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Navigation Sidebar Tab Overview
Summary: The Navigation Sidebar tab of the RWD form contains the controls required to build an organized list of links on your web page. The number of links (or rows) possible on the Navigation Sidebar is limitless but best practices dictate that the Navigation Sidebar be fairly short with links that correspond either to sections of the existing page or pages related to the topic on the current page.
Navigation Sidebar Master Switch
Function: This drop-down menu lets you select whether to have a sidebar or not, and if you do, which side of the web page to have it on. Note: If you set the Navigation Sidebar to appear on the right side of the web page and you are using the Information sidebar, the Information Sidebar will move from the right side of the page over to the left side. Depending on the configuration of RWD in your School or District, this switch may only remove your links and not actually remove the Navigation Sidebar from the page itself.
*Tips and Tricks: The Navigation Sidebar is a good way to give your site structure; by using headlines you can effectively group links by subject or relevance. Experiment with images and graphical lines to create page effects.
Content
Summary: This section of the Navigation Sidebar tab contains the table that is used to input all the links (text or graphical) into the Navigation Sidebar and to determine if links will be formatted as Headlines or Regular list links.
The image below illustrates how the web page looks based on the items entered in the Page Builder Form.
1) Add New Row / Remove Selected Row / Insert New Row
Function: These buttons allow you to manage the links that will appear in this section.
Add New Row: Creates a blank row after the last existing row
Remove Selected Row: Deletes the rows that is currently selected
Insert New Row: Creates a new row above the currently selected row. To Insert a row, click in the row below where you want the inserted row to appear and then click on the Insert New Row button.
Note: It may appear that the feature is functioning properly at when you insert rows at first but once you click into the other rows or close the RWD form and re-open it, the rows will appear properly.
2) Collapse Non-Headlines
Function: If this checkbox is checked, then the link will become a Headline in the Navigation Sidebar. If left unchecked, the text will take on the format of Regular links. The difference in the format of these two options is set in the Modify Colors and Fonts Tab
3) Headline
Function: If this checkbox is checked, then the link will become a Headline in the Navigation Sidebar. If left unchecked, the text will take on the format of Regular links.
4) Display Text
Function: This field contains the text that the web user sees on the web page for a given link (as defined in the Link To field below). The text in this field is not a link itself, only a description of the link to make it easier for the web user to understand.
5) Use Image
Function: This checkbox determines whether RWD should use an image or text for a specified link in the Navigation Sidebar. If checked, the Image Path/Filename field will be come visible. You must supply a valid path and file name for the image.
6) Image Path/File Name
Function: Used in conjunction with the the Use Image Checkbox, this field contains the path and file name of a valid graphical image that will replace the text in this row.
7) Link To
Function: This field contains the actual URL of the link. The URL can be a place on the same page, another RWD page (or any other document in your site), or another internet site entirely. If using a web URL (as opposed to an internal relative path to a marker or document), make sure to use the entire http protocol syntax: http://www.yourURL.com
8) Open in New Window
Function: This option will determine whether the page specified in the link will open in a new browser window or if the link will open in the current window. We recommend that links to other sites open in new windows (so that you don't lose the web user to another site), and links that are internal (to places in the existing page or other site pages) open in the same browser window to avoid too many windows opening up.
9) Special Format
Function: This new feature (version 2) replaces the need to type special syntax when opening FirstClass content such as Calendars, Folders, and Conferences. With this feature, you simply type the name of the folder, conference or calendar you want to open (preceded by the path to that object if it is not in the same container as the page containing the link).
Also new in Version 2 is the ability to show Calendars in any of three default views - Month view, Week View or Current Day View.
Select the appropriate item from the list to set the link to open the way you want:
Setting |
Purpose /Effect |
none |
The default value which is used for all links that are NOT FirstClass container objects (calendars, folders, conferences, etc) unless the conference or folder being opened contains a web page. Links to other pages in the site, markers in pages, or other, external websites should be set to none. This is BY FAR the most common setting |
FirstClass Object |
Use FirstClass Object to open folders or conferences in a list view. DO NOT use this setting to open a web page itself because this setting causes a frame to be created that is meant to be filled with FirstClass documents of messages. You could use this setting if you wanted to display an external website in the Page Body area of your RWD page however. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Calendar Monthly View |
Use this setting to open a calendar in a Month view inside a frame that will replace the page body content of the current page. Users can switch between views when viewing the calendar on the web. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Calendar Weekly View |
Use this setting to open a calendar in a Week view inside a frame that will replace the page body content of the current page. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Calendar Daily View |
Use this setting to open a calendar in a Month view inside a frame that will replace the page body content of the current page. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
RWD Nav Left |
Almost exactly the same as the FirstClass Object setting, use this to open folders or conferences in a list view. The difference with this setting is that any subconferences or subfolders in the container being opened up will appear down the left side of the frame as opposed to at the top of the frame.
Again, DO NOT use this setting to open a web page itself because this setting causes a frame to be created that is meant to be filled with FirstClass documents of messages. You could use this setting if you wanted to display an external website in the Page Body area of your RWD page however. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
RWD Nav Top |
This setting currently functions exactly in the same way as the FirstClass Object setting but may change a little in a future release of RWD. Essentially it is only slightly different than the RWD Nav Left setting because in the RWD Nav Top setting, subfolders and conferences and calendars are all listed horizontally above the list view of the conference being opened DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Message Blog |
This setting displays the contents of a folder or conference in a Blog view. The container being opened must have the Preview feature activated to operate fully. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Fixed Height |
Similar to the FC Templates and RWD Nav left and Top settings, this setting forces the framed area to remain 600 pixels high, regardless of how many or how few items are in the conference or folder that you are opening. This rectifies a problem faced when a list of documents was opened with only a few items in the list. It also fixes the problem some users experienced when opening PDF or Word files inside the frame where the document would open in a very short window. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW
(leave checkbox unchecked) |
Podcast |
FirstClass Podcasts have been added to the pickers in RWD and if you wish to have a link to a Podcast, use this setting as the special format for the link. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Embed Today's Events |
New in RWD version 3 is the ability to embed calendars and conferences or folders right in the Navigation Sidebar. This setting embeds a list view of a specific calendar (must be named in the Link To field) for today's events only. Clicking on the event will open the named calendar to that specific event. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Embed Monthly Calendar |
This setting embeds a Month view of a specific calendar (must be named in the Link To field) which will show days with events in them as bold. Hovering a mouse over any day with events in it will pop up a window showing the events for that day listed. Clicking on a specific event opens the calendar to that event and clicking anywhere other than on a specific event opens the calendar to that specific day. The Month Name and year will display as a Headline. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox
unchecked) |
Embed Container |
The content of conferences and folders can be displayed in the Navigation Sidebar as a list. The list will show up to the 6 most recent items (most recent at the top) but the Headline will indicate how many items are in the container. Hovering the mouse over any item will pop up a window with a preview of the underlying content and clicking on an item in the will open that item to display the whole contents of the document / message. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Embed Container Scrolling |
This is the same format as the Embed Container above except that it displays all items (not just the first 6) in the conference in a scrolling format. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Insert a blank Row (RWD 4.5) |
This creates a blank row in the Navigation Sidebar. The height of the blank row can be changed by putting the pixel size you want the space to be in the Display Text field of the form. If no value is entered, a regular return will be generated at the font size as dictated in the page builder form or the .sitepref form. Click on image at right for an example:  |
Super Important Feature!: Release 4.5 of RWD has a feature that is very useful.
The situation up until this release was that if a builder made a link to a calendar or conference or folder (an object) using the special formats above, the object would open up in a frame in the current page. The confusing part is that a visitor to the website could be on a page that was called 'athletics' for example but if they clicked on a link to the class calendar or class news, these objects would just open up. Unless the web visitor was aware of what had happened, they might believe that, because the page name and title was 'Athletics', that they were looking at the Athletics News or an Athletics Calendar.
The remedy for this was some significantly complex code that had to be put in the Link field in the RWD form in order to take the web visitor to another page, say a page called 'Calendar' and then open the object.
Now the good news:
Using the new syntax, you can tell RWD to open an object (Calendar, Conference or folder) using any of the above special formats that are appropriate:
FirstClass Object
Calendar Monthly View
Calendar Weekly View
Calendar Daily View
RWD Nav Left
RWD Nav Top
Message Blog
Fixed Height
Podcast
Syntax for opening an object on a different page than the current page:
Object path and name:Page path and name - Set one of the special formats above in the special format field
Example: to open a monthly calendar called "Class_Calendar", located in the root of the teacher site (where the Class Home Page is) in a special calendar title page called "Calendar_Title", also in the root of the site, the syntax would be:
Class_Calendar:/Calendar_Title (and the special format would be set to 'Calendar Monthly View')
In the RWD Page Builder form the link above would look like:
Navigation Sidebar Tab Shown in above example
*Tips and Tricks:
If you wish to have a just a graphical bar with no links, links can be made that will only serve as graphics, by including a logo/bullet with no link included.
Not all rows have to be links, you can put in a row that simply uses a graphic to create a visual effect in the Navigation Sidebar.
When linking to another page in the same site, Open in New Window is not generally desired. However when creating a link to another site, a new window is often the best choice for the open behavior of the link.
Always open links in the same window (leave the Open in New Window field unchecked) if the link is using any special format setting other than none.
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