Webuilder 2011: Cannot run with 2010; preview display dark

[Hondoe]

Hi!

I just installed the new 2011 version and:

1. One can no longer run the 2010 version side-by-side with the 2011 version, which prevents easily replicating customized settings from one to the other. (E.g. I created both a right-click menu and a CNTL-J menu. The latter successfully transferred to the new version, but I will need to reconstruct the former.)

If the 2010 version is open, and one clicks on the 2011 icon on the desktop, the focus just switches to the open 2010 version instead of running the 2011 version.

2. As reported during the beta testing, with Internet Explorer as the default browser and Synchronize with Cursor turned on in the Preview window, the preview display is dark gray except the line the cursor is nearest if it has been clicked on (otherwise, everything is dark gray). see example at:

http://www.soulhealing.com/WeBuilderPreviewBug.png

Actually, on further testing, I clicked on a section of code in a different HTML file, and the new version highlighted a big section of the screen:

http://www.soulhealing.com/WeBuilderPreviewBug2.png

making it impossible to know which line had been clicked on, at least by WeBuilder's highlighting (I.e. the area not grayed out).

In the third file, things got even worse. The program "highlighted" the right 2/3's of the screen and grayed out the left 1/3:

http://www.soulhealing.com/WeBuilderPreviewBug3.png

The examples will make the issue clearer.

If you could make the dark gray a much lighter gray, this would be very helpful, because the dark gray makes it hard to read the surrounding text and is visually very unattractive. And if you could abandon the highlighting "feature" completely instead, that might be best, since it is not functioning correctly as the two above examples show, anyway. In other words, it would serve most of us if the program simply sync-ed between the code and the preview by moving the display of the preview to the area in the code we are working on, without the highlighting attempt.

[Karlis]

1. One can no longer run the 2010 version side-by-side with the 2011 version.

This is by design it prevents settings loss and also is more convenient.

the preview display is dark gray except the line the cursor is nearest if it has been clicked on (otherwise, everything is dark gray).

This is by design, the code area (tag, layer etc.) is highlighted and everything else is grayed to see which part the cursor is in. I agree, due to some special or non-standard layouts, the system may draw a bit incorrectly (last screenshot), but it is a normal operation to have the dat/layer/area with the cursor in code editor highlighted in preview while leaving everything else grayed out, it is by design. If you do not like "graying out", you can submit feature request to change this, but it is not a bug.

[robermtl]

I just purchased webuilder 2011.
When I select some html the preview turns gray and the preview associated with the selected html is light colored
I do not like this feature at all - how do I turn it off it is interfering with my work today, please help!
I would prefer to use the 2010 version but I cannot activate it with the 2011 license
How can I use the older version as so far it is better in my experience?

[chrisjlocke]

At the top of the preview pane, on the right hand side, you have a couple of icons. Click the second one, "Tools". Click that and turn off 'Syncronize with cursor".

[davenz]

@robermtl

If you have a registered version of 2010, then you can simply uninstall the 2011 version and use only 2010 (it might need reinstalling to work properly, though I doubt it). However, as chrisjlocke has suggested, you can just turn off the synchronise with cursor function, which only works with IE at this point, or use the Mozilla control for previewing. Someone else mentioned the highlighting colour as being too dark with their workspace set-up, perhaps if enough users submit a feature request to be able to change the highlight colour the devs will look at adding that option. Unless you ask, they won't know.

Like any new feature, we all have to get used to it. I wasn't impressed on first look, though after using it for a while and getting to know the quirks and how it has been implemented, I'm happy with it and can use it. The whole synchronise feature needs solid testing by hundreds of users and it may end up evolving or it might not, we'll just have to see. At least you can turn it off if you don't like it. There are plenty of other improvements and benefits of using 2011, so if that's the only thing you don't like, it is easy enough to work around and you can then stick with it instead of retrograding to 2010.

Dave
davethompson.co.nz

[Hondoe]

Karlis, thanks for your reply. It's been a bit of time since I checked the forum, and for some reason even though I thought that I checked the "Notify me when a reply is posted" box, I didn't know that you had replied.

Our dialog went like this:

Hondoe wrote: the preview display is dark gray except the line the cursor is nearest if it has been clicked on (otherwise, everything is dark gray). [and then I posted several examples where the highlighting failed completely to work accurately]

Karlis wrote: This is by design, the code area (tag, layer etc.) is highlighted and everything else is grayed to see which part the cursor is in. I agree, due to some special or non-standard layouts, the system may draw a bit incorrectly (last screenshot), but it is a normal operation to have the dat/layer/area with the cursor in code editor highlighted in preview while leaving everything else grayed out, it is by design. If you do not like "graying out", you can submit feature request to change this, but it is not a bug.

While I strongly disagree that this is not a bug, since the highlighting feature more often fails to highlight the correct text than does it correctly...

I would like you to please, please add this as a feature request: to have the option to turn off the highlighting feature. Until you do so, I just cannot even use WeBuilder 2011... the weird highlighting bugs make it impossible.

[davenz]

Hondoe, can't you already turn the highlighting off? As Chisjlocke already suggested, just disable cursor synchronization using the tools icon above the preview window (next to the IE and Firefox logos). This means you don't get the grey overlay or cursor placement (which works pretty well on my box by the way, certainly not going to the wrong place 'more often than not').

Dave

[Hondoe]

I'm responding to this message:

davenz » Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:43 pm
Hondoe, can't you already turn the highlighting off? As Chisjlocke already suggested, just disable cursor synchronization using the tools icon above the preview window (next to the IE and Firefox logos). This means you don't get the grey overlay or cursor placement (which works pretty well on my box by the way, certainly not going to the wrong place 'more often than not').

I actually anticipated this feedback last night in the wee hours!

If I disable cursor synchronization, then I might as well stay with version 10, which is what I'm doing, because the most important feature in version 11 is cursor synchronization.

But I've written an extensive article on the DonationCoder forum about HTML editors and cursor synchronization and wanted to add WeBuilder to that article, but can't unless the very flawed highlighting feature is fixed or allowed to be diabled. Ironically, I agree with you that the cursor synchronization does work in v.11 pretty well, it's the highlighting (very dark gray on my system of all text except the highlighted line, making context hard to see, and worse, very odd shapes of "highlighting" way too often) that makes the update unusable to me.

The reason that I did days of research in prep for the DonationCoder article was indeed because cursor synchronization is a feature I've been wanting to see available and well-executed for a very long time, and once WeBuilder is able to execute this function without the highlighting enabled, it will be the top program out there, and I can't wait to use it as such and add it to my article.

Thanks for writing in.

[RoyReed]

Just to add my say, the grey overlay is too dark. A pale grey tint would be sufficient. Maybe an option to choose the tint would be appreciated.

[Gatis]

Hi,

Thanks for all the feedback.
I will write down the suggestions about the changing color for the Preview Pane when Cursor Synchronization is used. But I doubt we are going to change this. I wonder why nobody was complaining about the same color when Xray feature is used..?

Those who desperately need lighter background for preview area when synchronization feature is used, can do it themselves using following simple workaround:
1) close the editor;
2) open file C:\Program Files\WeBuilder 2011\data\xray.js
3) replace all occurrences of "opacity=50" to "opacity=10".
4) save the changes you made and start the editor;

One more note.
If somebody really does not like the Cursor-Preview synchronization feature, you can turn it off by default for all files (so you do not have to change this each time you open a file) under Main Menu; View; disable option "Synchronize Preview" and then restart the editor.

Kind regards,
Gatis Avots

[Hondoe]

Dear Gatis,

Thank you very much for the lightening instructions. They indeed work.

However, the Cursor Synchronization feature really is incredibly flawed in version 11. I've researched Cursor Synchonization very thoroughly in other programs and it actually works in a few other programs, but they are dismal HTML editors and so I would sacrifice Cursor Synchronization for all of the great features of WeBuilder. As I mentioned, I have written an article on at DonationCoder's forum.

I really hope, hope, hope that the Cursor Synchronization feature can be significantly improved. I just tried it on two HTML files and it completely failed.

Thanks for listening.

[Gatis]

However, the Cursor Synchronization feature really is incredibly flawed in version 11. I've researched Cursor Synchonization very thoroughly in other programs and it actually works in a few other programs, but they are dismal HTML editors and so I would sacrifice Cursor Synchronization for all of the great features of WeBuilder. As I mentioned, I have written an article on at DonationCoder's forum.

I admit feeling a bit offended, but I do not agree the cursor-preview synchronization feature can be labelled as "incredibly flawed".
Yes, it does not synchronize sometimes correctly (if not always, when no textual or graphical element can be found up to the root of where you clicked). But for the nearest time coming the algorithm won't be changed.

Features you can not use need to be turned off.

[davenz]

I have Microsoft's Expression Web 3 installed, (not that I use it - I got it free as part of some dealer thing), and that has cursor synchronisation.Webuilder's synch feature works just as well for me. I wouldn't call the feature incredibly flawed either if that is any consolation Gatis; I see the editor as a work in progress and I think you guys have done an incredible job, considering as far as I know you are a very small development team whereas Microsoft probably had dozens of high-end caffeine junkies working around the clock for years and spent a gazillion dollars in R&D developing Expression Web and though it is admittedly very well done, like most Microsoft software, the way it works is just not intuitive - like most Microsoft software - and I just can't work with it like I can with WeBuilder. I know which editor I'll be sticking with.

I too have tried many other editors, if not all of them available for download/trial, and none have the holistic feel of WeBuilder and bang-for-buck value. As I've said in the past, I'm not a real coder so maybe my opinion isn't worth a damn, but although WeBuilder has its quirks (as does all software), none are show-stoppers for me, hence I'll stick by it.

Dave
davethompson.co.nz

[Hondoe]

Dear Gatis,

Please forgive me if I've offended you. Since WeBuilder has the best interface of any HTML editor that I have tested or used (and I have explored dozens), and since I was incredibly eager and anticipating the cursor synchronization feature in the 2011 version, I was simply very disappointed that for so many of my HTML files, it just doesn't work.

If you would like me to email to you a few that it doesn't work in, so that we can find out why, I'd be happy to do so.

Again, I really love WeBuilder and think you've done an incredible job with it. So please accept my apology.

[davenz]

I have found an opacity value of 20 suits the majority of my pages, however I am making one site at the moment that uses a background of #1E1A17 and a large sliced image for the text area and even the higher opacity value of 50 is completely lost on this page. It is probably impossible, though it would be an excellent feature to detect the background colour (if any) and alter the highlight to suit, or as has been suggested, offer an option to set the colour, or at least offer, say half a dozen shades between dark and light grey (or even white). Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with how it is working, merely that it is somewhat limited against certain pages.

This would create more work the developers don't need and haven't planned for, however this could be a feature request as obviously some people are having issues with it.

Just my two cents

Cheers