Modifying Theme 'Retro', forces table width > 760px ..

[simonwar]

Hi All,

I have been demoing Actinic V7.04 and using the 'Retro' theme to see how things look,and modified a few of the templates of 'Retro' to get the layout i want, but for the life of me cannot establish how I can split the central column of the body into two and still maintain the themes 760px tabular layout.

What I have done so far;

#1 In the directory '../Actinic/Themes/Retro/' i modified the following;

Act_Primary.html
by splitting the main body cell into 2 columns, (in DW), so that I can create a standard column of info. I modified the column widths to maintain the original width of 626px (as 'Retro'), split into 468px and my new column 158px.

Act_ProductBody/html in the Template Manager
because i noticed that the "Overall Product Placement" was being forced to 500px, and I though this was the source of my problem, so i changed it to 400px, just to see, but no still no success.

#2 I modified ACTSSTDIWDTH to 468 from 600, so that Section Separators do not force the table width.

now,

Getting frustrated with the whole affair, I decided to Open P_Shop.html in DW and just frigg it from here, and it was only until I completely removed the product information for "subscribing to the magazine", (Retro demo) did the page actually return to the original table size of 760px.

Can anyone help, i am doing my nut in trying to find where the code is coming from that is forcing the table to oversize ????

Cheers, Simon.

(I could not include an attachment to help you work out what i am doing, but if you want I can e-mail stuff direct.... over to you ?)

[wjcampbe]

You should not modify the templates in the Theme directories. Once you select a theme for your site Actinic copies all the relevant templates (which are not all in the theme directory) to Site1. You should make the modifications to the templates in the site1 directory. These are the only templates that affect the code produced by actinic.

When you 'frigged' P_Shop.html, did you identify the templates by looking at the bottom of Dreamweaver and make the changes to those templates by choosing - edit - beside the template name?

If you just removed code from the P_Shop.html, then next time you generate the pages in Actinic, it will be right back at you. Have you read the Design Guide and Advanced User Guide available from the Actinic Support site?

The Knowledge base link at the top of these forum pages is also well worth a visit.

hth

[simonwar]

Mmmm.... i hear you, but .....

Hi WJ,

Thanks for your reply. I hear what your saying, but consider the following and try and help me with the my question, i can worry about 'Theme' modifying protocols later.

#1 I am demoing Actinic, so jump from theme to theme to see how things look. I modified the html in the theme, (after backing it up of course), so that when i return to the theme and it overwrites Site 1, (which it does as you have identifed), i don't lose hours of good work and lose everything. If I only modify Site1, any new themes i select will overwrite my modifications.

(On this point, you are also incorrect in what you say about the "You should make the modifications to the templates in the site1 directory. These are the only templates that affect the code produced by actinic". modifying the theme means that I am ensuring any changes are saved forever. A much better solution i believe).
I RECOMMEND TO EVERYONE MODIFY YOUR THEMES OR LOSE YOU MODS.

#2 Yes i can see all of the templates etc etc but as my question states, i can't work out which one is dictating table width !!!!!!!! DO YOU KNOW WHICH ONE?

#3 I was friggin P_Shop.html to see if i could work out the source of the problem, which I believe is due to Product entries, (as i mentioned), as a sort of lead and not as a permanent fix. With this lead in mind do you know the answer to my problem or not ? Is there something in the product Entries standard templates that is forcing table width that I have not already mentioned and attempted to modify ???

#4 Whats the point in having Forum's if the only answer I get is "read the manual" ? The whole point of a forum is sharing knowledge discovered by, usually better methods than trawling through manuals. Everyone knows IT based manuals are crap and only good for people who already know what they are doing. Anyway i looked up the index to my question and it wasn't listed... but i knew it wouldn't be anyway.

I am not in a bad mood honest and all of the above is meant in the best interests to one and all.

Regards, Simon.
P.S. Do you know why I could not upload an attachment, to better explain my problem ?
P.P.S. Are the timeouts on this forum a bit short, I write some stuff and have to log in again and start over ?? (Why I am a bit pissed off!)

[dave_finlayson]

Have you installed the Actinic Dreamweaver extension? This can be found in your Actinic folder under extensions. This will show you which templates are doing what in your pages. However, this extension picks up the templates from your site1 directory.

The forum is a superb resource and I am sure once you have narrowed down the problem a quick search would bring up the answer to your problem. Many of the people posting here have years of experience in Actinic and are usually more than willing to help when people run into problems. Bill himself is a regular and excellent poster!

One thing to note. I think I am right in saying the Theme folders do not include every template you need to run Actinic, only the ones that are unique to that theme. You would be better selecting your theme, modifying it using the templates in Site1, then when you want to swap, copying the templates into a new folder and naming it as you want. Someone else will be able to give you better advice here though as we use a custom theme and therefore I have not used this feature much.

[simonwar]

All looks good in DW, but F12 looks like Actinic view... which is forced >760px

DW Extension installed.

OK, i will definately mod files in Site1, but either way, the modification I have implemented does not work in ways that beats me, considering that;

DW Pictorial View is correct and table widths all add up to give a 760px table. Even trawled through code to find any stray width references that could be causing the problem, nothing found, no oversize images, etc.

but, when i hit F12 to view in IE from DW, the table is oversize like it is in Actinic ????? Aaaarghhhh !

I suppose, i could delete each Actinic reference one at a time until it works, but that seems a tad extreme ?

Help, this is bugging me big time ?

Also, why can't i attach a file for you to see the problem ?

[dave_finlayson]

Simon,

Without seeing what you are doing it's difficult to say. Which source code are you looking at, Dreamweavers or an Actinic generated page? You could try copying the source code of an Antinic generated product page and copying it into a blank page in dreamweaver, this should at least give you an idea of where the troublesome width is coming from.

Dave

[simonwar]

Actinic generated page P_Shop.html in opened in DW...

Dave,

I am looking at P_Shop.html, generated in Actinic using 'Offline Preview', and then opening it in DW.

However, it looks wrong in Actinic preview window, but looks fine in DW preview window, but wrong when i hit F12 to preview in browser.

I'd like to send you a picture of the problem, can you send a private message to me, so that i can e-mail it or something as the file attachment mode on this forum is not working ?

Cheers, Simon.

[simonwar]

Removed this code and it worked ...

Hi paul,

I removed the following code;

<TABLE WIDTH="310" BORDER="0" ALIGN="left" CELLPADDING="10" CELLSPACING="0" COLS="3">
 <TR>
  <TD WIDTH="160"></TD>
  <TD WIDTH="160"></TD>
  <TD WIDTH="160"></TD>
 </TR><Actinic:SECTION BLOB="A0000.cat"/>
</TABLE>

which is created due to the addition of a product on the catalogue page, after the sections. In this instance i believe the sample of the magazine subscritpion is normally here, but i have deleted it but this code still remains.

Table Width is 310, is because i modified ACTSTDWIDTH to 310, in Design Options, (it was 500 and i thought this was the root of the problem).

Anyway, i do not see how this coded could be doing this unless;

<Actinic:SECTION BLOB="A0000.cat"/>

is doing it ?

What is this doing and can it be edited not to ?

Cheers, Simon.

[wjcampbe]

Simon,

I am presuming you are on a PC and using windows - to get a screenshot you can share with the community (Actinic / Dreamweaver / whatever) hit the PrtSC or Printscreen button on your PC, then open Paint and do Edit | Paste. Save as and change to jpeg, enter a file name and pick a location - I tend to use desktop for these temporary things.

Check the file size - this forum will only allow max file size of 100Kb for an attachment. If your file is over this size, use your photo manipulation software (irfanview or whatever) to compress the file and get it down under the 100K.

Then choose the 'Go Advanced' button when you start a reply here and you will see a 'Manage Attachments' button in a section below the text box.

If I only modify Site1, any new themes i select will overwrite my modifications.

But if you modify anything else, Actinic will not use your mods - as it continues to built its static HTML pages from the templates in the Site1 directory. Also, as Dave pointed out in post #4 - most of the templates don't even exist in the individual themes.

I RECOMMEND TO EVERYONE MODIFY YOUR THEMES OR LOSE YOU MODS.

Absolutely NOT. Again Dave gave you a better solution - make all the mods in Site1, and when you want to change, first copy the existing site1 in its entirety to "My stab at clear layout 13" or whatever. If you want to go back to that attempt later it is easy to copy the contents back into site1.

DO YOU KNOW WHICH ONE?

Sorry, no - not on the amount of info supplied so far. If you could view the uncompacted source code from your page preview and post that here as a text file attachment (same procedure to attach as the image file above) AND say where the problem is occurring (top of page - halfway down, bottom quarter - whatever) we could have a better stab at it.

From the additional info in your latest epistle to Paul, it looks likely the problem is in your Act_ProductLine.html - BUT without the uncompacted code and an opportunity to see where your problem is, that is only a (some might say educated) guess.

regards,

PS sorry I did not respond earlier, I was over at the local school installing a 70 node network.

[simonwar]

Code attached,

Hi WJ,

70-node network..... sounds like you've got your hands full........ was that an all-girl sixth form school though ?

Points;
: I am on a PC using Windows,
: 100kB max noted,
: 'theme' modifications vs 'Site1' duly noted.

Thanks for that.

I have attached the code P_shop.html, created doing an offline preview in Actinic.

Cheers, Simon.

Still cannot Attach Files ????? P_shop.html is 35kB, I'll have another go ?

Oh, stupid me... I'll attach P_shop.txt... oooops!

[simonwar]

Some more files to view ...

WJ,

I have attahced a rough outline of the objective as a doc file, but can send a better one on email if you want ?

Cheers, Simon.

[simonwar]

Sorted... Act_Product Body.html was to blame ....

Dave, wicked it works I changed Act_ProductBody.html as follows;

<TABLE WIDTH="270" COLS="3" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="10" CELLSPACING="0" ALIGN="CENTER">
<!-- Ensure that we get a consistent column width -->
<TR><TD WIDTH="90"></TD><TD WIDTH="90"></TD><TD WIDTH="90"></TD></TR>

	NETQUOTEVAR:PRODUCTBULK

</TABLE>

Thanks for your help again, Simon.