ASP.NET web designer bug???

[brian]

Hi.. I am very new to .net. Working on my first web app and suddenly
i can no longer move any "NEW" controls I add to my form. For all
existing controls i can move them fine.

Appreciate any help you can give.

thanks

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

What do you mean by move? Do you mean just dragging them around to any spot
on the page? You're probably working in Flow mode, which means that the
document is laid out without CSS positioning (which is a good thing if you
haven't used it before). You need to construct the layout first using tables
to have a container to place the item into. Keep in mind, HTML is a markup
language and thus was designed to describe content, not the layout and
positioning as a layout language would. Can you give some more info on what
tool you are using to design with so we can give better advice?

 

[brian]

What do you mean by move? Do you mean just dragging them around to
any spot on the page? You're probably working in Flow mode, which means that the document is laid out without CSS positioning (which is a good thing if you haven't used it
before). You need to construct the layout first using tables to have a container to place the item into. Keep in mind, HTML is a markup language and thus was designed to
describe content, not the layout and positioning as a layout language would. Can you give some more info on what tool you are using to design with so we can give better
advice?

--

Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - Expression

By move I mean placing the control on the form where I want it to be. I an using Visual Studio 2005. I'm mot using tables. Just for grins I created a new blank form in my
existing project, added a textbox to it. I can resize the control but I'm SOL if I want to move the control. What has me baffled is I can move controls previously place on the
form.


Thanks,


Brian

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

Did you add the previous controls from the toolbox in VS? By default,
toolbox added controls should be set to flow, which means no positioning
data is added. I can't remember for the life of me how to switch to grid
layout but in all likelihood that's the reason that the new controls aren't
draggable because they aren't nested in a div element with positioning
data.

Keep in mind flow layout is horrible for cross-browser design unless you
code the positioning very carefully. VS.Net (the 2002 version) used to
default to grid mode but it was changed to flow mode because of these
cross-browser incompatibilities.

 

[darrel]

By move I mean placing the control on the form where I want it to be. I an

using Visual Studio 2005. I'm mot using tables. Just for grins I created a
new blank form in my
existing project, added a textbox to it. I can resize the control but I'm
SOL if I want to move the control. What has me baffled is I can move
controls previously place on the
form.

VS 2003 defaulted to 'gridview' which allowed you to place controls anywhere
on the 'page' and move them anywhere on the 'page'.

This was to make it 'easy' for traditional windows-forms developers.

Unfortunately, this is a really bad way to design a web interface. It
consists of absolutely positioned divs on the page. It's dependant on the
end-user having a very specific viewport size, specific fonts set at
specific sizes. Which you can never depend on. I've had to deal with apps
written this way and as soon as you use a narrower browser, or bump your
font-size up a bit, the entire interface becomes a mess.

Instead, you're going to want to learn some basic HTML and CSS to do your
positioning of items on the screen rather than depending on Visual Studio to
do it for you.

-Darrel

 

[darrel]

Keep in mind flow layout is horrible for cross-browser design unless you

code the positioning very carefully.

I think you meant to say 'grid' layout.

Which is bad, period...even if everyone is using the same browser. ;o)

-Darrel

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

Doh! Thanks Darrel. Yes, I did mean grid layout, which I absolutely hate for
pretty much the same reasons it sounds that you do. *sigh* It must be the
end of the week again

Cheers,
Mark