Last week I told you about the change to the default Font Size
format. Instead of using Point Size all three IMS programs will
now use Pixel Size as their default. The significance of this
relates to the page layout when viewed by different Browsers or
computers with different Font Size settings. The article is posted
at issue37top3.htm for those of you that did not have a chance to read it.
In addition to this relatively significant update, several other
updates have been included.
A modification that is closely related to the Font Size change is
Netscape's use of the Increase Font and Decrease Font
operations in the View menu. While this capability works well
with simple web sites, it can play havoc with Cascading Style
Sheets. You can view an example of this problem at is4fig2.htm.
If you have Netscape you can try pressing Ctrl ] and Ctrl [ to
change the font size. Then visit http://www.imswebtips.com
and try the same thing. You will need to Reload the page after
each change but the page layout should remain valid.
I know some of you have been waiting for quite a while for this
fix. Using pixel size fonts provided us with a solution.
Another update in this release will parse Object and Geometry
names. If you have ever looked at the HTML output from IMS
(use the View Source menu in your Browser when Previewing
or looking at an IMS generated page) you will see that it
includes extensive use of <DIV> and <SPAN> tags. These tags
are identified by a unique name or id that the program gives to
your Objects when you create them. Advanced operations such
as Animation and Behaviors, can identify the Object through its
name and modify it by using JavaScript and CSS.
These names can be changed by the user in the Object and
Geometry dialogs or on the Object toolbar in Web Engine. The
advantage for the user is that the name can be changed to
something more meaningful and easily identifiable. The
disadvantage is that the use of an invalid character such as a
space, &*#@<> etc., can cause major problems with the
Browser, especially Netscape.
A fairly common tech support question relates to scripting errors
or projects that work with Internet Explorer but not with
Netscape. These errors can often be traced to the use of an
invalid character. The new update will now parse the name to
ensure that only standard alphanumeric characters are entered.
Object names as well as the Page name can be changed in the
Object and Page editors in Web Engine and Web Spinner. A
more convenient place to change them is on the Object and Page
toolbars. In Web Dwarf, the page Toolbar is in fact the only
place you can change these names. Previously the edit box only
permitted a maximum of 6 to 8 characters to be entered. The
new update will permit up to 48 characters to be entered for the
page name and 10 characters for Object names.
While on this topic, if the name you enter into the Edit Box
seems to be ignored, try clicking anyplace in the work window
after entering the new name. This will force the program to
immediately update the data base. In addition, selecting an
Object from the drop boxes will now work correctly. Previously,
the selection would revert back to the previous selected Object if
you tried to perform an operation on it.
One bug has been identified and corrected. This relates to
copying and pasting a temporary Group. A temporary Group
Object can be created by dragging a bounding box around two or
more Objects. If this temporary Group was then copied and
pasted it would cause the program to abort.
Finally, we have found an apparent discrepancy in Rich Text
created on some Windows 2000 systems. Apparently Rich Text
created in Windows 2000 will use a different numbering scheme
for color table references than Win95/Win98 and WinNT. We
are not yet clear why this discrepancy exists but we have added
code to compensate for it. If you experience any Rich Text
problems under any operating system, please let us know.
As you know, we are working on Version 2 with many new
features and upgrades. As is often the case, timetables don't
match reality. We are still hoping to have a Beta available within
the next few weeks baring any more major distractions. I will
keep you posted. Object and Page names greater than 10
characters can now be entered into the Drop Boxes
on the Page and Object toolbars.
"IMS Web Tips" is a weekly news letter for all web site managers regardless of experience who are looking for detailed information on creating, maintaining and promoting their web sites.
