Columns and Rows

[DavidGeran]

This is my first post so please no flaming for my obvious questions

For my index.html page and other pages that display sub-sections, I want the category images and titles laid out in rows of 4 columns each.

I do not want this layout reflected on product pages as the standard templates are fine for those. I've been playing around with the Act_ProductBody.html file but it appears that changes to this are reflected on sub-section and product pages alike.

My question has two parts:

a) How do I display category titles / images 4 per row, multiple rows?
b) How can I do this and not affect the product pages?

Any help much appreciated.

Regards,
David

[NormanRouxel]

<noflame>Actinic is a BIG program so it takes a while to find your way around - don't worry about asking - but try searching too in case it's a common question</noflame>

The layout of the Section Lists in Design / Options / Sections sets out how many columns your sub-section links appear in. These have no effect on product layout (which is just what you want).

Norman

[DavidGeran]

Thanks for your help Norman. I'm more used to writing custom software than working with existing packages, but the more I play with Actinic the more I like it!

One final question that completes my design requirements. On the pages that now display nn rows of 4 columns of sub-sections, I want to place a navigation menu to the left of the page.

I can do this fine by putting my code into the Act_ProductBody.html as so:

<table>
<tr>
<td>Stuff in here such as menu options :-)</td>
<td>
<DIV ALIGN="CENTER">
NETQUOTEVAR:PARENTSECTIONSTOP
</DIV>
NETQUOTEVAR:TOPLEVELSECTIONSTOP
NETQUOTEVAR:SECTIONLISTTOP
NETQUOTEVAR:TOPSECTIONSEPARATOR
NETQUOTEVAR:CARTERRORLISTXML</tD>
</tr>
</table>

.. AND this displays fine, but its also repeated on the products pages - is the a way of separating this out so it only appears on the index.html and sub-section pages?

Many thanks for your help.

Regards,
David

[NormanRouxel]

The ProductBody Template is common to section and product pages so that will be difficult.

However you can have alternative Primary templates and this may do the trick instead.

Just copy Act_Primary.html to a new name and adjust the copy. Then use the appropriate Act_Primary-1 -2, etc where you need alternative layouts.

See Design / Options / Layouts for the defaults.

Norman

[DavidGeran]

Thanks for your time on this Norman. I'm going to do a bit of reading up, not clear how I can replicate what I achieved by editing the Act_ProductBody page by editing the Act_Primary.html page. If only the sub-section / index pages worked off a different Act_ProductBody page than the actual product pages

[DavidGeran]

Sorted!

FYI: Ended up using a bit of javascript to optionally display the menu on the sub-category pages, or not on the product pages. Not sure it falls into the Actinic programming model but it does the trick

I use this line in the Act_Footer template:

<script language="javascript">
if (ShowMenu == true){document.getElementById("ShowMenu").style.display="block";}
</script>

I set the ShowMenu variable to false in the Act_Header and use:

<script language=javascript>ShowMenu=true;</script>

in the Act_SectionLine.