Another suggestion is to have a fixed position for the background images so when I do my 'blingy myspace bg', it's fixed



But really, I think with a little work, there's nothing you can't do in VSD.

Scott,

I know am sounding like a broken record on the compression issue, but may I give you an example of what I am talking about, because its a problem I run into again and again that makes designing sites significantly more difficult for me.

When I use non-web standard fonts in my sites I have to put a shadow on my text so that VSD will convert it to an image (for purposes of compatibility). I normally turn the shadow down to zero because I don't actually want a shadow, I just want the text converted to an image. The problem is that the software compresses the text image too much. Here is what I mean. This is what the words "Why do I need a web site" look like when it's being displayed as TEXT (not converted to an image):

http://www.brcnews.com/CC-text-1.jpg

It's clean, clear, crisp, and it's actually RED!

Now here is the same text after it has been converted to an image:

http://www.brcnews.com/CC-text-2.jpg

Look at it! The crisp, bright red is no longer crisp bright red. It's fuzzy and yucky. Maybe I am just a perfectionist, but the second image looks very different to me than the first one. This is why, when I do my web sites, I have been having to recreate all text using non-standard fonts in photoshop and place into VSD as a graphic. Because Photoshop lets me control the amount of compression that is applied to the text. I can work with it until it looks good. The end result looks stunning online! But it takes way too much time.

Another reason I find myself having to create text in photoshop is that VSD doesn't offer half-sizes for fonts. Often times the size that the font needs to be in order to fit perfectly into the space that I have allocated for it requires the text size to be just slightly smaller or larger, and VSD won't lemme do that.

Of course I am very well versed in many of Adobe's products such as Photoshop and InDesign, and those softwares not only give you ZILLIONS of font sizes, but let you adjust the width and length of the letters one pixel at a time, and even the spaces between the letters one pixel at a time. I am not asking that VSD go quite that far, just that you offer half sizes for text please.

I apologize for asking, as I know that these things cannot always follow strict timelines, but is there a vague notion of when the transparent mouseover issue will be fixed (even just a "6.07" quickie)?

I have a whole site on hold pending this fix, and knowing generally if it's a short-term fix or a long-term fix would help me know how to proceed.

Thanks for your help, and for designing such a great product.

--Dave

You can use the HTML tool till they get this fixed.
The HTML code is....



The above does a mouseover of PNG-01.png and PNG-02.png . Just add these files. The names can be changed as well.

You can also change the width and height from "ExactFit" to 200x200 if both your pngs are 200x200. You then can also change the 200 to 100 for half size or to 400 for double size. The 200x200 picture will scale any way you like, but the png size will be the same. The png files should be the same size rectangle wise. The non-transparent areas can be different. The rectangle size could be 200x300 as it does not have to be square.

You will have to edit the HTML for both PNG image names in 3 places.
You will also need to change the web page being called.
Also change the width and height on the object properties to match your png size.

Jay

To add a second png mouseover us the same code with changes as below.




Adding a third changing all the '*Rollover2' portion to '*Rollover3' and so on.
Change 'IMG id="rollimg2 to IMG id="rollimg3

Jay

Thanks for the workaround. (So much for effortless WYSIWYG simplicity, though--I guess sometimes you just have to open the hood, grab a wrench, and get your hands dirty.)

--Dave

I second that.

Excellent idea Colin!

Chad mentioned this back in August, but I want to bring it up again. Once your website gets over 20 pages or so, it becomes very time-consuming to just go in and edit one page.

Here is Chad's request, and I think it *IS* a big deal
7-This one isn't as big a deal as the other issues that I brought up, like text wrap, but some users might like the ability to upload one page at a time, rather than having to upload the entire site each and every time a change is made. The larger someones site is, the more important this becomes. I know that VSD only uploads HTML pages and files that have changed, so that helps, but if someone wanted to re-sync only a certain page of their web site, it would save a lot of time not to have to wait for the entire thing.

Clearly this is a big time saver, and if "issues" develop, the entire site could still be re-synced.

Another issue with taking so long to upload, is that upload speeds vary a lot during certain hours, and VSD seems to get "impatient" if the upload slows down or stops temporarily; it then gives and error message and shuts down, and you lose your changes unless you saved before uploading, which is ANOTHER long process.

It is possible to use frames or CCS when creating a website in VSD?

2 suggestions:
1) I know you've heard this before: please, PLEASE, please JUSTIFY TEXT.

2) It would be great to have measurement down the length of a page to know how many pixels to make a particular page. Right now, I make a page much longer than I think it needs to be, and then have to guess (and guess and guess), at the length setting so that my footer will be right at the bottom of the page.