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RWD Information Sidebar Tab (Content Sub-tab)
The Information Sidebar is a very helpful feature of the Rapid Web Designer. Information Sidebar can be used on some pages only, or they can be a part of every page. Generally, they function in much the same fashion as Navigation Sidebar links, except that the Information Sidebar allows each link to have a short 'story' attached to it. Great for news items, special announcements, etc. The information Sidebar further expands the flexibility of RWD.
1) Information Sidebar – Broadcast Behavior
The functionality of the Broadcast control for the Information Sidebar links is identical to that of the Header/Footer Links Bars and the Navigation Sidebar although each may be set independently.
Unlike the Header/Footer Links bars, new links in the Information Sidebar appear below each other which means that the RWDe Administrator can add certain links to all pages in a site without fear of causing the links to appear too crowded (remember that new links on the Header Links bar appear beside each other and the width of the web page is not flexible, running the risk of having links crowd into each other). HOWEVER, because Information Sidebar items tend to be much longer than Navigation Sidebar links (because they contain short stories and are not just one-line links), make sure not to put more than one or two Information Sidebar items on a page. If you have too many of these items on a page, most of the items will be hidden below the bottom of the browser window and the user will have to scroll down
the page to read the other items. RWDe Administrators should be very careful of broadcasting Information Sidebar items to all sites if the local RWD builders have the ability to add their own items.
2) Information Sidebar - Add, Remove, Insert Rows
These buttons allow you to manage the links that will appear in this section.
Add New Row: Creates a blank row after the last existing row
Remove Selected Row: Deletes the rows that is currently selected
Insert New Row: Creates a new row above the currently selected row. To Insert a row, click in the row below where you want the inserted row to appear and then click on the Insert New Row button.
Note: It may appear that the feature is functioning properly at when you insert rows at first but once you click into the other rows or close the RWD form and re-open it, the rows will appear properly.
3) Information Sidebar – Display Title Text
A very short, catchy title can make your Information item stand out and grab a web visitor's attention. Try to keep the title short however as text will wrap if too many words are used. Long words with no spaces will force the Info Sidebar to widen to fit the text.
In RWD, you can insert images that have been uploaded to your website right into the body of this section by using a special tag:
[img=image path/filename]
Eg. To insert a picture called myhouse.jpg that had been uploaded into an images folder called ‘siteimages' into the section you would choose the location in the body of the text where you want the image to appear and insert the following syntax (including the square brackets):
[img=/siteimages/myhouse.jpg]
You can use most image file formats, including animated .gif files to create interesting effects.
4) Information Sidebar – Body Content
The story in the Info Sidebar item can be reasonably lengthy however, if it is longer than 20-30 words (based on your layout and other factors), it is best to create a new RWD page that goes into more detail about your story and use the Content field here to give a brief synopsis of the new page.
Again, In RWD 2, you can insert images that have been uploaded to your website right into the body of this section by using a special tag:
[img=image path/filename] (see section 2 above for an example)
5) Information Sidebar – Link Display Text
If you are creating a link from your Info Sidebar item, type the text that you want the web user to see.
As in the other sections, you can insert images that have been uploaded to your website right into the body of this section by using a special tag:
[img=image path/filename] (see section 2 above for an example)
6) Information Sidebar – Link URL
The same rules apply as in all other links in RWD. Enter the location that you want the link to go to.
7) Information Sidebar – Link Opening Behavior
Decide if the link will cause a new browser window to open when the link is activated or if the new page will replace the existing page.
RWD Information Sidebar Tab (Modify Colors and Fonts Sub-tab)
1) Information Sidebar – Section Background Color
The Information Sidebar can be formatted to have a different background than the rest of the web page if desired. Set the background color by selecting it from the color selection list.
2) Information Sidebar – Section Background Color Image
A tiled image can also serve as the background for the Information Sidebar. As always, the image must be uploaded to the images folder and correctly pathed. Remember that the RWDe Administrator needs to put the slash (/) character in front of the images folder name so that the local pages will look for the root images folder, not the local user's images folder.
3) Transparent
This field sets the Information Sidebar as transparent so that any text or graphics in the object will be displayed against the global background color or the background image. When the transparent feature is enabled, the background colors in the following sections (6-8) have no effect.
4) Width
In past versions of RWD, you could only set the width of the Information Sidebar by using an image in the content area or by using an underscore or other contiguous string of characters to 'push' the Info Sidebar open. This field allows you to set the width of the Information Sidebar to a specific width in pixels.
5) Use Border
This field adds or removes the Information Sidebar border. When the border is removed, the padding of the Information Sidebar is set to zero which means it will butt up against the lowest object in the Header Section above.
6) Information Sidebar Title Format Settings
The Information Sidebar item Title can be formatted independently from the content or body section of the item.
7) Sidebar Body Content Format Settings
The story section (the content or body of the Information Sidebar item) can be formatted differently than the title. One point to note is that the font size should not be too big in this section as the story will tend to grow the item rapidly (vertically) if the font is too big.
8) Sidebar Link Display Format Settings
Link display text can have a larger or differently colored font from the other parts in the item.
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