Karelia Community Forum

MacMitch

Member

Brand New User Questions?

My History

I downloaded the demo version yesterday and I like what I see so far. I have been a RapidWeaver user since 2007. I have had increasing problems keeping all the various pieces I have for using RW updated. I built a large library of: themes, plugins, and more recently Stacks/stacks. There are so many pieces, especially with all the stacks I have, that I spend all my time trying to keep all the pieces updated and running not having any time left over to actually work on my web site.

I have no delusions that these issues do not exist within Sandvox as well. I do think that the lesser number of pieces and the greater attention to simplicity will enable me to get sites built faster. RW just seems to me to have grown too many parts and options for it's own good. So many plugins and stacks designed to do similar or the same thing exist, even keeping up with what does what became quite a chore. The bottom line being that I bought the product as a fast way to develop web sites, at least in my case, the current product seems more of a developer tool for someone who lives and breaths all those parts on a daily basis. It seems to have grown too complicated for someone who wears multiple hats to just pick up and rewrite an existing site with. So here I am about to buy Sandvox and a more reasonable set of themes/designs and plugins, in the hope that I can rewrite my site in less time than it would take me to just get all my RW parts working together again.

Sandvox questions
1) do I loose the work I started in the demo when I buy the product and download it? Not a huge deal, but I would like to know, so if necessary, I can copy a few small text entries..
2) There appears to be some question regarding which themes/designs work with the latest version of Sandvox and not all the sites I have seen seem to say, although some seem to say something like they are not sure.
3) Same question as 2 regarding plugins, especially: Tab Builder,Accordion, ViewDoc, EZ Scroll List....Regarding these plugins, are they made by the Sandvox staff? The page I find them on only says "Plugins For Sandvox".
4) I see quite a few pages around that scroll, either with a tab on the right of page or via symbols on the top left of the top "page". Is this part of Ez Scroll List or some other plugin?
5) Is ViewDoc the way I would import a Sandvox page,google doc... into another Sandvox page?

Any other suggestions about this transition would be appreciated. I have text files, pictures... in RW or text editors that I plan to copy and paste to Sandvox pages.

macdafydd

Avenger

Re: Brand New User Questions?

MacMitch, nobody seems to be responding to your call for help, so here's my small contribution in the hope of persuading others to add more.

I bought Sandvox several months ago and did not then lose the test sites that I had created when performing my evaluation. This should now also be the case, as your sites are stored as separate files where you choose to keep them.

As to your other questions, I am unable to help you, as I use Sandvox as it is in its basic form, with no extras at all. However, you should be aware that it is a very different product to RapidWeaver and it has its own little quirks. You must use a template, for example, and you are then more or less bound by the limitations of the chosen template. Personally, I have not found any intrusive limitations, but almost all templates restrict you to their own specific widths, banner sizes, use of colours, etc. In exchange, you get a relatively simple and reasonably powerful site generating tool. There remain problems with the positioning of text boxes, the importing of image metadata, and the inability to use in-page anchors, but these are fairly minor. Although the chosen template tends to be the lord and master of a site, a level of modification can be achieved through the ues of cod "injection," which allows CSS and HTML code to be entered at site and page level, as well as inline.

Copying and pasting text from external text editors is a good way of filling Text Box objects or creating other areas of text in Sanvox pages (you can then also choose to maintain the styling of the imported text, or to impose upon it the styling of the template being used). How this would work from a RapidWeaver document I do not know. Similarly, images can be copied and pasted, or imported from iPhoto or the Finder itself (this is where the problem of image metadata manifests itself, though the image itself is handled correctly). Images placed in a Sandvox site become part of the Sandvox file that is used to build the actual site that will be published.

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It says "Avenger," but I am just a Sandvox user who has been assigned the title of Avenger here in order to be able to delete spam messages. http://davidneale.eu/

stevenmarx

Member

Re: Brand New User Questions?

I'll answer the ones I can anyway.

1. No, everything will still be there.

2. Best to e-mail the developers of the designs you're interested in. The designs that come with Sandvox should all be 2.5 compliant.

3. Plugins were new to Sandvox 2, so they should all be compatible with the latest version.

4. Don't know.

5. Not clear exactly what you're asking. If you want to move a page from one SV site to another, you can copy and paste. For documents, do you want to link to a document for downloading or do you want the document content in the page? If you want a downloadable document, drag it to the sidebar and make links to it.

Hope that helps.

Steve

voxdf

Hero

Re: Brand New User Questions?

Well here’s my 2 cents worth.
1) same as above
2) Some third party designs are not yet converted from version 1 although all those found with SV are. Also some of the older designs will work with version 2 but some bells and whistles will be missing. (e.g.: pull down menus)
3)I’ve used quite a few of the plugins and I’ve had no problems from one version to the next. The designers of the plugins have been good at letting us know that an update is available often by email and on this forum.
4) I’m not exactly sure.
5) Yes you can add outside pages to your site quite simply by inserting an exterior link page or an exterior link object inside an existing page. You can also use an insert HTML object which will permit you to imbed bits and pieces form the web. For example on my site I have a google calendar imbedded, as well as some google doc forms and everything works seamlessly.

mikeabdullah

Administrator

Re: Brand New User Questions?

Hi,

3) Same question as 2 regarding plugins, especially: Tab Builder,Accordion, ViewDoc, EZ Scroll List....Regarding these plugins, are they made by the Sandvox staff? The page I find them on only says "Plugins For Sandvox".

Those plug-ins are all made by an independent developer, separate from Karelia.

4) I see quite a few pages around that scroll, either with a tab on the right of page or via symbols on the top left of the top "page". Is this part of Ez Scroll List or some other plugin?
5) Is ViewDoc the way I would import a Sandvox page,google doc... into another Sandvox page?

I too am not quite sure what you mean by these.

MacMitch

Member

Re: Brand New User Questions?

Thanks for helping me with my questions posters.

In regard to question 4). There is a plugin called svpEZScrollList that I bought but have not entirely figured out yet. At the bottom of their demo page, heading "Want to read our User Guide no problem", they use a page scrolling app that allows one to scroll though a page of text longer than the box that contains the text. I am starting to think that the scrolling software is not part of the svpEZScrollList plugin. I was looking for software that would allow me to place more text than will fit in a given area or box and scroll through that text. I believe I have seen that same scrolling software used in other places, maybe in individual Accordions.

I believe voxdf answered my question 5). I was looking for a way to import: a calendar, such as a Google calendar,  other Google Docs, into a box or section on a page. For example, in the past I have done price lists in Google docs so the wife can update them without having to go into the web site software. I may want a calendar of upcoming classes, events... on our web site. I think I used a similar piece of software in RW to insert a FaceBook page or pages onto a site. We have two very active FaceBook dog club locations.

Last edited by MacMitch (February 8, 2012 9:20 am)

voxdf

Hero

Re: Brand New User Questions?

Here is my site if you want to see how it looks to insert a google doc in a page:http://pages.csdgs.net/~u119713267/outils-pei/school-calendar.html for the calendar and http://pages.csdgs.net/~u119713267/proj … ation.html for a google doc form. :o)

MarkCDP

Member

Re: Brand New User Questions?

voxdf -

Your Google docs calendar shows up just fine when I go to the link in your post. I can see it on my computer, my iPhone, and my iPad. However, when I put my Google calendar on my site, it shows up on my computer just fine, but doesn't show at all on my iPhone or iPad. All I am doing is copying the HTML from Google Calendars and pasting it into my Sandvox site. Are you altering the HTML or doing anything special to make it show up on other devices?

FOLLOWUP - I figured it out. I didn't have my Google Calendar designated as "Public". Once I did that, it showed up on all my devices.

Last edited by MarkCDP (March 17, 2012 1:25 pm)

voxdf

Hero

Re: Brand New User Questions?

Glad it worked for you. :o)

jvanolst

Member

Re: Brand New User Questions?

I just want a simple 3-column layout.  It was a snap in Claris HomePage but I read that Sandvox requires tables to be input as RAW html.  I have been trying to just put 3 text boxes on a page (left, middle, right), but all the "helpful" autowrap assistance for text and graphics seems to make this impossible.  Many pro-looking sites have a three column layout - can this be done in Sandvox?

JimK

Super Hero

Re: Brand New User Questions?

jvanoist,

Look for a three column template from a 3rd party vendor (like Blueball Designs: http://www.sandvoxdesigns.blueballdesig … hite.html). If you're more interested in coding it yourself, this tutorial from David Neale is terrific: http://davidneale.eu/sandvox/column-layouts/3-columns/

Jim

makaylaligar

Member

Re: Brand New User Questions?

Well... Thanks for the information:D
'cause I'm thinking of joining your group :)

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TheCabinChiangMai
TheVoiceClinic

macdafydd

Avenger

Re: Brand New User Questions?

A three-column layout is not a table layout. Tables should be reserved in HTML for what they are designed for, namely tables, and in Sandvox they must be inserted using Raw HTML code. Such a table in a Sandvox generated site can be seen at http://davidneale.eu/elvis/elvis-record … 45rpm.html

If you want true three-column (or any other multi-column) layout, then the link that JimK gives is a good place to start (says I, blushing profuseley). That same site contains an example of a two-column layout, as well.

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It says "Avenger," but I am just a Sandvox user who has been assigned the title of Avenger here in order to be able to delete spam messages. http://davidneale.eu/