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Page View - What is it? You might have a great company, you may have spent weeks
building a creative site structure and you may even have a load of content to put on your pages. But, when all is said and done "seeing is still believing." Success will be through the eyes of
your viewers. I remember a past Cosby show, in which he explained that you could have the most delicious meal ever made - but, if it is served to you on a garbage can lid... well, you get my point.
Presentation is very important and what you put on your pages is going to determine whether or not people are going to view your pages and/or return for another look.
Page view is your key to creating a great looking, as well as a content-rich, page for your visitors. You don't have to be an expert web designer to make a great looking page, Fusion does
most of the work for you. Even if you've never designed a site before, Fusion helps you follow some basic design concepts and be well on your way to pleasing everyone (well, most
everyone) that visits your site. NetObjects Fusion will help you structure pages more logically and cleanly, and ensures that navigation is consistent, etc. For some basic do's and don'ts - click here: For a plethora of
design information, visit the eFuse Design page.Okay, let's take a look at Page view. To get there, click on the Page button located on the control bar. You can do this from
any other view. 
When you do that (click on the Page button), NetObjects
Fusion will then open into Page view and you will see something along the lines of what you see below.
Page view is your key to adding content to your pages. Outside of this section (Page View - What is it?), I have broken up the basics of Page view into 3 additional parts:
1.
The Page - Layouts and MasterBorders
2. The Palettes - Properties and Object Tree
3. The Tools - Text, Graphics, Forms and moreBefore we get into those, let's learn how to navigate through our pages. Moving to different pages
There are two simple ways to move between your pages in Page view: the Navigation Buttons and the Site Navigation Window.
You can also use the Go To button on the Control Bar. For information on the Control Bar, see Fusion Basics.
1. Navigation Buttons
The page navigation buttons are located at the bottom of your NetObjects Fusion window.
Each triangle or arrow button will take you to a different page
as explained below: Up - will take you to the parent page
Down - will take you to the child page
Left - will take you to the previous page (same level)
Right
- will take you to the Next page (same level)
If you like using the keyboard, you can hold down the Ctrl key and use the arrow keys to navigate through your pages.2. Site Navigation Window
Just to the right of the Page Navigation button, is the Site navigation button. 
By clicking on this button, you will open the Site Navigation Window. 
This window will show all the pages on your site. To show the
child pages, just click on the plus symbol next to the page. To hide the child pages, click on the minus symbol next to the page. To go to a page, double click the page you want to open.
Isn't this exciting?
The Page
A NetObjects Fusion page is made of two parts, the Layout and
the MasterBorder. The MasterBorder is the area marked in yellow, can you guess what area is the Layout?
The size of your page is defined by the combination of both the MasterBorder and the Layout. The default size for a blank
site is 600x555 pixels. A pixel is not a fairy creature - The image you see on your computer screen is made up of thousands of tiny dots and each one of those dots is a pixel.
Using pixels allows each monitor (regardless of size) to use the same unit of measurement - a pixel. You can change the default page size (number of pixels) by going to Edit>P
references>Page tab and editing the Default Page Size. Layout The Layout is the body of the page. In it, you will place all of the relevant content for that particular page. This means you
will add the text, graphics, forms etc. into your Layout. Each Page, Body or Layout on your site will be unique and thus, require its own text, graphics and whatever else you need to add. MasterBorder Since the Layout is the body, the MasterBorder must be the
clothing. We can't have a bunch of naked pages running around our site. No streaking, just tweaking in this view. The MasterBorder surrounds your layout, much like that of the margins on a word processing program.
You will also notice that the Banner is placed in the top MasterBorder and the Navigation buttons are in the left MasterBorder as in figure 2. You control the look of banners and navigation buttons in Style view. To learn more about MasterBorders, refer to the Tewtorial: Master the Border. Properties palette The Properties palette is used with almost all functions of Fusion. As with any good assistant, the Properties palette will
be used to edit and adjust the settings on pretty much all the content on your page.
Unlike other palettes, the Properties palette changes according to any item you have selected. This means, it could be the Text properties, Picture properties or even Layout or
MasterBorder properties. It all depends on what you currently have selected. For details on working with Palettes click here: Palettes.
The Tools
NetObjects Fusion comes with 4 toolbars that you use in Page view. They are as follows:1. Standard toolbar
2.
Advanced toolbar
3. Component toolbar
4. Form toolbar The Standard Toolbar (see below) will be the most often used
set of tools for the building of your page. So, it will be the one I briefly cover in this section. The standard tools allow you to add such content as text and graphics, banners and navigation buttons
to your page. Since you probably want to get started with adding text and graphics, we will cover those two in this introduction. 
Since this is just an overview to help get you started, I will only explain how to add text, graphics, banners and navigation bars
in this lesson.
If your Standard Toolbar isn't currently visible, go to View>Toolbars> and select Standard Tools. Adding Text You can add text to your page by selecting the Text Tool
below: 
You then draw a small box on the page.
A text box will then appear. In the text box you can type or
paste in your text. The box will wrap to the width of the text.
In order to edit your text, you need to double click on the text box. This will bring up the text cursor and allow you to type inside the box. To further edit your text - colors, size, font
etc. - use the Text Properties palette as described below.
Text Properties
When you place a text box the Text Properties palette appears. 
If the Properties palette is not visible, go to View and select Properties Palette and then double click the text box. Using
the Text Properties palette - you can make all of the changes that will affect the text directly. If you want to edit just the text box such as add a background
color, you only need to click on it once. This will bring up another Text Properties palette for making changes to your text box. 
When placing your text box and graphics, be sure that they do not overlap. In order for this to
work using Nested Tables, you need to keep all your graphics and text boxes from overlapping. If an object does overlap, you will see this symbol:  |
Adding a graphic
You can add a graphic by selecting the Picture Tool. 
Once the Picture Tool is selected, you will then need to draw a
small box on your page where you want the graphic to be inserted. Don't worry about the size or exact location, the box will adjust to the size of the chosen graphic and you can always
move the image after it has been placed.
After you have done this, the picture file will open and you can
choose the image from a file located on your hard drive. You may also choose a previously used graphic from your Image Assets file.
When placing your text box and graphics, be sure that they do not overlap. In order for this
to work using Nested Tables, you need to keep all your graphics and text boxes from overlapping. If an object does overlap, you will see this symbol:
If you want overlapping objects you can do so, but you need to publish in CSS and Layers and not Nested Tables. |
Adding a banner
A banner is a large graphic (usually at the top of the page) that displays the name of the page. It is used as a title bar to help visitors understand where they are on your site. With the
Banner tool, you can add more banners to your page. By default, NetObjects Fusion places the page name as the text for the banner. But, you can also leave it blank or create a custom name (see Site view
Custom Names). The look (color, size and design) of the banner is chosen in Style view or by changing the
Style in the Banner Properties palette (see below). The graphic seen below is an example of a banner.
To add a banner to your page, follow these two steps: 1. Choose the Banner tool from the Standard toolbar
2. Drag a box where you want to place the banner
If you drag the box horizontally - you will create a horizontal banner. If you drag vertically - you will create a vertical
banner.
When you add your banner, the Banner Properties palette will appear. 
If the Banner Properties palette is not visible, you can right click on the banner and select Object Properties. With the Banner Properties palette, you can further edit your banner. Adding Navigation Bars
A navigation bar is a row or column of buttons or text (your choice), that is automatically linked to other pages in your site. You use the Navigation Bar tool to add navigation bars to your
pages. Here is an example of a navigation bar.
To add a new navigation bar to your page, follow these steps: 1. Choose the Navigation Bar tool from the Standard toolbar
2. Drag a box where you want to place the bar
If you drag the box horizontally - you will create a horizontal
bar. If you drag vertically - you will create a vertical bar.
By default, NetObjects Fusion uses the page names for your
navigation bar. However, you can also create a custom name (see Site view Custom Names).As with your Banner, the look (color, size and design) of the navigation bar is chosen in Style view or by changing the Button style in the Navigation Bar Properties palette. 
The Navigation Bar will show pages of the level that you select (parent, child etc.). You can change this by clicking the Options button on the Navigation Bar Properties palette. This will
allow you to have links to certain sections on your site.
Okay folks, that's it for Page view - Have Fun! When you're ready to go on to Fusion's next mode, click here: Style View. |
