Converting tables to layers

I have constructed a page using layout tables and cells but now i want to Convert the tables to layers.
BUT the option modify.covert is grayed out/not selectable, any ideas to why this happening???
I e-mailed it to a freind and he could do it fine!!!


TIA Jayson

Jayson:

This sounds like a horrible thing to do to a web page. Why on earth would
you want to?

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"JaysonH" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

I have constructed a page using layout tables and cells but now i want to
Convert the tables to layers.
BUT the option modify.covert is grayed out/not selectable, any ideas to
why this happening???
I e-mailed it to a freind and he could do it fine!!!


TIA Jayson

JaysonH wrote:

I have constructed a page using layout tables and cells but now i
want to Convert the tables to layers. BUT the option modify.covert
is grayed out/not selectable, any ideas to why this happening???
I e-mailed it to a freind and he could do it fine!!!

Your first mistake was using layout tables (always build tables in Standard
View). Many MANY options are not available in Layout View. The advice of every
serious designer on this forum: RUN AWAY!! Click View > Table View > Standard
View and NEVER go back. Really. This is a place of pure evil.

Your second mistake was trying to convert tables to layers. There's no reason
on earth to do this that I can think of. Ever. This creates total chaos. You
will end up with hell on your hands if you do this.

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www.flyingtigerwebdesign dot com

Hi Jayson;

I can see why you would want to get away from doing your page design in
tables. But PLEASE don't confuse the term "table-less layout" with using DW
Layers. DW4 and DWMX used absolute positioned divs as "layers". The are
nearly useless and sure to destroy your page and give you an aneurysm or a
stroke form all the stress they are sure to cause. Now, in DWMX 2004, there
is the handy little Div icon to the left of the evil layer icon that will
allow you to create dives and use CSS to format your page with them. If
this is what you are after, good for you, keep going. I'd recommend Eric
Myers CSS book to help you get a better grasp of table-less layout using
CSS.

As far as converting tables to layers in DW... Forget you ever even thought
of that, I'm sure the DW development team at Macromedia wishes they could.
(Sorry guys, but you know I'm right :-)

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"DiMa" <diana (AT) YOURHATANDCOATflyingtigerwebdesign (DOT) com> wrote

JaysonH wrote:
I have constructed a page using layout tables and cells but now i
want to Convert the tables to layers. BUT the option modify.covert
is grayed out/not selectable, any ideas to why this happening???
I e-mailed it to a freind and he could do it fine!!!

Your first mistake was using layout tables (always build tables in
Standard
View). Many MANY options are not available in Layout View. The advice of
every
serious designer on this forum: RUN AWAY!! Click View > Table View
Standard
View and NEVER go back. Really. This is a place of pure evil.

Your second mistake was trying to convert tables to layers. There's no
reason
on earth to do this that I can think of. Ever. This creates total chaos.
You
will end up with hell on your hands if you do this.

--
--
DiMa
--------------------
WEB FORUM USERS: Please log on to the Newsgroup for quicker replies to
your posts: news://forums.macromedia.com/macromedia.dreamweaver
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er

http://www.macromedia.com/support/dr...technotes.html
http://www.projectseven.com/faqbase
http://www.dreamweaverFAQ.com

http://www.macromedia.com/support/forums/etiquette.htm

www.flyingtigerwebdesign dot com

Thanx for your help everyone

J

Jayson:

Stay away from either of those conversion options - there is really no
reason to use either one.

If you want to see how messy what you wanted to do would be, create a new
page and drop a 3 column x 3 row table on it.

Now do a conversion of tables to layers. Each individual cell becomes a
layer. You now have 9 layers on the page to manage. See what I mean?

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"JaysonH" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

Thanx for your help everyone

J

Sorry, the reason i converted to layers is so i can put in x and y co-ordinates (Can u see i come from a print background!!). Is there another way to make sure things are ALWAYS in the same position??

J da newbie

If you need positioned content, then you can use layers to begin with, or
learn how to use tables to position content.

Start your journey away from print at the table tutorials on the DW FAQ link
in my sig....

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver MX
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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"JaysonH" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

Sorry, the reason i converted to layers is so i can put in x and y
co-ordinates (Can u see i come from a print background!!). Is there another

way to make sure things are ALWAYS in the same position??

J da newbie

Hey Jayson,

I'll leave it for someone else to answer your most recent question. I kinda consider myself a newbie too. But one of the options you have in CSS is to design one style sheet for screen and one for print. In your code it would look something like this.

<head>
<link href="main.css" rel="Stylesheet" media="screen">
<link href="print.css" rel="Stylesheet" media="print">

There's a nice video tutorial on this over at Lynda.com which is where I've been spending a lot of time lately - kinda trying to get up to speed and see what's new. Which kinda leads me to my own question, although I hope I'm not hijacking your thread. I just think this kinda fits in.

I've been using CSS for quite a while now - but honestly only for formatting text and links and things like that. As for page layout and specifically with regard to using 'layers' I've just never had the need. In fact, I've never run into "a need" to switch. I've always been able to accomplish anything I wanted in what I'd now refer to as 'old school.'

But enough of that. After taking a sabbaticle from web work and deciding recently to get back into it I thought I'd update my skill set which I knew was in terrible need of updating. I wanted to make all my pages xhtml compliant - use CSS wherever possible - and also go to 'tableless layout.'

I'll add also if for no other reason than just wanting to be a web cowboy (which is honestly good enough for me) in saying that I meant absolutly no tables. Not even tables inside the layers. And so I just continuted doing my tutorials - mainly over at lynda.com - which I highly recommend.

But here is the thing. And it kinda makes me laugh.

Picture if you will a 3x3 table relatively centered on the page. Nothing fancy. Just a basic layout.

Well, I have that now. I even have a nice Flash header at the top that looks really cool. But the thing is - when I go to view source I have enough code there to choke a horse. LOL.. And gawd knows, I'm gonna have to become a javascript guru to understand it. In fact, in the hope of doing that I'm now doing the javascript tutorials at lynda.com too. But that kinda brings me to my question - and as usual I went around the world to get there.

Where might I be going wrong here? Where might also others be going wrong when we think of "tableless layout."

Maybe it's just me - but it seems to me that there is a lot of ambiguity when we talk about that term. And once again - I'm lost..

LOL

Thanks! And Cheers!
J.K.

JK:

But enough of that. After taking a sabbaticle from web work and
deciding recently to get back into it I thought I'd update my skill set

which I knew was in terrible need of updating. I wanted to make all my
pages xhtml compliant - use CSS wherever possible - and also go to
'tableless layout.'

As a chest thumping exercise, this may have some limited value, but in web
design, I doubt it's worth the time or the effort. Sure, struggling with
all the nits and gnats will teach you a ton of CSS, and that's good, but
tables still have value and uses on the page.

Lose the idealistic approach. Get pragmatic, dude. 8)

Good to see you posting again....

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver MX
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
news://forums.macromedia.com/macromedia.dreamweaver - THE BEST WAY TO GET
ANSWERS
==================
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==================

"JK Bowman" <webforumsuser (AT) macromedia (DOT) com> wrote

Hey Jayson,

I'll leave it for someone else to answer your most recent question. I
kinda consider myself a newbie too. But one of the options you have in

CSS is to design one style sheet for screen and one for print. In your code
it would look something like this.

head
link href="main.css" rel="Stylesheet" media="screen"
link href="print.css" rel="Stylesheet" media="print"

There's a nice video tutorial on this over at Lynda.com which is where
I've been spending a lot of time lately - kinda trying to get up to speed

and see what's new. Which kinda leads me to my own question, although I
hope I'm not hijacking your thread. I just think this kinda fits in.

I've been using CSS for quite a while now - but honestly only for
formatting text and links and things like that. As for page layout and

specifically with regard to using 'layers' I've just never had the need. In
fact, I've never run into "a need" to switch. I've always been able to
accomplish anything I wanted in what I'd now refer to as 'old school.'

But enough of that. After taking a sabbaticle from web work and
deciding recently to get back into it I thought I'd update my skill set

which I knew was in terrible need of updating. I wanted to make all my
pages xhtml compliant - use CSS wherever possible - and also go to
'tableless layout.'

I'll add also if for no other reason than just wanting to be a web cowboy
(which is honestly good enough for me) in saying that I meant absolutly no

tables. Not even tables inside the layers. And so I just continuted doing
my tutorials - mainly over at lynda.com - which I highly recommend.

But here is the thing. And it kinda makes me laugh.

Picture if you will a 3x3 table relatively centered on the page. Nothing
fancy. Just a basic layout.

Well, I have that now. I even have a nice Flash header at the top that
looks really cool. But the thing is - when I go to view source I have

enough code there to choke a horse. LOL.. And gawd knows, I'm gonna have
to become a javascript guru to understand it. In fact, in the hope of
doing that I'm now doing the javascript tutorials at lynda.com too. But
that kinda brings me to my question - and as usual I went around the world
to get there.

Where might I be going wrong here? Where might also others be going wrong
when we think of "tableless layout."

Maybe it's just me - but it seems to me that there is a lot of ambiguity
when we talk about that term. And once again - I'm lost..

LOL

Thanks! And Cheers!
J.K.