Convert regular page into a master page

[Jon Chambers]

I spent ages getting my master page just perfect, and then I realised... it's not a master page. It's a regular page. How do I take all of my hard work and put it into a master? I don't want to have to spend hours redoing everything.

[Pavel_Homeriki]

Refine the terms that you use - do you need a master page or main page? Make a screenshot of the plan mode and indicate on it the page that you want to make the main or мaster.

[Jon Chambers]

I did not mean "main", I definitely meant "master". That is, I want this page to be a template for all other pages.

[Günter Heißenbüttel]

Select all on your page and menu „Paste in Place“ onto your master page.

[Jon Chambers]

I tried it. The background texture did not copy, the break points did not copy. By extension, the location of where each item moves to for each break point did not copy. Do I have to do all that again!?

[Günter Heißenbüttel · Accepted solution]

Did you ever have a look in Muse’s menus?

Ok, then step by step:

• Take an element, no matter which.
• Copy it.
• Go to master page (Same width as your layout page)
• Go to menu „Edit/Paste and Create Breakpoints"
• Delete the copied element. It isn’t needed any more.
• Go to layout page and select all.
• Go to master page and choose „Paste in Place“.
• Fill the browser background with your texture.

Guess, this is a less-than-one-minute-work.

[Jon Chambers]

The fact that this is the most quick and easy technique depresses me. Hopefully I was right to mark you as correct. If you don't hear from me for an hour, it was.

[Jon Chambers]

Okay, close enough. That was a huge time saver, but still far from perfect. Nothing copies unless it's visible on the page it's copied from, and paste in place only seemed to paste in place on the current break point. The rest of the break points weren't quite in place for some reason I can't figure out. Oh well. More motivation to get off my ass and learn Dreamweaver I guess.

[Günter Heißenbüttel]

Weird! You really think, you are faster with Dreamweaver! Really? A homepage, which is done in Muse within 2 days will at least need weeks and weeks to accomplish in DW.

It’s is quite funny: You made a mistake, and are complaining, that Muse doesn’t correct you within seconds. (I know the answer: „That’s why I have a computer!“ )

Between my „How To“ post and your „Done“ are lying 4 minutes. Not too much, I think …

But if this feature is that important for you: Feel free to post a feature request.

[Jon Chambers]

With products like Audition, Photoshop, and inDesign (and eventually Illustrator, but I'm still cutting my teeth on that), the time it takes me to think of what I want done isn't much faster than the time it takes me to get it done, because of all the key rebindings, plug ins, data merge, and other features. Even with premiere and after effects, although I have to google everything before I do it, the solution is usually two or three mouse clicks tops. I even remember googling how to pre-render in Premiere and the answer was "press enter".

Compared with Microsoft products, they take a lot longer to learn, and a lot longer to do something basic (like make a text box or word art, for example) but very accurate at understanding exactly what I want, to the pixel, and reaching that perfection in the fewest clicks and key-strokes possible.

Let's call this consumer level and professional level. I've even had similar experiences with consumer level and professional level coding. (I never got very good at it, but I grasped the basics well.)

Many products, I've noticed the early warning signs, but stuck with them. Warning signs are a things like a feature that behaves in almost the way I'd expect, but not exactly the way I'd expect. Or the computer taking too long to complete a task that should be simple. For the most part, I have ignored the warning signs and continued on until whatever project I was working on had reached the point of no return, and the task I wanted to complete next was literally impossible under the given software.

My experiences with Muse have all been warning signs. Sailing out to sea, but hearing the creaking of wood. It's scary, considering my high hopes and aspirations for the site. I have been putting off learning Dreamweaver for ages, but every now and then something reminds me, Muse is consumer level, and it may not always do what I want it to. I've been able to work around its quirks for now. I have buttons with undeletable but empty text boxes attached. I have objects where the X and Y co-ordinates are not integer values, but only the integer value is displayed to me. If I don't pin an object, but stop it from resizing, the mirror image of the behaviour it displays cannot be created at all. It is a purely asymmetrical feature. Whether or not an object moves downwards to accommodate an expanding textbox seems to relate to where I put it, but if I re position it with the arrows, the behaviour doesn't change from where it was.

These are all warning signs. Creaking of the wood, so to speak. None of these things are deal breakers yet, but I fear the next one probably will be. Muse is too "helpful", often forcing me to out-think and out-play its "helpful"ness in order to avoid it making the website it wants to make, rather than the website I want to make.

[Jon Chambers]

Another wood creak:

Want to see what your site looks like once pixel before the break point? Your options:
-Drop your mouse sensitivity right down, export the page to browser, then look for the break point though trial and error. (Most accurate method.)
-Drop your mouse sensitivity right down, drag the slider just before the break point, BUT DO NOT LET GO! As soon as you let go, it snaps to the nearest break point.

Also, want two break points close to each other? You can't. There is an arbitrary minimum distance between break points, and no way around it.

None of these are problems yet, but they still make me nervous.

[Günter Heißenbüttel]

You really think, that is true? Just try again!

[Pavel_Homeriki]

Q4T  написал(а)

Another wood creak:

Want to see what your site looks like once pixel before the break point? Your options:
-Drop your mouse sensitivity right down, export the page to browser, then look for the break point though trial and error. (Most accurate method.)
-Drop your mouse sensitivity right down, drag the slider just before the break point, BUT DO NOT LET GO! As soon as you let go, it snaps to the nearest break point.

Also, want two break points close to each other? You can't. There is an arbitrary minimum distance between break points, and no way around it.

None of these are problems yet, but they still make me nervous.

I think you really need to start training at Dreamweaver. Then you will understand that this works in the html environment in general, and not only in the Muse. For example, in the html coordinate environment, there are no fractional numbers. Fractional numbers are only in graphic editors, as an illustrator. Setting breakpoints close to each other is unprofessional. We need to think over the layout design so that we do not allow the breakpoints close to each other. For most sites, only 4 breakpoints are sufficient. But beginners do 10 or more.

[Jon Chambers]

You may be right about my views changing as soon as I see how much work it is to create even the simplest page. I can only speculate until I learn the software.

I think you misunderstood what I meant about wood creaking. I don't want fractional numbers, break points close to each other, or even more than four break points. That's not the point. The point is that the software doesn't tell me what those fractional numbers are, and it has an arbitrary limitation to protect me from my own stupid design choices.

It's like having a very bossy co-worker who I so far happen to agree with on everything. Muse and I are getting along so far, but it feels like it's out of luck, and any moment Muse and I will get into a fight over something, it will dig its heels in the ground, and I will have to concede. It hasn't happened yet, but I get a sense that it will.

Contrast this with photoshop. If I say to photoshop, "I want a textbox one pixel wide and one pixel tall", it doesn't judge me. It merely asks me what font I'd like that pixel to be. I can sense the different design philosophy between the two products. Photoshop does what it's told without question. Muse only does what it's told if it agrees with me. When it disagrees, it's not open to negotiations or workarounds.

Dreamweaver, by contrast, does EXACTLY what it's told (as far as I understand) whether it agrees with me or not. Maybe I'll come running back to Muse. Time shall tell.

[strangepork]

I would simplify this as:

 - create a new blank master

 - make sure your regular page has no master, if so remove it

 - double click regular page to open it

 - Edit Menmu -> Select All

 - Edit Menu -> Copy

 - Double Click Blank Master

 - Edit -> Paste in Place