Adding Navigation Links - Page should exist?

Hi

I set up a site yesterday with about 10 pages.

When adding .html page names to the navigation and links I noticed I couldn’t add the link to the local page unless the page already existed.

If a page is to be used as as a template to create all other sub-pages in Webflow then I can see no way of adding links until all pages are created. So this creates a problem as, say, a 50 page website could mean updating 50 pages links in 50 pages (so 2,500 edits). Is this the case or am I missing something?

Please can you look into or advise Webflow.

Thanks.

Mike

Suggestion as a possible work around? You could create the empty pages so the link is available from the start. Copy and paste your template master page layout to the remaining pages once it is designed. Not exactly the same thing, but the only solution I have been able to come up with. The vast majority of your links and navigation would be in place and functional.

Leveraging symbols for some repeatable aspects could significantly speed the process, as any updates to your symbol components would be instanced and updated globally making it much easier to maintain and update.

Hi vlogic

Thank’s very much for the advice. This is really useful. I’ve only been using Webflow for a week or so and had only heard Symbols mentioned. I’ve investigated and tried Symbols now and this is certainly the way to go in my case. The Copy/Paste option will also be useful.

Note to Webflow: Firstly, I think this is a great product and the more I use it the better it gets. Would it be such a bad idea to have an extra option to enter any page name (i.e., one that doesn’t exist) when adding local links? As the option would be there for non-existent pages, rather than the page name being in the drop-down list, the user should be aware that it does not already exists (for any bad link issues).

Hope it helps @pnewest - and hope other people will weigh in. I am only 10 seconds ahead of you BTW - a total Webflow newbie :slight_smile:

I wonder what the scaling and complexity threshold is for symbols? I also wonder if symbols can be nested in other symbols without creating some sort of wormhole parallax? It would make the master page idea possible now. May be worth exploring. You can break a symbol at any time and it retains all of the original hierarchy, classes and objects that can then be edited further.

Oh, just checked out the teams tier subscription and at that level you apparently have access to build and share and populate using templates. Maybe if you are working on a large scale project it would be worth bumping up to that level during that dev cycle? It would pay for itself really quickly in time.

Thanks @vlogic. I found the symbols great. Not just for the menu problem but just for template regions of the page. I now have 4 symbols on http://webadore.co.uk/dev/eastkent/ ,which I’m building to learn Webflow. So the header, subpage map image, address and footer. This is great if I want to make a changes as there’s quite a few pages. Means I can show clients the site before it leaves Webflow.

Once the site is exported (finally) I’ll split into 3 sections (probably header to before content, content, then after content to footer. I’ll then use php includes to bring in the header and footer and the page itself with be the CMS bit. I use CushyCMS which my clients really like using and is really easy to set up (just wrap the cms area in a div).

But what a great tool for the design Webflow is. My only slight concern is IE compatibility at the moment. I’ve a lot of clients still using IE7 (as they are UK NHS service) - so that’s an issue. It doesn’t inspire with too much confidence when you cannot log into the main Webflow site using IE9! But, hey, things will change.

cheers
Mike

Awesome! - thanks for sharing your results (and the tip on CushyCMS). You just leapt a few months ahead of me - I will try to catch up. Webfow is pretty amazing. The more I do - the more I realize just how much.

Another thing I love is that you can also option-drag and drop from one object to the next in layout or even option+drag and drop in the Navigator tab (shortcut F). I am experimenting building a bunch of reusable objects, transitions and complex responsive thumbs and galleries with simple nested drag and drop and symbols - crazy! It is so liberating and quick - and a zillion miles away from hand coding.

Webflow is fantastic. I put together a simple site last week (my first one) and it was built in 20 minutes. The predecessor (with no fluid style) took me 8 hours using Dreamweaver. So there is the power of the package. Good luck with your site builds. Mike