As an absolute RW beginner (but coming out of years of simple web site work with FrontPage and iWeb and others), I find the first big challenge in constructing a page is in trying to understand what each stack actually does. Some are quite obvious (3 column) and some are not (Accordion, Glider, etc., etc., etc.). Is there a simple way to figure out what each stack does when looking at the column of stack names and icons in edit mode? Thanks!
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Hmm, stacks like Accordion, Glider etc. aren’t there “by accident” but because you’ve bought them. And if you buy a stack, you for sure did have a look at the site of the stack developer and have seen the stack in action (the reason why you bought it, right?). Therefore you should know which stack has which function.
But if you should have forgotten what some stacks are doing (which can easily happen when you have several hundred stacks installed like me) you can visit the site of the developer and have a look at the demo page(s) of the stack. Simple as that.
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I thought I had posted this in the Rapidweaver Forum I have been following quietly for a year and a half that is exceptionally helpful to beginners. There are a lot of things I should probably do - thanks for letting me know that I should already know? The examples were chosen at random.
Perhaps another member of this forum will be a little kinder by way of response; I remain optimistic!
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There really is no way to tell what a stack or plugin does in RapidWeaver without
A. Inserting it on a page, changing some settings and previewing the page
B. Opening Manage Addons - find the item you are trying to figure out, Option+Click (Right Click) on the item and select Get Help With Addon. If this option is not available then it is a RapidWeaver item and you can visit that site for more information.
C. Most purchased plugins and stacks include sample projects, I would suggest that you visit the developers website and download and play with each sample project.
D. (ADDITION) - you can sort your stacks by Group (Gear icon [Library] when stacks panel open, choose Arrange Stacks -> By Tag), this will give you a kind of sorted listing of what each stack is for (BUT this is subjective to the developer AND some developers don’t include this TAG in their stacks therefor will show up as Ungrouped).
That’s about the most comprehensive list I can provide and hope it helps.
Brad
Thanks Brad, Mr. T and Mr. C! That does help. Perhaps in a future update to RapidWeaver 7 either hovering over the stack (or, better, perhaps right-clicking on it) could yield the briefest of descriptions? I also did briefly consider categorizing them …
Clearly as I learn I will remember more and more … Thanks men.
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That really is not RapidWeavers responsibility. Perhaps you could send a feature request to support at yourhead.com as that is really their software control point.
HTH
Brad
Hm, giving you the advice to “… visit the site of the developer and have a look at the demo page(s) of the stack” is not friendly enough for you? But then you thank “Mr. C” who says that my “…reply seemed perfectly OK” for him? (thanks, caffeineinjection)
Well…, no comment. Have fun waiting for “future updates to RapidWeaver 7” to save you the work you should do by yourself. Oh my.
Won’t comment any more on this, no offence meant.
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A great way to determine what particular stacks do is to look at Marten’s site located here: https://rapidweavercentral.info/stackcentral/ The stacks, which are sorted into function (e.g., accordion, lightbox, images, fonts, effects, etc.) are also searchable and filterable. Each stack has a small description of what it does - and a link to the developer’s site. Be forewarned - Marten is very thorough - and his site contains upward of 800 stacks.
Rather then trying to figure out what individual stacks do that you’ve read about here- I suggest you tackle the issue from the other end. Figure out what you need your site to do - and then search Marten’s site for solutions (most developers also have their stacks grouped by function). If, after looking through Marten’s descriptions, you’re still not sure which stack would best fit your needs - then come back over here and provide a detailed description of what you’re needing. Take MAPS, for example. There are a dozen stacks listed - even after reading through them I might not know which one would work best for my needs. So…I’d post a message over here explaining exactly what I want the stack to do on my page (and, I’d provide a link to an example from someone else’s website) - and I’m quite confident that I’ll quickly get several replies pointing me in the right direction.
Hope this helps.
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Dave - that is Really excellent. Somehow I had missed that page but not any more. It’s now bookmarked. Thank you! Now, time to get Weaving …
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Have to agree as a newbie as well. Veterans need to understand that learning curves are, well, learning curves. Turtle’s response below, for example, is much more in line with what is helpful for us. The veiled " you should know this" doesn’t advance our learning process.
Just saying
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No, actually, I don’t think it is “perfectly” ok, as it has the “you-should-know-this-already” message.
Veterans: please cut to the chase, and dispense, with the rest
Many thanks for helping, no matter what
One way is to choose a stack, and then find the gear icon and choose “Show Online Info” and if the developer has it set up right, it should take you to the product page of the stack. (little note - some of Joe’s latest updates are not working the way they should and will bring you to the Foundation site, we are working to fix this issue).
Remember get a responsive layout…
Here is my solutions as to what does what. Many Stacks and plug ins come with PDF Documentation or a URL that you can save a print to PDF. I make sure they are all labeled well when I buy them and save them all in a folder on Dropbox so they are available on all my connected devices. I recommend you keep a running document on Snippets as well as they may or may not be documented. For my own snippets that I have created I have a Pages Document that I have grouped all this in and is searchable of course.