Layout Problems (BULK)

[PaulGrimshaw]

Hi,

I am trying to set up my basic layout and am having problems with the bulk side of it. Both the act_primary and act_brochureprimary are pretty much the same, but I have changed the NETQUOTEVAR:BROCHUREBODY and NETQUOTEVAR:BULK bits.

The main site looks fine with the menu bar down the left hand side, but in the catalog pages the menu bar gets pushed to the side.

Look at the main page and then click on search.

What would cause this?

website is http://www.anything-goes.co.uk

Thanks,
Paul.

[wjcampbe]

Paul,

Can you elaborate a little more on

changed the NETQUOTEVAR:BROCHUREBODY and NETQUOTEVAR:BULK bits

When you generate the pages for upload from Actinic, those placeholders are replaced by different code on different pages. As an example, the Search page starts with the Act_Primary.html then reads in Act_SearchTemplate.html etc.

If you treated Act_Primary.html as a stand alone page and removed bits from it, you broke all the templates that fit inside the bulk bit. These are expecting things like an open <table> tag that you might have removed.

[PaulGrimshaw]

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply - how do I edit the bulk template so that it is self contained? Is there a Act_blah.html type page like act_primary?

Thanks,
Paul.

[wjcampbe]

The trouble is there are a lot of Act_blah and each of them serves a specific purpose.

Actinic is like a big jigsaw, all the bits fit together to make a website, but it sounds like you want to start cutting off all the linking bits to make a bunch of squares that you will then shuffle. The trouble with that approach is the details painted on the bits you are cutting off.

Have a look at the Clean Layout templates. These are pretty basic and empty, but they also use the Actinic Netquotevar approach to build complete pages from a mixture of templates.

Read the starter guide - available from Help | Starter guide in Actinic, and get yourself a copy of the Design Guide and Advanced User Guide from the Actinic Support site.

Have a look around the forum at the amount and quality of help that is available here, and then you need to decide whether Actinic is really the software for you.

I hope you stay around - we have all had to go through the same culture shock/learning curve you are facing, and we are still here.

[PaulGrimshaw]

All fixed now. Thanks for your help - it turned out that I hadnt edited the customvar width so that it was wider than the manually edited width. Seems to be a-ok now.

Thanks,
Paul.