days into using it for the first time but I gotta say it seems like you've just taken the tool I feel most comfortable using, as a web designer, away from me? Am I right in thinking dreamweaver is only used in what used to be Primary templates? And if want to make changes to what were: act_productline or act_productbody etc etc that they have to be performed withing actinic?

It just seems to me that you've just spent a whole lot of time getting actinic to do something which could be done a whole lot better using software (DW) which is designed to do nothing other than design web pages! Why couldn't the DW plugin been developed to understand the new variables etc?

I've been able to make simple changes to elements of a product line like text formatting. As for making layout changes such as adding nested tables or cells or rows, where, how, I'm completely lost!

The documents I have don't seem to cover it, or am I missing something?

Is there a definitive guide out there which like the getting started guide is intuitive and easy to understand,

Please Help,

Regards
lee

p.s At the moment I am getting problems viewing page previews if i switch from one to another. I'm having the swap between the content and the layout tab to get a page to appear again, any thoughts?

Also nice touch with the annoying automatic opening of Actinic when DW opens (I know I have to update with the latest patch to stop it, but it raises my eyebrow when something as easy as this wasn't spotted before the release....could be in for a bumpy ride!)

[Bruce]

Hi Lee,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this one. Seems to have slipped by. I guess v8 would appear a lot more complicated than it is because you are still thinking in v7 mode, a way to cure that would be to attend a V8 Training session, you can check on the forums and see that quite a few of them have attended the training and have found using v8 to be a lot easier than before.

How to add another cell in a product layout would be a start?

This would depend on the layout you are using, if it anything except the CSS ones, you can very well add in extra cells because they are in table format. If you select a product while on the design tab and then in the layout code, use the yellow swirl with an upward arrow to navigate to the 'Product Layout', right at the top you should see 'Click here to edit List Layout Settings' click and you will be able to add a cell etc.

Am I right in thinking dreamweaver is only used in what used to be Primary templates? And if want to make changes to what were: act_productline or act_productbody etc etc that they have to be performed withing actinic?

You are right about the bit that you can only edit built-in layouts from Actinic. When using DreamWeaver the Import page design from Actinic feature only lists the major overall pages, not the Innerlayout ones....This I will add to the wish list on your behalf.

Designing software like Dream Weaver is best to create an over all layout design, the inner layouts are best done from within Actinic, that is why you are able to change, revert and preview simultaneously within the Design Tab. It does take a bit of getting used to.

Kind regards,