Dev Diary Ep44 - V2 Components Intro for Beta Testers

Elements Dev Diary
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With regards anchors, it’s not something I’d typically use as I don’t think I’ve ever created a single page site. Having said that, it would be handy if I did.

Perhaps in the links setting window there could be another option for “Anchors”

Containers could have a property of Anchor which could be toggled on as needed. This way people could use these containers as anchor points and they’d be available as a link from any page in the site. Normal containers wouldn’t show in the list of anchor links - only those specifically toggled on.

With regards flowing columns of text, I’ve never used it (and our main massive Wordpress site was for newspapers) but that’s not to say other people may not need it. I agree with @bryanrieger about screen sizes and consistency of layout and design - I think it would be a nightmare to manage given the variance from tiny phones to massive 32" screens. That doesn’t even consider people’s typeface and text size options.

I was going to spend some time today on the beta but now think I’ll wait until the new beta drops - looks very interesting and it seems like the ducks are starting to get in rows now.

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Dan I currently do text flow in columns in Rapidweaver using a stack called Columnist.

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Yes column in paragraph layout is a must have with choice of column number, padding,…
Yes anchor is really also a must have in order to target section and sub-section in current and other pages.
Splitting a text editor is questionable (unless what is targeted is a separation between code text and “human” text). To be honest, I don’t understand at all the concern and the hesitations about the usefulness of a text editor, a website is text (html, css…), it must be edited and for humans that we are, give it a pleasant form to avoid visual fatigue from reading, attract and maintain attention, entertain… When the data of the websites will be explored by our AI assistants who will find what we are looking for and we will present it as we wish, then at that time we will perhaps be able to do without a text editor in the site builders (hmm maybe without website builders too), but for the moment we still have to waste, sorry, spend our time exploring the web to choose what suits us best :rofl:
The last video on Elements made my interest and curiosity known, I am impatiently waiting for the beta V2 so that we can exchange on the same bases. :+1:

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As someone who does sites that sometimes have very long pages, I’ve not been using anchors, though I probably should. Anchors that can be referenced from other pages would be useful, too.

I haven’t understood the two text elements, like others. I mostly want text to be editable, and to be able to apply some HTML elements to parts of it, like heading levels. Sometimes text is a couple of words (typically headings), sometimes a phrase, sometimes a paragraph, sometimes an article. Which reminds me, where does blockquote fit into all this? Am I to assume that I create another paragraph and place and style it differently to do the standard blockquote?

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In talking about text, headings, quotes, paragraphs, lists, formatting (bold/strong, italic/emphasis, strike-through, underline, highlight/mark), links, anchors, etc, it does bring to mind the issue of semantics. In HTML, all of these various elements imply relationships that search engines, browser and screen readers can use to derive meaning.

One trend that’s happened in recent years is the onset of <div> soup, where every element is essentially a generic <div> element styled to look like the semantic equivalents, which then makes it very difficult for machines to make sense of any of it.

For example, this is a heading (taken from the link above):

<h1>This is a top level heading</h1>

And this is a generic <span> element styled to like a heading using Tailwind:

<span class="text-xl font-bold mb-6">Not a top-level heading!</span>

Will Elements enable us to add/specify semantic elements in addition to Tailwind styles?

Addendum: it would also be really helpful to be able to specify containers semantically as <header>, <footer>, <main>, <nav>, <menu>, <section>, <article>, <aside> and so on, in order to better define content regions.

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I think it does already?

CleanShot 2024-10-31 at 15.17.53
CleanShot 2024-10-31 at 15.17.53318×185 4.65 KB

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I need this too. For the same reasons. Many of my pages are over 2500-3000 words.

This is a must or I cannot use Elements. Full Stop. While I do want a design app, I need a website builder first. Otherwise it’s like building the most beautiful art gallery in the world but putting it in Antarctica. No one will be able to find it and show up. The code MUST BE SEMANTIC and proper. Not only using the tags but using them properly.

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Anchors are not only useful for single page sites. None of my sites are single page and I cannot create them to my needs without anchors. I rely on them to help the reader easily navigate to related information, if needed.

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Is there any way to get the beta right now?
We should have a design draft for a new landing page in the beginning of December. Previously I thought of building it in Wordpress but now that I have followed this, Elements would be a much better solution!

The only problem is the time frame - i dont know if the public beta is released until then.

It will be a shame to build it in Wordpress :slight_smile:

1 Like