Section List Layout - How To Create Spacing?

[Big Game Hunter]

A question for the pro's out there.

It's a basic question but i can't seem to find anything related to it.

I have attached an image to help understand what the issue is. Basically i havea large list of sections that display the products. However i'm trying to break it down into brand coloumns. To do this though there has to be spacers inserted. I have done it the really stone age way and inserted sections with a white gif as an image. This is not the ideal work around though. Does anyone have any ideas on how to create a section list that contains spaces?

Just to add to this message, as everyone knows you have to name your section. So to create a white space i had to change the font colour which in tun makes google think i'm a spammer. It's a tricky one and if anyone has come up with a workaround i would appreciate the advice.

Thanks
Shannon

[leehack]

Scroll up to the section list layout settings and add some padding to the table is probably your quickest and easiest method.

[Big Game Hunter]

good plan lee. i will give that a go.

ps: Just for interest, what's claire's status on her www.toysonthegreen.co.uk

i was interested to see how that would work out.

[leehack]

What do you mean by status? Are you referring to her website status? If so, it's being filled out as I understand, however delayed for a while due to other commitments. Do i know you or do do i know that you know her as your post took me back a little?

[Big Game Hunter]

sorry. jus interested. She worked within our company and you were one of my reccomendations for her to use a designer for her new website. Just interested really as i was looking trough the site the other day. I like the layout and design you've used on there.

Just for your info, i have made that page live so it's a bit easier to understand http://www.gardengames.co.uk/acatalo...ine_Sales.html

thanks for your help..

[leehack]

AH OK with you now, you spooked me out for a bit then . My memory is not the best, but i just couldn't place it. Thanks for the referral. I think there has been some house moving woes and things are delayed for a while, at least with the website anyway.

Your section layout is a table which a bit of padding will definitely spread out for you, you probably want 3 or 4px I expect. Look for the orange underlined which says Click here to edit list layout settings.

[Big Game Hunter]

no worries. after i had posted i realised that it may have seemed right out of the blue. The internet makes this world even smaller....

I may be needing your design skills in the future. Thanks.

[Big Game Hunter]

lee, i have tried the cell padding. I'm not sure we on the same wave length though. Actinic automatically groups sections which means it's hard to seperate sections into coloumns like what i'm trying to do. Is there anyway of creating a ghost section in a sense so that it stops the sections grouping but rather stay in the coloumn desired. That way you can use these "ghost" sections as spacers to keep everything in line. Hopefully you understand what i'm trying to get at.

Or i am on my own mission and the cell padding would work fine if i was doing the right thing.

[leehack]

Provide a link to a page and tell me what you want to do to it, I think padding is the answer but we may have crossed wires.

[Big Game Hunter]

ok cool.

Here's the link: http://www.gardengames.co.uk/acatalo...ine_Sales.html

On that page there is 4 columns. The trampolines are divided into those columns by brands. To get them in these columns though you have to get the sections in the right order within the software. However there isn't an equal number of trampolines in each brand. So i have to create invisible or ghost sections to put in the section list to force the sections to space out into their appropriate columns. This is not ideal though as then you have blank sections in your lists as well as blank links on your site.

hopefully that makes a bit more sense.

[leehack]

I see what you mean now, there is no easy way to do that if you want to display columnar by manufacturer, however you should be looking to create a new section link layout that displays nothing at all and also have a section level variable to take that section out of any menus. That will be a much tidier & neater look. I would also have the smallest numbers on the right scaling up to the largest on the left, IF i wanted to do things that way.

A more elegant solution would be to use CSS and float all sections to the left and have layouts that spanned 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% across each row, you simply choose the layout to suit the space it has to fill. BUT i think this and the above approach are fundamentally wrong if I am honest.

My main concern would be who cares about the manufacturer? I know I wouldn't even know, so I think people like me get a site not setup best for me to shop. If you want to cater for me, and for people who do know the trampoline manufacturers, then i think you should be doing both and providing both as separate ways to shop. Without knowing anything about trampolines, I could almost guarantee that shopping by size or price would be more useful than by manufacturer, for a lot of people.

If people do want to shop by manufacturer, I think they should be able to select just that manufacturers products. I think you have a solution that doesn't give anyone the best way to shop, but that's just my opinion, factor in what I say with your market knowledge and see if you have some new ideas.

Your site is really narrow also, try and squeeze a bit of extra width out of it, it will give your products some space to breathe. Also with your current setup, what would you do if a 5th trampoline manufacturer needed to be stocked?

[jont]

who cares about the manufacturer?

I would not know the products in the column belong to the manufacturer at the top as there are no dividing lines or clues between them.

If people do care then add duplicates to a manufacturers section.

Unfortunately I am with Lee on this ... bin the column listings and have 3 across as the layout is not doing you any favours at the moment.

[leehack]

Unfortunately I am with Lee on this

Is it that bad to be in my gang?

PS - good point on whether you know if the products are tied to the manufacturer, it'd need to be color coded to do that really. Plus the way they link at the top is not the best, never send people to empty pages if they have taken the time to click on a section in your site, it's like having a door slammed in your face and just looks unkempt and confusing.

Your absolute bare minimum has to be to have a new section link layout that does not link or do anything.

[Big Game Hunter]

cool. good points. I will take that into consideration. It's just a hard one on that page. People seem to browse in the strangest ways on that page according to analytics.

Thank you for your advice though. i will go back to the drawing board on that one.

Thanks for taking the time to look into this for me. Appreciated.

[jont]

Is it that bad to be in my gang?

It was yours or Gary Glitters