XLEcom Version 3.4 Released

Version 3.4 (3.4.413) released on September 21, 2005

New Features:

• Product Ad Height Override Adjustment
• Site Properties - Dimensions
• Left Frame / Area Region Additional User Code

Product Ad Height Override Adjustment
Use these settings to adjust the Item Name and Item Description table cell heights to make all your Published Product Ads the same vertical size within your web site. See the sample diagram below.

Note: These settings only affect the Products Ads if you selected the Two Ad Column Layout. The Single Ad Column Layout does not need to or utilize these settings. You can also apply the Item Name cell height to the Product Ads that appear on the Home Page with Ads. These settings will provide no benefit if you chose to "Automatically resizes with the browser window" within the Ad Design utility.

What does the Adjustment Do?
This is an optional feature for "tweaking" the look of your Product Ads if you selected the Two Ad Column Layout format. In most situations, not all of your Product Ads will contain the same amount of text in either the Item Name or Item Description. Therefore when published, each individual Product Ad may appear to have different vertical heights due to text wrapping within the table cells. Use these adjustment settings to add extra space below the text within these designated table cell areas so that all of your published ads will have the same vertical height.

How to Achieve the Best Results
For best results, implement these settings after you have finished creating all of your Product Ads and are ready to Publish your final web site.

To determine the ideal pixel values to enter into the edit boxes, first Publish your web site without utilizing these settings (unchecked boxes). Next, by viewing the published web site in your web browser, find the Product Ad that yielded the largest vertical height and leave this Product Ad viewable on your monitor. Next, switch back to this program, check the Cell Height box(es) and enter some initial pixel values into the edit boxes and press the Preview Ad button to display the current Product Ad in a new browser window. Now place both the Preview Ad and previously Published Product Ad browser windows side by side to determine the new height adjustment pixel values you need to enter in order to make the vertical height of the Preview Ad match the height of the Published Product Ad that yielded the largest vertical height. You may have to repeat this Preview step a few times to determine the ideal values. Note: If you chose to suppress publishing of the longer Item Descriptions (Product Ad Display Override Options), then the Item Description Cell Height will have no affect. This is also true for the Product Ads that appear on the Home Page with Ads because the longer Item Descriptions are not present.

Below are screen shot images showing the newly added feature.

Note: These settings only affect the Products Ads if you selected the Two Ad Column Layout as shown in the examples below.

Example 1 - Before Adjusting the Item Name Cell Height
Product Ad web page with the long Item descriptions turned off. This page was published as is, without using any cell height Adjustment. Notice how each of the four product ads have different vertical heights.

Example 1 - After Adjusting the Item Name Cell Height
This same page was published again using the cell height Adjustment. Notice how each of the four product ads now have the same vertical heights.

Example 2 - Before Adjusting the Item Description Cell Height
Product Ad web page with the long Item descriptions turned on. This page was published as is, without using any cell height Adjustment. Notice how each of the four product ads have different vertical heights.

Example 2 - After Adjusting the Item Description Cell Height
This same page was published again using the cell height Adjustment. Notice how each of the four product ads now have the same vertical heights.

Site Properties - Dimensions
The "Page width" defines the width of the page for Non Framed sites. It also affects the area widths of the Company Name and Navigation menus along the top of the page for both Framed and Non framed sites. The "Company Name width" is the area width allocated for the Company Name. The width area allocated to the Top Navigation menus is calculated based on the "Page width" and "Company Name width". The formula is "Page width" - "Company Name width" - 6 = Top Navigation menus width area (ie. using the default values, this would be: 757 - 260 - 6 = 491 pixels).

Below is a screen shot image showing the newly added feature.

Below is a screen shot image of a Preview page showing both the Page and Top Frame / Area width dimensions.

Left Frame / Area Region Additional User Code
If you want to add additional information to the bottom of the left side area, the area underneath the Copyright Note, then check the check box and enter in plain text or HTML code. If you do not want to have the additional information added to the site, then uncheck the check box. The edit box is limited to 254 characters.

Note: You can use the Additional User Code feature to create an Advertisement Block. For more detailed information on creating an Advertisement Block, refer to this page: How to Create an Advertisement Block

Below is a screen shot image showing the newly added feature.

Sam Raheb
XLEcom Program Developer