Editing text content in brochure pages

[jodg]

Hello,
Am in the process of building a test web site and have come across an problem when it comes to editing text content.

I have created some brochure pages that include fragments containing text. To apply text effects I have loaded the pages (in the "SiteHTML" folder) into Dreamweaver and applied bold, headings etc.

I then save the pages and quit DW. Incidentally, I have no problem editing template pages.

When I then open the pages in Actinic Catalog (either with or without regenerating the web site), none of the text effects show. I'm probably missing an easy step somewhere, but can anyone give me a pointer?

Thanks,
Jan

[Mike Hughes]

I may have misunderstood this, but it sounds like you're editing the web pages that actinic creates.

Actinic will recreate the web pages every time and will overwrite any changes you make to the destination html files.

For changes to apply you have to make them to the templates or the content. Not the pages actinic creates.

Mike

[jodg]

Thanks for your reply Mike.

Nope, I'm still missing a trick here - bear with me.

I have several brochure pages, built up using fragments, that contain text. Since I cannot directly enter HTML tags here, how do I edit the code on each page since a generic text template (Act_TextOnly.html) is used?

Do I need to make and specify individual text templates for each brochure page?

Jan

[jont]

Jan - you can enter the HTML code direct into the fragment text just surround the custom code with !!< ... you code .... >!! and that will tell Actinic it is HTML code and not plain text eg:

!!<<a href".....</a>>!!

!!<<b>BOLD TEXT</b>>!!

etc

[Mike Hughes]

Actinic isn't set up to allow you to directly edit code on pages. Only the underlying content or templates.

Probably the easiest way to do what you want is to create a fragment template that calls an HTML file of the content you want to display.

You can do this by placing CUSTOMVAR:CUSTOMHTML in the fragment template where you want the content to appear. (note: 'CUSTOMHTML' is the name of the custom variable you want to use. You can use CUSTOMHTML or anything else you want to call it).

You also have to declare the customvar under advanced>custom properties.

Then you place the fragment on the page, select the properties tag and add a line for the customvar, tell it the filename of the content to use, and tick the boxes for 'use as customvar', 'filename' and 'use file content'.

When actinic generates the page it will pick up your html and insert it into the page.

Mike

PS. This sounds complicated, but once you've done it you'll understand the process. I do this using a product template rather than a fragment (I started before fragments were introduced) but I'm fairly sure the instructions are right.

[jodg]

Olderscot, Jont,

Thanks for advising an HTML novice! The penny has dropped now.

Regards,
Jan