ToolmakerSteve.com

Custom Link Bars

In addition to having link bars generated automatically based on the structure of your site, TMS-SiteNav also allows you to build link bars directly -- selecting the links to include.

[Beta 1 Note: Only one custom link bar can be built in Beta 1.]

Open your web site in Expression Web. In the TMS-SiteNav toolbar, click on button Insert. If this is the first time you have used TMS-SiteNav with this web site, a folder named tms-sitenav is added to your site. That is where TMS-SiteNav maintains the information you enter.

NOTE: If you have just created a website, using Expression Web's "New Website" command, you may get an error message when you try to click button Insert. If this happens, do File / Close Site. (Or, quit Expression Web entirely.) Then re-open the web site.

Web Pages

Browse through the tree of folders and HTML (or ASPX) files in your web site. Click on a file to add it to the link bar, after the currently selected item. By default, the caption will be the Page Title. This will usually be undesirably long; edit it to the desired caption using Link Caption.

Viewer

This shows what the custom link bar will look like, for the current style settings.

/ Menu Name

COMING SOON [DISABLED IN BETA 1]

/ Link Caption

Click on a link (button) in "Viewer" to select it. Its current caption (text) will appear in this box. Edit it as desired.

/ CSS file

COMING SOON [DISABLED IN BETA 1]

Commands

/ Cut

Deletes the currently highlighted link (button) from the Viewer. Remembers it (See Paste). If no link is selected, does nothing. If the link you wish to cut is not highlighted, click on it to highlight (select) it, then click Cut.

/ Paste

Pastes the remembered link after the currently highlighted link. If no link is selected, will paste at end of menu. If paste is desired elsewhere, first click on a link to make it highlighted.

TBD: Currently no way to paste at the BEGINNING of the menu. Work-around to get A to be first item: Paste [A] after the first item [B]. Select the first item [B], cut it. Select A, and paste [B will appear after A]. Sorry for the inconvenience.

/ Undo & Redo

[Version1 Note: There is no Undo feature in Version 1.]

/ Page Title

This shows the Page Title for the currently selected page. It is identical to Expression Web / Page Properties / Title. In a web browser, this is what shows in the title bar when a visitor browses to the page. It is also the text that is used when the page is bookmarked (put in Favorites list).

[Beta 1 NOTE: Cannot be edited in Beta 1.]

/ URL

This shows the URL (Universal Resource Locator) for the currently selected page. Actually, it just shows the part of the URL that comes after the domain name. So this page, whose url is "http://www.toolmakersteve.com/tms-sitenav/uguide-custom.htm" would show here simply as "tms-sitenav/uguide-custom.htm".

 

Shared Styling Controls

Many of the features in this Custom Link Bars window are identical to those in the "Styling" pane of the main TMS-SiteNav window. See "Styling / Shared Styling Controls".

 

Apply/OK/Cancel Buttons

Common to each tab page. Details here.