Confused: layers in dreamweaver 8?

[designa]

Hi all! I am fairly new to Dreamweaver 8...maybe some1 can help with this... I designed my website in Fireworks, and would like to insert a simple contact form onto my page. So, I have put the form together in a seperate layer, but when I preview it in browser, the alignment is thrown WAY out! any help?

thanx! :)

[Toon]

Why would you need it in a separate layer?

Also what did you build the form in?

[zumojuice]

Layers are always likely to do that unless you give them a point of reference to sit from - ie and x and y value from the top left.

[designa]

Originally Posted by Toon

Why would you need it in a separate layer?

Also what did you build the form in?

I exported my website from fireworks, and added in a few extras in dreamweaver. When I edit it in dreamweaver there are no tables that I can place the form in,( I used the common >insert Form function in dreamweaver)
so I created a layer, I did insert the x andy points, but still throws it out.

The alignment is fine when my browser window opens, but as soon as I maximise, it is thrown out.

???????

many many thanks!!

[zumojuice]

I think it has to do with the layer being told if its a relative 'x' and 'y' or an absolute 'x' and 'y', but I could be wrong and most likely am. I really should stop getting into these web issues.....

[Toon]

Could be the z-index

[CVW]

Hi, just found this forum and was looking around and had to reply to your question.

Using layers in DW is not like using layers in Photoshop. In fact HTML is about as anti design as you can get. I found this out when I started to create websites a good few years ago.

Positioning of layers is tricky if you don't really understand the underlying CSS and HTML concepts but basically - relative vs absolute is key. If the layer tag is inside the table tags, you could uses relative positioning to keep in the correct place. Absolute lets you specify the number of pixels x, y in relation to the whole window so it can mess up your layout when you maximise
A layer is only really a fancy DIV tag with some postioning parameters. The z index is the stack order of layers which is probably not the problem here.

Sort of off topic:

The trouble with DW and Fireworks is that let you think that you can layout pages like Illustrator but you get frustrated when it doesn't display properly. After the first year of banging my head against the wall, I learned html/css and create sites using a text editor.

Sorry it this is bit of rant, but I feel strongly about WSYIWYG editors and bad html exports. Just wish I had more graphic design skills.

[Kelly Creative]

Originally Posted by CVW

Sorry it this is bit of rant, but I feel strongly about WSYIWYG editors and bad html exports.

WSYIWYG editors are a pain I agree, welcome aboard

[zumojuice]

Yeah I wish I could do more than WSYIWYG designing, but coding simply does not interest me much as it gets in the way of the designing. Though I'll agree it's a worth while part of it and worth the learn sometime.

[tommylogic]

well... once again I am going to recommend the best tutorial I have found for this subject. It explains EVERYTHING you want to know about Fireworks--> Dreamweaver.

Taking a Fireworks comp to a CSS-based layout GordonMac

On a side note... exporting layers in that version can be a bit tricky, unless your layers are named & sorted PERFECTLY. Check out the tutorial... long 3 part series. I recommend that you do the full exercise.. you won't have another question