Blocks 3.3.3

Blocks is a very useful plugin for RapidWeaver. It allows you to place blocks of text, graphics, and even raw HTML onto your page wherever you like.

Drag blocks around, overlap content and resize them.

All in a plugin that is as easy to use as RapidWeaver itself.

Here are some key features of "Blocks":

· Drag. Drop. You're done. - When we designed Blocks we wanted to make it as easy as possible to create just about anything. Nothing is easier than drag and drop. Just drag images, text, and HTML right where you want it to go. That's where it will appear.
· Control Freak. - Resize with ease, use grids get things straight and dynamic guides to align your content. And when you want even more control use the Block Inspector to position each block right down to the exact pixel.
· Content Only Please! - Just like everything in RapidWeaver, when you edit your content you don't have to worry about the style of your page. They're kept separate to simplify your job.
· But, Will it Blend? - Keeping the style separate means you can add simple content like images and text or complex content like HTML, Javascript and even PHP. Want to add a Digg button? No problem. How about a Flickr badge? Absolutely. If you can put it on the web, you can probably put it in Blocks.
· Build, Reuse, Share. - When designing anything we often reuse the same elements again and again. Blocks allows you to save your favorite blocks quickly and easily. Images, text and even HTML code can be saved to the library and then easily dropped into any Blocks layout.
· Grass Roots. - Everyone who knows RapidWeaver knows that it's a community effort. The forum, the blogs... everyone... loves to help contribute. That's why library items are easy to share. Have you built a great Flickr badge? A YouTube block? The forum is listening!
· One Block or a Whole Page - One is never enough and sometimes you just want it all. That's why you can save all of your blocks to a Library Page template. With one click you can create a reusable template that can be dragged to any Blocks page on your site.
· Integration is a Good Thing - Like all your RapidWeaver add-ons library items live in your RapidWeaver folder. But Blocks will also have a look inside your theme too. Be on the lookout for new themes with Blocks support. Pro theme, pro template -- all you need is content. Life is good.
· Layout Once Publish Many - Because websites often need to repeat the same content over an over again master pages allow you to define your layout once then let each page add its own content to the layout. But master pages are not just page templates, they're so much better! A master page is live -- you can keep editing the layout even after other pages have added their own content.
· Confused? - Library Pages, themes, styles, templates... wow, it's a lot of terms that mean almost the same thing. Don't worry we've made a screencast to help you out. It shows just how to use master pages and library pages to build a live layout for your site.
· Build Up, Stay Flexible - You can easily build pages up from several masters. Create a menu-master, a header master, and a content master. Stack them up one on top of the other. All the while all those items stay flexible and editable no matter how many pages subscribe to them.
· Smart Is Better - Blocks 3.0 brings great ways to reuse your own content (library blocks), your own layout (master pages), your own pages (library pages), and even content from other page types (Page Blocks). What more can we do? We can make everything smarter. Smart Blocks allow you to add special tags to your code that can connect to the properties of your blocks or even add GUI controls to your layout.
· Code for Geeks - GUI for Users - Smart blocks let you add simple tags to your HTML code that Blocks will reveal as an GUI interface. If you're a alpha-geek this lets you build reusable, shareable blocks that have complex features but appear to users as a simple, easy to understand GUI.
· Get Hooked! - Smart blocks can hook right in to the properties of a block. Need the width and height of block for a Javscript? No problem. Want to send the border color of a block to an embedded Flash ActionScript? Easy.
· Mashup Your Site - When you're designing a great site you need to have the flexibility to add any content you need -- even content from other page styles. Page Blocks let you embed other pages right into your Blocks layout.
· Not just a iFrame - Many sites use iFrames to embed content, but iFrames don't just include the content, they include everything from the page, menus and all. Page blocks extract only the content from your other pages so that the integration is seemless. In fact, this content that you're reading is a Carousel page embedded in a Blocks page with a page block. Cool, huh!?
· Get Unsafe - Web safe fonts can be such a bore. And you never really know exactly how they'll look on every weird, old, strange web browser. That's why we built Image Text into blocks. Image text allows you to use any font you like and render it exactly as you see it in Edit mode. The rendered fonts are placed in an image and positioned so they appear exactly as you see them edit mode, right down to the last pixel.
· True WYSIWYG - The web is not usually a perfect model for WYSIWYG. Fonts change, spacing is different, a wide variety of browsers all conspire to make What You See Kinda A Bit Like What You Get. The web is usually WYSKABLWYG. It doesn't roll off the tongue. Image Text is an island of predictability in the sea of web chaos. Image text really is WYSIWYG.

Requirements:

· RapidWeaver

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Fix: Page blocks, including Accordions, now import images correctly.