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After a lot of trial & many errors, I'm starting to build a test site with Backlight. But I'm still pretty lost in trying to recreate some basic things I had in my old CE4 site.
I'm trying to build a basic home page and use an inline presentation - a Vegas Slideshow rotating just a few images. Had to screw around a lot with page-size settings in Designer to get the images to display at desired size, but I can't get the slideshow to display just the image itself - as they change from 'portrait' to 'landscape' aspects, they are displayed inside a white rectangle "container". How can I get them displayed as only the photo area, without the white box?
Here's where I've gotten so far: http://jwlimages.com/Commerce/
This is more like how I want the slideshow to appear (a garbled CE4 page, not-yet updated to Backlight): jwlimages.com/Art
Another question is how to get the Menu Set to display on this Home page? The Full-screen template for the home page has the Menu Set specified, and under Navigation I have Horizontal enabled, Location: Header (Vertical Nav disabled), but nothing shows. I would like the whole site to display it as it shows on this test Contact page: http://jwlimages.com/Commerce/contact/
Can anyone give me some pointers?
Thank you so much!
John
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For the slideshow, that’s probably the background color in the Vegas setting. Try setting it to match your page background.
Rod
Just a user with way too much time on his hands.
www.rodbarbee.com
ttg-tips.com, Backlight 2/3 test site
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is the home page using the same page template as the contact page? It doesn't look like it is.
Rod
Just a user with way too much time on his hands.
www.rodbarbee.com
ttg-tips.com, Backlight 2/3 test site
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Hi Rod,
Thanks for your (speedy!) replies. Will check out settings for Vegas - hope there's a None (XXX) available.
The home page is different (the full-screen page template) from the contact one. Both have a similar base, both are set to use same Menu Set.
John
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I thought your home page was using the Vegas inline presentation, not the full page. If so, there's no need to use a full page template.
They may be using the same menu set, but it looks like you've disabled the horizontal navigation.
You could always put the horizontal navigation in the top-pallet and give the top pallet height on the desktop.
Rod
Just a user with way too much time on his hands.
www.rodbarbee.com
ttg-tips.com, Backlight 2/3 test site
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I thought your home page was using the Vegas inline presentation, not the full page. If so, there's no need to use a full page template.
Ah, I see. I think I misunderstood the instructions for enabling a slideshow - thought I'd have to use a full-screen page template for any slideshow. Since I want the inline version only, I'll go back to Designer & experiment with using a single "standard" page template. Will let you know how that goes.
it looks like you've disabled the horizontal navigation
No, I have Horizontal enabled, and located it in the Header, with Vertical disabled - but this is with the full-screen page template. It does work in my "standard" page template, so will try to use it instead. (I get the sense that navigation via a Menu Set just doesn't work in a page based on a full-screen template - is that so?)
Thanks again for the guidance, Rod. I'll get back to work on this tomorrow (around the 'Stupor Bowl', of course ;-)
John
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What’s probably happened is this:
You have the Horizintal nav enabled and in the header but you’ve probably set the Breakpoint (in Layout) to Always. This means that mobile navigation will always be shown.
BUT you’ve also disabled Vertical navigation, which means the mobile menu is also not showing.
So to see the Horizontal nav, set the Breakpoint to something like 1024px. And be sure to enable Vertical Nav, or visitors on mobile devices won’t be able to move around your site.
Rod
Just a user with way too much time on his hands.
www.rodbarbee.com
ttg-tips.com, Backlight 2/3 test site
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Hi Rod,
Hmm, very confusing. I changed the page template from full-screen to a 'standard' page. Breakpoint is set to 1024px already, Horizontal nav enabled, set to Header, Vertical nav also enabled, set to Pallet 1. But it does look like the mobile nav is only one showing - no Menu Set.
As for the slideshow - I can't find any setting in the album template or the Vegas Slideshow settings that calls for a background color/no color. The surround color seems to be determined by the Base color specified in the page template. I have changed it to a gray, but there is no option to choose no color (XX). Am I stuck here, or am I missing something?
Thanks,
John
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Vegas background color is the fourth item down under the Presentation tab
Rod
Just a user with way too much time on his hands.
www.rodbarbee.com
ttg-tips.com, Backlight 2/3 test site
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Hi again,
Yes, I see that in the album template I created for the slideshow, so the Home page must be using the 'standard gallery' album template. How do I specify which album template the Home page uses?
- sorry to be so dense - I'm just not getting something about how Designer works...
John
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The home page does not use an album template, it uses a page template.
You can insert an album into the home page. That album uses an album template.
Rod
Just a user with way too much time on his hands.
www.rodbarbee.com
ttg-tips.com, Backlight 2/3 test site
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Hmm, very confusing. I changed the page template from full-screen to a 'standard' page. Breakpoint is set to 1024px already, Horizontal nav enabled, set to Header, Vertical nav also enabled, set to Pallet 1. But it does look like the mobile nav is only one showing - no Menu Set.
Looks like you solved the menu problem on your home page.
Rod
Just a user with way too much time on his hands.
www.rodbarbee.com
ttg-tips.com, Backlight 2/3 test site
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Hi Rod,
Yes, I think I had correct settings to get my menu set working, but the browser window I had the site in must have been smaller than the 1024 breakpoint - so was getting mobile device display? Anyway it looks better now.
...You can insert an album into the home page. That album uses an album template.
Yes, but if I have more than one album template, how do I determine which gets used? I inserted an album, set up the inline Vegas slideshow, but can't identify which album template is active. (it should be the Pangolin Theater one I created) Maybe worse - if I toggle "show captions" on/off for either of the 2 album templates, no effect on the home page - no captions show. Also tried toggling settings like transition, presentation type, in each album template, just to see which one is at work - again no effect. ???
The Theater album template (the one I thought was active) has Vegas background color set to none. The color of the "box" around the images is set by the Base color from the page template.
One final oddity - the gallery for the home page (00_HomePage…) shows in the Galleries pull-down, despite my setting the Features tab in the album to Hide from Album Set & Hide from Search. Isn't this supposed to keep the album "invisible" from the browser UI or to not clutter up pull-down menus, or am I misunderstanding (again)?
Thanks again,
John
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One final oddity - the gallery for the home page (00_HomePage…) shows in the Galleries pull-down, despite my setting the Features tab in the album to Hide from Album Set & Hide from Search. Isn't this supposed to keep the album "invisible" from the browser UI or to not clutter up pull-down menus, or am I misunderstanding (again)?
Hidden albums are visible when you are logged in as admin. Try it with a different browser and it should not be there. If you look at your top level gallery (eg /galleries), your hidden albums have an eye symbol to indicate that they are hidden.
Daniel Leu | Photography
DanielLeu.com
My digital playground (eg, Backlight tips&tricks): lab.DanielLeu.com
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Yes, but if I have more than one album template, how do I determine which gets used? I inserted an album, set up the inline Vegas slideshow, but can't identify which album template is active. (it should be the Pangolin Theater one I created) Maybe worse - if I toggle "show captions" on/off for either of the 2 album templates, no effect on the home page - no captions show. Also tried toggling settings like transition, presentation type, in each album template, just to see which one is at work - again no effect. ???
In Backlight Publisher, when you click on Edit Album, you have the option to select the desired album template. Or you can do it with Lightroom Publisher, control-click (or right mouse button) on the album name and then select Edit Album.
Daniel Leu | Photography
DanielLeu.com
My digital playground (eg, Backlight tips&tricks): lab.DanielLeu.com
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Maybe worse - if I toggle "show captions" on/off for either of the 2 album templates, no effect on the home page - no captions show
If you originally had captions off, then you will need to republish before metadata appears.
Also tried toggling settings like transition, presentation type, in each album template, just to see which one is at work - again no effect. ???
Try clearing template cache.
Rod
Just a user with way too much time on his hands.
www.rodbarbee.com
ttg-tips.com, Backlight 2/3 test site
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Rod & Daniel,
Thank you both. This is helpful info. I'm going back to do some more exploring...
Regards,
John
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First off, thank you for all the help! I think I'm finally starting to get my head around some of how to use Backlight. The test site is starting to look more the way I want. An observation and another question...
1. I have satisfied myself that there is just no way (that I can find!) to get the Vegas slideshow to display only image, with no surround, at least when it's placed on a gradient background. In the Theater album template, when I set Slideshow to have no background color, the color set for Base in the page template shows as the "surround". So I finally gave in, changed the page template for the home page to a solid color (disabled the .css gradient), and set Slideshow's background to the same color - it has the effect of disguising the surround color, so it looks like each image is displayed on it's own, so to speak. (see - jwlimages.com/Commerce) If anyone knows a way to get this effect while using a gradient for the page template, please let me know!
2. Back to the Vegas Slideshow itself - the display of images still looks too large - the home page is way too tall to display entirely on my 24" NEC display (1920x1200px). Is there any way I can reduce the size of the images in the presentation, and hopefully the entire page as well? In the album template I have already reduced the Presentation max-width to 980px, as low as it will allow. But the whole page just looks too big & clunky. Thoughts?
Thanks again,
John
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1. doesn't look like it's possible. (Galleria has a background color setting that allows a transparent background)
2. Try using different aspect ratios. Try 2:1, 3:1, etc.
Rod
Just a user with way too much time on his hands.
www.rodbarbee.com
ttg-tips.com, Backlight 2/3 test site
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John - I ran into the same issue on my homepage and ended up going to a solid color background from using a background image so I could get rid of the background color of the vegas slideshow in Theater. I tried the Galleria slideshow because, as Rod indicates, it does offer the ability to get rid of the background color, but I did not care for the look of the slide transitions. So I went back to Theater.
Terry
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Hi Rod and Terry,
Thanks to you both. Yes, I finally deduced that while Theater can have a no color background, what shows thru is the "Base" background color called for in the page template - it just ignores the gradient set up with my custom .css. Oh well...
Rod, I have been trying differing aspect ratios, but will play with that some more. Seems like there must be some way to not have the page (and all elements on it) be so gigantic. I will try to post screen captures from my iPad of the old CE4 home page vs. the new Backlight one - back with that post in a few minutes...
John
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I'm going to start a new topic on page sizes, since I'm veering away from Slideshow issues.
John
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how small do you want it? Are you just considering size on an ipad at this point then? I was assuming you are trying to size for the desktop.
I can control the size of the show just by changing the aspect ratio from 3:2 (this page: http://backlight-2-100.barbeephoto.com/ )
to 3:1 for basically the same show. The only difference here (besides a few pictures) is the aspect ratio: http://backlight-2-100.barbeephoto.com/vegas-3-1/
Rod
Just a user with way too much time on his hands.
www.rodbarbee.com
ttg-tips.com, Backlight 2/3 test site
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Thanks Rod,
I'm experimenting now. Will report back about resizing the slideshow.
Meanwhile started a new thread because looking at this made me realize the whole page & all elements seem larger than I want.
John
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Hi again,
Yes, changing aspect ratio is helping a lot. Also allows total page size to come back to more reasonable area.
Interesting how I have to clear template cache each time I change a setting in order to see the results.
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