Page 437 - Xara Web Designer Premium

Website Widgets 437

with the website. On the Web Designer Premium canvas, a widget is represented by a
static ‘placeholder’ image that defines the position and dimensions of the widget on the
page. And attached to that placeholder is the HTML code and files (e.g., Javascript,
photos, etc.) that make the widget function in the exported page.

A placeholder is normally an image that looks like a static snapshot of the widget itself,
but it can be a simple rectangle or any other object. The placeholder usually has the
same dimensions as the widget, so that you can sensibly position it with respect to other
content on your page.

The good news is that placeholder images are normally rendered automatically for you
by Web Designer Premium.

Types of Widget
There are basically three types of widget, which differ in the way that you customize and
configure them in Xara Web Designer Premium. A brief description of each type follows,
but more detail about each type is provided later in this chapter. However for all three
types of widget you can simply double click on the placeholder image to edit them.

Web Editable Widgets
When you customize these widgets, a web browser window opens up onto the remote
website that provides the widget and you configure and customize the widget using that
web interface.

Locally Editable Widgets
These widgets are edited in Web Designer Premium itself, but typically in a separate
multi-page document that makes the whole set of content for the widget easily editable.
For example, for a slide show widget that cycles through 10 photos, all 10 photos would
be easily visible and editable within the widget’s multi-page document that’s used to edit
it. Again, usually you’ll insert these widgets from the ONLINE CONTENT CATALOG.

Manually Editable Widgets

These are widgets that you add manually by either pasting the HTML code for the widget
directly into Web Designer Premium or by using the "UTILITIES" > "WEB PROPERTIES" >
"PLACEHOLDER" tab to insert the code. Or you create them by importing a file such as an
animation file or movie file onto your page.
No other interface is provided by Web Designer Premium for editing the widget, other
than the PLACEHOLDER tab that allows you to change the file or code that defines the
widget.

Widgets from the Online Content Catalog

Many of the elements under the COMPONENTS folder in the ONLINE CONTENT CATALOG are
widgets (as indicated in the titles).