Hi,
Has anyone used the RWD features extensively?
I read that in march the French version was still completely unusable according to Fabrice.
We have two updates available, last one from October, so what's the status now?
I'll tell you my experience:
The last few days I have been working with RWD and my impression is that using html/css would actually bring 10x faster and more accurate results than this tool.
Some of the things I ran into:
- anchoring is all relative to the left page margin, which makes using fixed size elements on a line virtually impossible. (because content will gradually slide off page)
- While WB's positioning was always sloppy (except for the overlayed items) this is even worse in RWD design. In the editor overflow in cells that are anchored as "height adapt to content" show a red overflow error, while testing them in the browser they DO expand in height. (which is nice, but why not show it in the editor?)
- Very annoying is that elements grouped in a cell seem not to be limited to the cell. They can spread allover the place in the other blades, as i.m.o. they should always be inside the cell on all blades, except if you use overlay of course.
- Error messages do not make sense, one misplaced control can trigger tens of gui errors and red error areas, making your display look like a battlefield.
- The arrow key buffer fills up rapidly, so moving a control around mostly overshoots it's target, still moving for seconds after you release the key. It's like moving objects with a long rubber band.
- The order of controls is supposed to be from left to right, top to bottom. However, in my experience if they are perfectly top-aligned but not equal in height, this order is not respected in the browser if overflow occurs.
I tried to make a simple contact form responsive, separated all captions from the input fields to make them go on top of the input in smartphone mode, but no matter what I tried, I could not get the controls to line up properly in the tablet and smartphone blades.
I don't understand why cells do not act as divs in html. Absolute positioning ("overlay") is obviously not possible, but why not have an absolute position relative to another control (cell) like in normal css.
The current state of RWD is suitable for very simple sites, anything beyond that is a huge gamble.
Some tips and pitfalls:
- a quick fix when you find yourself stuck in a mess is to restore the state of the controls from the main blade. Select all (or only the one you suspect to be the cause) and right click. You need to redo your edits though.
- changes to inner spacing of input controls and style of controls need to be modified on the main blade.
- remove all overlays from converted pages before using RWD, they will generate countless errors.
Please share your experience with us to help others and don't hesitate to prove me wrong and show me how RWD can be a wonderful tool in the right hands.
Regards,
Piet
Has anyone used the RWD features extensively?
I read that in march the French version was still completely unusable according to Fabrice.
We have two updates available, last one from October, so what's the status now?
I'll tell you my experience:
The last few days I have been working with RWD and my impression is that using html/css would actually bring 10x faster and more accurate results than this tool.
Some of the things I ran into:
- anchoring is all relative to the left page margin, which makes using fixed size elements on a line virtually impossible. (because content will gradually slide off page)
- While WB's positioning was always sloppy (except for the overlayed items) this is even worse in RWD design. In the editor overflow in cells that are anchored as "height adapt to content" show a red overflow error, while testing them in the browser they DO expand in height. (which is nice, but why not show it in the editor?)
- Very annoying is that elements grouped in a cell seem not to be limited to the cell. They can spread allover the place in the other blades, as i.m.o. they should always be inside the cell on all blades, except if you use overlay of course.
- Error messages do not make sense, one misplaced control can trigger tens of gui errors and red error areas, making your display look like a battlefield.
- The arrow key buffer fills up rapidly, so moving a control around mostly overshoots it's target, still moving for seconds after you release the key. It's like moving objects with a long rubber band.
- The order of controls is supposed to be from left to right, top to bottom. However, in my experience if they are perfectly top-aligned but not equal in height, this order is not respected in the browser if overflow occurs.
I tried to make a simple contact form responsive, separated all captions from the input fields to make them go on top of the input in smartphone mode, but no matter what I tried, I could not get the controls to line up properly in the tablet and smartphone blades.
I don't understand why cells do not act as divs in html. Absolute positioning ("overlay") is obviously not possible, but why not have an absolute position relative to another control (cell) like in normal css.
The current state of RWD is suitable for very simple sites, anything beyond that is a huge gamble.
Some tips and pitfalls:
- a quick fix when you find yourself stuck in a mess is to restore the state of the controls from the main blade. Select all (or only the one you suspect to be the cause) and right click. You need to redo your edits though.
- changes to inner spacing of input controls and style of controls need to be modified on the main blade.
- remove all overlays from converted pages before using RWD, they will generate countless errors.
Please share your experience with us to help others and don't hesitate to prove me wrong and show me how RWD can be a wonderful tool in the right hands.
Regards,
Piet