Frequently Asked Layout Questions

c.k.dexter-haven:

Okay, this is probably a dumb question. For story layouts on the old Mibba, you could choose where you wanted your story to be on the page, as in on the left side, center, or right side. With this new layout I can't figure out how to do that, nothing I try seems to do what I want (which is basically put the whole story area on the left side rather than the center, which is the default). Can I still do this? How?

Yup, you can. Go to Content >> Box >> Margin. You should see the right and left margin blank except for a check box; if you check "Left", it'll change the left margin to zero and shift it over to the left side of the screen. (Changing the left margin from zero will move the content box to the right, so if for example you set the left margin to 20, the content box will still be on the left side of the screen but with a little space between it and the edge.)

thanks!

I copy and pasted from my computer. It removed my paragraph indents. My story is hard to read because it is to tight together. I need to know if it is possible to get this corrected in layout maker. I am having trouble figuring it out.
Thank you.

@ writer51
There's no way to indent every paragraph of a story with the layout maker (it can't tell where paragraphs start/end), and regardless Mibba requires that you leave a space between each paragraph, like so:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.

Nulla facilisi. Donec ut ante in justo sagittis suscipit vitae sed nisl. Maecenas volutpat nisl nibh, in tempus elit. Donec nisi enim, dictum at vestibulum a, sodales ac libero. Maecenas malesuada pharetra diam. Morbi vel pellentesque erat. Ut nec mi id nisi congue dictum eu quis lacus. Cras dapibus est vel neque bibendum viverra. Etiam quis urna eu nulla tristique dignissim. Suspendisse bibendum sodales neque, vitae mollis enim cursus ut.

Praesent feugiat, elit at feugiat interdum, felis tellus bibendum eros, ut ullamcorper augue justo ac ipsum.

Ok, so I had my old layouts that I tried to update just a bit and I messed them up because of the new layout maker. Is there any way to decide where the content of the page goes? I want it on the right but I'm so lost. :/

@ Synderella Vengeance
Go to Content >> Box >> Margin. You should see the right and left margin blank except for a check box; if you check "Right", it'll change the right margin to zero and shift it over to the right side of the screen. (Changing the right margin from zero will move the content box to the left, so if for example you set the right margin to 20, the content box will still be on the right side of the screen but with a little space between it and the edge.)

I so just saw that. Lol. I feel stupid! THANK YOU!

I'm having problems with the layout maker. Please help.

For the summary background, I have this at 100% transparent, and the text colour for chapters is grey. I do not want this, I want the text to be white, when I change it, the summary background is then white, and I can't read the text. But if I change the background to how I want it, the text then changes back to grey. Why is this happening? I can't seem to have the two at the same time!

I'm using Firefox if this makes any difference. Thanks.

@ W. Axl Rose
I'm not sure I totally understand what's happening, but the background color shouldn't be affecting the font color. Just to be sure, he's where you should be changing everything:
Summary background: Summary >> Background
Summary font color: Summary >> Text >> Color
Chapter text background: Content >> Background
Chapter font color: Text >> Text >> Color

(I'm assuming you meant the text color on chapter pages; if you mean the chapter links beneath the summary on the summary page, that's controlled under Chapters >> Text >> Color.)

I can't really visualize what you're talking about, so if you could link to the story the layout is applied on that would help.

@ battalions
Haha I'm sorry, I wasn't completely sure if I explained that properly.

This is a link of a chapter of a new story I'm writing >> http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk52/xBuryMeInBlackx_2008/Capture1.png As you can see, the text is grey. This is not what I want. I want the text to be white, which I change in "Chapters" then "Text" in the layout maker, but when I set it to white, the background changes to white, even though I set it at 100% transparency, like this >> http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk52/xBuryMeInBlackx_2008/Capture2-1.png and still the colour of my text is grey, (but for some reason is white in the summary, and therefore I can't see it.) For some reason, I just can't get the actual text white, without the background being white.

I may be missing something, this is the first time I've used the new layout maker. Hopefully this has helped you understand, and may be able to help?

@ W. Axl Rose
If you want the whole story section to be transparent, you have to set the transparency to 100 in Content >> Background. (And double check that your background is transparent in Text, Summary, and Chapters >> Background; if you've been fiddling with the layout a lot you might've changed it and forgotten.)

I'm not sure why the font would be changing color. If you've been using the color picker to set it, I suggest just typing #FFFFFF into the text box; maybe there's some issue with your browser / the layout maker / both where it's not selecting the color correctly. Make sure you're doing that in Text >> Text as well as Summary >> Text and Chapters >> Text – the summary and chapters section only show up on your summary page; chapter text is controlled through Text >> Text.

Ok, so I tried to make my own layout and everything looks great except when I go to the actual story content. The words are like totally out of the box. Here How do I fix this?

@ iBleedSarcasm
It's because your Content section is set to a width of 600px and your Text section is set to a width of 706px. If you go to Text >> Box >> Width and uncheck the little check box, it'll change the Text section to automatically fit within the Content section.

@ battalions
That completely solved the problem, thanks much! :D

Okay I just made another layout and for some reason there is a huge space between the banner and the chapter list.
I dunno if this link will work, but this is what it looks like: Layout

@ iBleedSarcasm
Links to the layout maker don't work for other people; can you apply the layout to a story?

@ battalions
Sorry about that! Here you go! :D
Layout

@ iBleedSarcasm
Okay, I see what you mean now. It looks like you have two issues: 1) Title >> Box >> Padding Bottom is set to the width of your banner (640) instead of the height (442), so that's adding nearly 200px extra space between your banner and chapter title, and 2) your title text is still there; if you change Title >> Text >> Size & Title >> Text >> Line Height to zero, that should get rid of the remaining extra space.

Hope that helps.

@ battalions
It did! Thanks a lot! :D

hello...when i write my stories in Word there are parts that are in italics (such as dreams) that separates things in my story (dream from reality) so there is a mixture of both in most of my work but when i copy and paste to mibba, everything comes out in one font and i don't want that. is there a way to make the part i want to be in italics in actual italics on mibba? thanks