viewing new design

[caroline]

Hi

I have been playing with the design of my site and saved it as a copy (so as not to upload the unfinished product) but i can't view it. when i click the actinic icon (on desktop) it goes to my live site and there i cant find an option to view my other saved site in the menu.

does this make any sense

am i being a div??

caroline

[RuralWeb]

Use the page preview button or upload to your inbuilt test site

[caroline]

sorry i dont understand...

i already have a live site

how do i create a test site aswell? and how do i view it?

[RuralWeb]

Web - swith to test site and upload. Get the URL to view from the network settings.

[NormanRouxel]

and saved it as a copy Actinic doesn't have a "Save As.." capability so you'll have to explain better what you mean.

If you've made changes and want to see how they look without touching your live site then simply do Web / Offline Preview.

[caroline]

i made some changes to my live site and rather than uploading the changes i saved it as a copy. but i can't figure out how i can view and continue to work on the new site.

maybe i cant but my logic says i should be able to.

[RuralWeb]

i saved it as a copy
As norm says - how did you do that as Actinic does not let you do it

[caroline]

do'you know i really cant remember !!!!!!!!!

how bizarre!!!

So how on earth do i design a new site, or can't i?

[guccij]

You have to upgrade and license a new site ...

[jont]

You can open the templates (the HTML files) and "save as" in notepad or Dreamweaver to create a new template which you can then change. Once changed you can create a new section and tell it to use the newly created layout.

Alternatively you can duplicate say the Act_Primary.html in windows explorer (to keep the original) and then work on the Act_Primary.html to make the changes and see what it looks like. If it goes wrong delete the template and reinstate the copy you made just before. So long as you don't upload until ready then you should be OK ... remember to just take loats of copies of everything before editing away.

[leehack]

Is this 'bizarre post' weekend or something?

[jont]

Must be the cold weather slowing everyone down!

[NormanRouxel]

If you have only one site license, then the best way to tinker with a completely new design would be to install Actinic onto a different PC, copy your new site onto that and tinker there.

Fiddling with the design on a live system is asking for trouble.

If you haven't got a spare PC, then a £250 XP Netbook will run Actinic fine.

[caroline]

Thanks for your advice.

[caroline]

Is this 'bizarre post' weekend or something?

i see you work with this programme all the time, i don't, and so what may seem obvious to you dosn't seem as simple to the occasional user.

i think this forum is great as i can ask the daftest of questions and you can't see me blushing at the stupidity of them.

[leehack]

I don't think remembering what you did is an Actinic issue, or even one of Actinic experience to be honest. It's most likely something far closer to home :D.

[RuralWeb]

You can certainly ask as many daft questions as you like but will anyone bother to answer them any more. You only get so many bites of the cherry.

[simonwar]

Ask away, there are still relatively average users on this forum, I mean myself in that category, admittedly not as much as I use to be, which may be able to help.

I'd go for Jonty's idea - but you would benefit from having Dreamweaver or a similar authoring package to make any significant template changes, and create a Test Section, at the end of your Content Tree, (better at the end not to upset any layouts or multi-column pages etc).

If you don't want your Test Section to display on your catalogue page, while trying it out, set the Section Link Layout in the Layout tab of your Section Detail to Image Only - no text shown and use an image that you have created that is the same colour as your background, smaller the better, e.g. could be white so create an all white image approx 5x5px.

Then no one will see it, even though it is actually there. You can either remember the URL, (Layout > Page Name), and enter straight into the browser to access the page, although it wouldn't be too hard for you, the author to work out where the so called invisible link is, as your pointer will turn into a hand as you pass over the invisilbe dot.

Actinic should stop you messing your Live Site up when you try and upload, however I take no responsibility for any mods to templates you undertake yourself - that said thats how I learned.

One thing you may wish to consider is as your on V7 like me and possibly thinking of upgrading some day - don't over do template modification unless your happy with the fact that an upgrade may not be as seamless as you'd hope.

Happy testing, S.

[RuralWeb]

but you would benefit from having Dreamweaver or a similar authoring package to make any significant template changes
Forget that as it would be far cheaper to upgrade to V9 and use the inbuilt design feature that really make Dreamweaver a thing of the past for most changes.

[Duncan Rounding]

Agreed I only use Dreamweaver to create the outer layouts, from then on it's all done within Actinic. TBH - I only use DW at all because it will integrate the Actinic 'basic bits' easily and registers the design - if it weren't for that I would use Notepad++ and Topstyle instead.

[leehack]

I use DW mainly for the outer layout too, but I continue to use it for my own CSS file also as the editor in actinic is non existent in this area. Any actinic layout changes I do within Actinic and never use the open in DW option, i'm not sure why anyone would ever do that to be honest.

V7 + Dreamweaver or V9 on its own, it's not even a close contest though. V7 is so lacking nowadays, it's like using Windows 98.

Forget any dreams of upgrading to V9 from V7 though, start afresh 100% of the time IMO, there is simply too much crap and terrible code brought forward with it otherwise.

[caroline]

okay i've taken on board what you have all said and so for the time being in am going to stick with v7. i'm not sure we need to go to the expence of upgrading if not necessary.

i have changed the layout of my site and am really happy with ot so far (please feel free to comment)

http://www.alpacaknitwear.co.uk/acatalog/index.html

however, (daft question time!!!) there are 2 boxes one on the left and one on the right (emtpy at the moment). can anyone tell me what these are generally used for. i am wanting to put something about taking secure payment, with some credit card graphics, any tips on that??

Also is there any way of doing a free delivery if under a specified price or can you only do over?

look forward to hearing from you (i think)

Caroline

[gabrielcrowe]

meine Augen! die Brille sie nichts!

[guccij]

Schwarz ist soooooo letztes Jahr....