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Building Better Web Pages
Here’s a list of ten items that will help the beginner FLUiD CMS user create better Web pages faster.
Paste unformatted Even though it’s possible to paste directly into FLUiD CMS from Microsoft Word, as well as from the Web, it’s best to remove all the formatting first. Word documents and Web documents often have unwanted spacings, character sizes, colours, images, links, etc…that can cause problems when they’re pasted directly into FLUiD CMS. So when you paste into FLUiD CMS, use the Paste Unformatted option:
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Paste Unformatted
This will remove the images from whatever you’re pasting—use the Insert Graphics button instead to add images.
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Use the Insert Graphics button Instead of dragging and dropping, or copying and pasting, images into FLUiD CMS it’s best to click the Insert Image button and browse to the location of the image file. This means that you have to size the image properly first (using an image editing program), and then save it to a specific folder where you’re keeping all your Web-ready images.
Format your images before inserting them It’s a good idea to edit your images before bringing them into FLUiD CMS. This means re-sizing them to consistent, manageable dimensions, and saving them in an efficient file type. Consider the visitor to your Web site who has the smallest screen and the slowest computer. Images should rarely be any wider than 450 pixels; this leaves room for the Left Navigation for visitors with screens that are 800x600. Total image file size should be kept below 30 KB, and usually it’s best to keep the total file size of all the images on one page below 50 KB so that visitors with dial-up connections do not have to wait forever for your page to load.
Use the ALT key to select images with URLs When an image has a hyperlink on it you need to hold down the ‘Alt’ key on your keyboard when you click on that image in the Editing Pane of the FLUiD CMS Workspace.
Use zero-thickness tables to lay out your Web site content Tables allow you to control how your content is displayed regardless visitors’ screen size. You can rightclick within a table, choose Table from the drop-down menu, and set the Border Thickness to ‘None’. Invisible tables are also useful for placing captions beneath images—simply make a one-column, two-row table with zero-thickness. Insert the image in one cell, and enter a caption into the other cell. You can then use the Stylist to make the caption text smaller than the body text.
Use the Stylist A Web site with consistent fonts, colours, and text sizes will have a more professional appearance than a site with no clear theme. The easiest way to accomplish this with FLUiD CMS is to use the Stylist feature. It enables you to determine (in the Design File, Text Styles tab) the settings for your different text styles, and then apply them uniformly throughout your Web site.
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Use the Stylist
To use it, highlight the text you want to alter, then choose the text style from the Stylist.If you want to undo a text style change, choose “[none]” from the list, or rightclick on a selection and choose Default from the drop-down menu.
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Use the Default option If you find that you can’t change the font the way you would like, or if you’re having a hard time editing a hyperlink, sometimes it’s best to start fresh by returning to the default setting. To do this, simply highlight the text to be changed, rightclick on it, and choose Default from the drop-down menu. From there you can try again to apply the desired formatting or hyperlink.
Rename a specific Folder If for some reason you find that changes you are making are not being expressed to the Web when you publish, try renaming the Folder that contains the change, even if it means just adding an extra space between words, and then removing this space. When you Publish now the system will recognize a change to that Folder and will republish its contents. Sometimes, if you have done a large amount of editing, it may be necessary to publish the entire site using the Full Publish feature, rather than just publishing recent changes.
Be aware of your RAM and CPU use If you have large programs, such as Photoshop, running at the same time as FLUiD CMS, and if you have a small CPU and limited RAM on your computer, then it may cause FLUiD CMS to slow down and take a lot longer to open Files.
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Watch your RAM and CPU levels
This is probably because the RAM (Random Access Memory) and available CPU (the processor) of your computer is getting overloaded. You can check your computer’s memory and processor use levels by pressing CTRL+ALT+DELETE at the same time on your keyboard, and going to the Task Manager. Click on the Performance tab, and take a look at the level.
If the bars at the left are near the top then you need to free up some RAM by closing some unneeded programs. Your computer may have a low level of RAM and this can be used up quickly, even with only a few programs running.
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Create blank Folders If you’re building a new Web site sometimes it saves time to create a Folder with a single blank Content File within it, and then copy and paste this blank Folder as desired. You can then rename each of the copies, and add their unique content. This is faster than creating every new Folder individually and then creating within them a new File each time. Also you can preset some options, such as Link to Full Document, in the blank File so that you don’t have to set it in each individual File.
Check back later at www.feedstream.com for more tips. If you’re looking for general help with FLUiD CMS, go to the FLUiD CMS Online Help site, or spend some time going through the FLUiD CMS Online Tutorial.
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Download this Report
FLUiD CMS Quick Tips (PDF)
FLUiD CMS Quick Tips (DOC)
NOTE To view the PDF version you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.
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