Web Designer MX Questions Part 3
Solution
How do I install the program templates after purchasing the program?
The Designs Gallery has had an overhaul to the way in which templates in the Designs Gallery are delivered to you, making it easier for you to get the templates after you have unlocked the program.
After you have installed and unlocked the trial version of Web Designer, the Designs Gallery will update and the content is immediately available to open without further installation by either double clicking a thumbnail in the Designs Gallery, or drag and drop the template into your open document.
What do the different coloured folders mean?
Red icons
When the program is being run in trial mode, before it's been unlocked with your serial number, most of the folders in the Designs Gallery will have a red icon. This means that this content is inaccessible until you have unlocked the program.
Blue icons
After the program has been unlocked with your purchased serial number, the folder icons will change to blue. This shows what content is available to be opened immediately.
Green icons
Within the Designs Gallery you can add folders from your local hard drive to the list so you can easily access your own files within the program. This is done by using the Disc Designs button at the top of the Designs Gallery. Once you add your own folders to the list, these are shown in green.
How do I install the Template Packs and Widgets Pack?
The Template, widget and web packs are dynamically added to the Designs Gallery. The folders will appear at the bottom of your Design Gallery.
I use a computer disconnected from the internet, how do I access the templates?
If the computer that you use Web Designer MX on is not connected to the internet you will need to purchase a backup CD for the product and you'll need to install the program from that once you receive the disk.
If you have already purchased the product without a backup CD then please contact our Sales team by signing into our Support site and select 'Sales'.
Where are the templates stored within the Designs Gallery?
As part of the improvements to the Designs Gallery, the folder structure has been updated to improve the organisation of sub-folders.
Website template themes and Presentation themes are still stored on the top level folders as well as Animated GIF Banners and Flash Animations.
Under Page Elements you will find all of the widgets, text panels, photo objects and galleries and these have been organised into categorical sub-folders.
Both flavours of Web Designer MX also include a Clipart folder. The contents of this folder has been increased in this version to include some of the templates that were previously only provided in Photo & Graphic Designer and Designer Pro, as well as all new clipart being added.
I have installed Web Designer but the Designs Gallery is empty
The most common reason for this to happen is a firewall is blocking access to the internet from Web Designer.
Close Web Designer, then disable your firewall temporarily and then open Web Designer.
If after doing that the Designs Gallery is then populated with folders you need to go back and re-enable your firewall and create a rule within it to allow Web Designer access to the internet. Consult the Help file within your firewall software for configuration options.
How do I select multiple pages?
There are two ways within the Page & Layer Gallery to select multiple pages at once. First start of by viewing the Page & Layer Gallery in Pages view by clicking the Pages button at the top of the Page & Layer Gallery, this will make it easier to select multiple pages.
Holding down the Ctrl key then clicking the page thumbnails will allow individual pages be selected, so for example pages 1, 4, 6 and 8 could be highlighted.
By holding down the Shift key then selecting a page will highlight a block, or a range of pages. For example if you are on page 1 at the moment and hold Shift then click on page 4, pages 1, 2, 3 and 4 will all be selected.
How do I cut or copy multiple pages?
This will cut/copy the pages and add them onto the Windows clipboard, allowing them to be pasted into another Web Designer document, or elsewhere in the current document.
To cut or copy multiple pages either right click on a highlighted page and select it from the menu. The Edit menu also displays these options and this also respond to the standard cut and copy keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl + X to cut, and Ctrl + C to copy).
How do I duplicate multiple pages?
After you have multiple pages right click on a highlighted page and select Duplicate. A duplicate of each page will be inserted below the highlighted page.
How do I re-order multiple pages?
Select multiple pages in the Page & Layer Gallery hold down the left mouse button and drag the pages in the Page & Layer Gallery to where you want them situated.
As you drag the pages the mouse cursor will update to indicate where the pages will be dropped.
How do I delete multiple pages?
Multiple pages can be deleted by right clicking on a highlighted page and select Delete Pages. Pressing the Delete key on the keyboard will also perform the same function.
In addition to this, if no objects are selected on the page pressing the Delete key will display an option to delete the current (single) page.
For advanced users, if multiple pages are selected pressing Shift + Delete will delete the highlighted pages without displaying a notification.
Performing an Undo will undo these changes if you delete a page by accident.
How do I change the page transition applied to multiple pages?
After multiple pages have been selected, right click on a highlighted page and select Web Page Properties. From the Transitions Effect option choose the transition that you want applied to all of the selected pages and set the transition speed then click OK.
Dragging objects between groups - Premium only
This applies to Web Designer MX Premium only.
It is now possible within the Page & Layer Gallery to drag individual objects from within a group and move them into other groups or remove them from a group completely, as well as add individual objects to an existing group.
To do this, expand the Page & Layer Gallery by clicking the arrow next to the page thumbnail, expand the layer and find the group you want to edit (you can also select the object on the page and click Locate at the top of the Page & Layer Gallery).
Drill down into the group so you can see the individual objects within it, then with the left mouse button drag an object and drop it outside of the group sub-branch. This object is now no longer part of that group and is an individual object on the page. Similarly you can drag an individual object into an existing group following the same method.
There are certain objects that due to their type are expemt from this behaviour and cannot be dragged into or out of a group. These include objects that are part of:
a shadow group
a photo group
a soft group
a multi layered soft group (this includes buttons, nav bars and photo popup objects)
How do I lock all but one object on a page?
There have been improvements to the usablity of locking all objects on the page, in particular how to lock all but one (or more) object on the page. It is now very easy to keep a single object on the page unlocked while all other objects on the page are in a locked state.
For this example I shall open a new single page template document from the Designs Gallery - Website Theme Templates > Free Examples > Page 1 (double click on thumbnail to open the document).
Select all objects on the page by pressing Ctrl + A.
Right click on a selected object and click Lock objects
Open the Page & Layer Gallery
Click the All layers/objects editable button - the icon with 3 open padlocks
Right click on the photo object on the left of the page and select Unlock objects (Soft Group)
In the Page & Layer Gallery unselect the All layers/objects editable button
The photo object on the page is now selectable and it can be edited in the normal way
All other objects on the page are locked, and this can be seen by expanding the MouseOff layer in the Page & Layer Gallery to view the objects within it.
Where can I find the new widgets?
The new widgets are in the Designs Gallery within the Page Elements folder and then split into their categories. For example, photo slideshow widgets are in the Photos > Photo Slideshows sub folder.
Have any improvements been made to widgets?
Resizable widgets In previous versions of Web Designer, Flash widgets could be resized to be any size on the page, but DHTML or Javascript Widgets were fixed size. In MX the majority of the widgets are now resizeable Javascript widgets (excluding Easy Accordian and Display my Tweets). These have the advantage over Adobe Flash based Widgets in that they are compatible with all modern devices including iPhone, iPads and Windows Phone 7, and do not require a Flash plug-in.
You can now resize these widgets to any size you require on the page and Web Designer automatically optimizes any images to be right for the website.
Linking to other pages When linking to other pages of your website from within a Widget editor, we now present a list of all pages within the Web Properties dialog, so making it very easy to link to any page in your website from within a Widget.
Previewing widgets Widgets can now be previewed from within the widget editing document, so you can preview your changes befoer applying them back to your website document.
What new widgets are included in MX?
All of the widgets mentioned are provided in Web Designer MX Premium and a small selection are also provided with Web Designer MX.
There are some new photo gallery, photo slideshow and content slideshow widgets and a whole new section containing chart widgets.
The chart widgets use CSV data to populate the charts. You can paste your own CSV data into the widget editing document, or type the vlaues in manually. They also provide some interactivity, for example clicking on the key names when you preview the widget will cause the chart to redraw and exclude those values. Click the key name again to redraw the chart to re-include them.
How do I edit a widget?
A widget can be edited by either double clicking on the widget placeholder, or single click on the widget to open the link dialog box and then click Edit. For more information on the link dialog box click here INSERT LINK.
What features are supported by the widget?
Each widget provides support for their own specific options. Read the instructions at the top of each widget editing document for what options that widget supports.
Where can I view license information about the widgets?
License information is available from here
How do I retrieve the Content Pack?
The Content Pack is accessible from the Program Help Menu once you have activated the program. Select Help followed by
Download content installer. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation.
Note: The Content pack allows for the installation of the program fills and language files used by the spell checker utility. All remaining content
is automatically downloaded by the Designs Gallery
What is the Share menu for?
The share menu includes various facilities for sharing the currently selected image with other MAGIX
and third party services. So for example you can select a photo on your page and quickly send it to a MAGIX Online Album,
to Facebook, or to Flickr. If you have other compatible MAGIX programs installed,
you can also send the image to those. For example you can send to MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX to include an image from Designer in a movie.
Please view the program help file for more information.
How has incremental publishing changed in MX?
Incremental publishing ensures only files changed since your last publish are uploaded when republishing. The option is
enabled by default and can be controlled from the Publish tab of the Web Properties dialog. The checkbox is lablled Re-publish changed files only .
Prior to MX, a restriction in incremental publishing required you to ensure your website is exported to the same local folder
which was selected during the subsequent publish. If a different local folder was selected then the entire site would be published.
This restriction has now been removed ensuring incremental publishing works even after exporting your site to a different local folder.
Can my navbar be set to match my page order?
MX introduces a new option from within the Navigation Bar Properties dialog named Button order matches page order.
This option is enabled by default for website and presentation documents and makes the Navbar button order match the the page order in the document.
If you re-order pages in the Page and Layer Gallery this also results in the Navbar being similarly re-ordered.
This is mainly useful for Navbars in presentation websites, where the linear ordering of the pages is important
and you want the buttons in your bar to be in the same order as the pages in your presentation. Likewise its also useful for
small websites.
Are there any Photo related changes introduced in Web Designer MX?
Adjusting Hue Value: Photo Enhance Tool now includes a tool for adjusting the hue on a photo. Any color can be selected and the strength of the hue adjustment controlled.
Optimise all images: A new Optimize all images function will scan all graphics and images in your document and convert them to the optimum size and optimum image type (JPG or PNG). This can substantially reduce memory use and .web file sizes. This is a destructive operation and will remove hidden parts of cropped image, and reduce the resolution of all images to screen res (96dpi) which is best for websites. It’s smart in that images with larger pop-ups are optimized to the pop-up size, not the thumb.
Updated Panorama tool: Panorama tool now takes up to 8 photos (instead of 6) and has improved performance.
Create bitmap copy: The option is available when clicking on a bitmap with your right mouse button. Create bitmap copy now included in Premium - allows a bitmap copy of any selection to be made directly, without the need to export it and import it.
Why do I have to click buttons twice when viewing my website on a iOS devices (iPhone, iPad etc)?
iOS devices (iPhone, iPad etc) have no concept of a mouse pointer or mouse-over. Therefore sites exported with versions prior to MX
required the site visitor to click on a button once to see the mouse over and a second time to invoke the link. This his has been changed in MX so that the first tap will
always follow the link.
Can I import SVG files?
Support for the import of SVG files has been included in MX. Note that there is no industry agreement or industry standard
for SVG format, (for example different web browser support different sets of features). But this will
import most SVG artwork files.
Can I import ODP and PPTX files?
Support for the import of Open Document Presentation (ODP) and Powerpoint (PPTX) files has been included in MX.
Can graphics be embedded into text in MX?
Version 7 introduced the ability to anchor graphics to specific locations in text so that the graphic moves with the text. Web
Designer 8 also allows inline graphics to be embedded in text, using a simple Paste operation (while in the Text Tool).
Graphics embedded as text are treated like a 'character' and therefore flow and follow the same formatting rules as a character embedded in the text.
When should I embed text rather than anchoring text?
We would recommend anchored objects If you need to have objects which move with the text but are positioned outside the margin of the text. Inline
Graphics are recommended for all cases where graphics are required in a text story. Inline graphics are a higher performance solution where you have many graphics on the page.
Are Live Effects included in MX?
Web Designer MX Premium includes the Live Effects tool. Prior to version MX, the tool was not available in Web Designer. The Live
Effects tool allows Photoshop plug-in effects to be applied to both photos and vector graphics, opening up a huge range
of special graphical effects. What’s more we have included more than 40 plug-ins from MAGIX and Xara,
from bumpmap and emboss to painting and blur.
Can I resize the color editor?
The Color editor is now resizable in MX. Just drag the lower right corner to resize. This is particularly useful when editing very pale shades of a colour in the top right area of the color picker.
Are there any new shortcuts introduced with MX?
Delete page - Delete Key
Move Page Up - Page Up Key
Move Page Down - Page down Key
Push Margins dialog - Ctrl+Shift+H
Toggle Push attribute on selection - Ctrl+H
Preview website - F5
Preview current web page - Shift+F5
Is there any hosting included with Web Designer? Do I also get a free domain name?
Your copy of Web Designer includes a free domain for 12 months. Instructions on how to claim your free domain here .
Information on the free MAGIX Online World hosting offer is available from here .
Are there any other improvements in MX?
Images that are created during the export process from objects that include text, now have that text set as ‘Alt’ text on the image. Please view the following article for information on ALT text Title text and the changes introduced in MX
Article Details
Created On: 27 Mar 2012 04:05 PM
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