WYSIFA Forum

[frew]

Hello,

Is selecting and moving multiple layers at once possible?

I do very basic pages, and new to all html editing.

I basically have lists of links on a page, and I use one layer per link to move the links around when I wish to rearrange them on the page.

Often I wish to grab a bunch of layers at once and move them around, but I cannot figure out yet how to select more than one layer at a time.

I don't know yet about tables, classes, style sheets, etc...but might they may be a better way to move batches of links around on a webpage?

All I want to do right now is grab a bunch of links and to be able to drag the group of links around.

Can I do this with KompoZer?

I was going into the source and typing in each links pixel position, and this works to move around the individual links (one link per layer)...but that seems link a lot of work when I will have hundreds of links on a page that I'll often want to rearrange.

Thanks so much for any ideas.

[agsone]

It sounds like this is getting much more complicated than you need. How about posting an example page so we can get a better idea what you are trying to achieve?

I was going into the source and typing in each links pixel position, and this works to move around the individual links (one link per layer)...but that seems link a lot of work when I will have hundreds of links on a page that I'll often want to rearrange.

Nailing stuff down like this never works, switching browsers, users increasing font size etc. invariably messes up this approach.

Having "hundreds of links" on a page is going to be logistically difficult for you and indigestible for your readers - do you really want pages that complex?

I basically have lists of links on a page, and I use one layer per link to move the links around when I wish to rearrange them on the page.

Are you referring to html lists (which is the way to go) or just a bunch of links separated by line breaks?

I don't know yet about tables, classes, style sheets, etc...but might they may be a better way to move batches of links around on a webpage?

Not sure about the moving about bit but getting your head around classes and style sheets now will save you vast amounts of time later.

[frew]

Okay, thank you.

I like the simplicity of having lists of links to the mp3 I make all on one page...but I may set up multiple pages with various types of sound material on various pages.

Here's links to the two different types of source for the pages:

This is the page with each link being it's own layer so I could move the links around easily:

EDIT:
I removed this page.

http://www.geocities.com/frewsax/MyWebsite/html/AudioClipsMain1_main_before_big_layers.html


And this page is the page after I manually went into the source and took out all the <div stuff so that the links can be moved around in chunks, like in big groupings of links:

EDIT:
I changed this page because I'm using external stylesheet css.

http://www.geocities.com/frewsax/MyWebsite/html/AudioClipsMain1.html


By the way, I'm new to html so I don't know what you refer to when you say "html lists (which is the way to go)"

I like to be able select a bunch of links in KompoZer and move them around on the page to where I want to see them, then save the page with the new arrangement and upload it in it's new version.

Thanks for any other ideas.

[agsone]

There is a lot of nailing down and extra work for you in there, although now I can see why you want so many links in the one page - it isn't as indigestible as I imagined.

What would be easier is a three column set up (see here for some examples. In each column you set up a list (use the "bulleted list" button on the KompoZer toolbar - you don't have to have the bullets, it's a bit of a misnomer) and in this way build up each column vertically - enter text, set up link, hit enter, repeat.

If you want to move part of a list from one column into a list in another it is now just a case of copy and paste (plus maybe hitting enter a couple of times).

[frew]

Thanks for the ideas agsone.

It's all a bit over my head at this point, but I'll continue to study this.

I don't understand anything at all about columns or lists or CSS.

I'll experiment with the Bullet list idea.

Thank you very much.

[dr john]

You are doing things the hard way, a very hard way.
(Layers is an old-fashioned term for a div, a generic container. You have hundreds of these when you really only need three or four.)

The three column layout idea simply creates three divs and you stick each link into the appropriate div. It does not use the absolute positioning that you do, which is a very bad way to do things. Because each link is in it's own personal little div with it's location sharply defined, if you try to move it, it goes to the same place every time, and thus it can sit over the top of another existing link. Most people advise never to use absolute positioning of anything.

Also you are individually styling each link - set a style for the links once using css, and then they will all look the same. Overall you are going to a great deal of effort to do something straightforward.

Read up on external style sheets, where you define the styles once in a single file, and then simply refer to that file on each page that you wish to use those styles. A css stylesheet can contain dozens of styles which you use as and when needed. But it is best to apply a set of general styles to the body - the whole page - and then you only need to add other styles that are specific to some part.

Your choice of background and colour makes the pages difficult to read. I strongly suggest dropping the background image to make things more readable.

[frew]

Thanks so much dr john for pointing me in the right direction.
I can see that external stylesheets is the way to go.
It's going to take me a little while to figure this out though.
For now I have to continue using what works until I can study and test the stylesheets way of doing things.

Thanks again, and I'll let you know how it goes.

Seeya

[dr john]

for a straightforward intro to css try these sites

http://www.cssbasics.com
http://www.htmldog.com

Start with styling the body and default things like fonts, font size, background - you are already doing this manually dozens and dozens of times, with css you do it once.

[frew]

Thanks so much for the links.

I'm checking out the HTML Dog site...looks great.

The cssbasics site will not load for some reasons...I'll try again later...plus I went to google and can get to the cached pages of cssbasics chapter 1, 2, etc.

The external stylesheet sounds so much easier, I can't wait to figure out how to do that.

Thank you.

[frew]

Check this page if you would please.
http://www.geocities.com/frewsax/MyWebsite/html/AudioClipsMain1.html

I'm beginning to use external stylesheet:
http://www.geocities.com/frewsax/MyWebsite/html/style_1.css

But now I don't know how position the div elements by using the stylesheet. I have various div elements scattered about, and if I use one div thing in the stylesheet it may make all the div position in the same place, which is not what I want.

..and all the <big>...</big> stuff in the html pages...I want to get rid of anything that does not need to be in the html pages that I can instead put in the external stylesheet.

Any ideas on how to position elements in html pages by using the stylesheet? Or how to get rid of the <big> tags in the html pages?

I guess I need to learn how to get the stylesheet affect certain div elements in certain ways and other div elements in other ways.

Thanks for any ideas.

[dr john]

Invent classes in your style sheet (note the dot infornt of the calss name)

.myClass {
styles:somethig'
}

Give the div you wish to style a class name
<div class="myclass">.....

[frew]

Wow, that's exciting...I'm going to check into that.

I didn't get what classes are until you mention invent my own class names...so I guess a class is just sort of a reference word or words that we can put into the html code that we can then affect with a stylesheet selector that refers to that reference?

...and I suppose if it's a phrase with a space it may need to be in quotes? like "mb mp3 sections" for example, in the html, and in the stylesheet then put .mb mp3 sections, or ."mb mp3 sections" I'll have to test that....but probably better off not using spaces I guess.


Is .myClass called a "stylesheet selector" ? If so, I guess because we can use them to select what elements in the html that we want to affect with them.

Now to experiment with this.

Thanks so much dr john.

[charlescooke]

Frew.
Checkout some of the basics of CSS. You will soon get it.
Try http://www.charlescooke.me.uk/web/uga_css.html

[frew]

Fantastic!

Thank you.

I'll let you know how it goes. I'm studying it daily now.

[frew]

When you get a chance, please check this css setup to see if it looks like I'm on the right track.

http://www.geocities.com/frewsax/MyWebsite/html/DrumSections.html
(and some of it's related pages)

It's stylesheet is here:
http://www.geocities.com/frewsax/MyWebsite/html/style_1.css

I'm finding that the use of classes in the stylesheet and in the html helps me change specific elements in the html by using the stylesheet, rather than just using general div (without classes), etc...which tend to change too many things in the html.

Thank you.