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What is it?

The Consolidate CSS option can be found in the RapidWeaver > Preferences section as a Publishing > Advanced option.

Consolidate CSS

By default RapidWeaver will not consolidate your CSS files.

If selected, all your CSS files will be combined into one CSS file. This works well with RapidWeaver’s built-in themes, but can cause major conflicts with 3rd party developers’ themes and more specifically with those that have a high amount of customization options.

What Use It?

The only reason, that I’m aware of, why anyone would like to use this option is entirely due to Internet Explorer’s (IE) nonsensical structure. IE is the only mainstream browser on the market that limits the amount of stylesheets that can be called within a single webpage. If you go over that limit, 31 stylesheets, all additional stylesheets (32 and up) will be completely ignored.

Well of course Microsoft has realized this problem and made sure to stop such nonsense in the latest versions of IE (8, 9, 10) right? NOPE! They haven’t – nothing has changed in this area. If you’re running IE6 or IE10 you are still limited to this archaic rule. Will they ever fix this? My guess is no, because they don’t care at all about their customers or developers as you might have noticed, whether you follow any of their products (i.e. Windows, Office, XBox, etc).

My Recommendation

If you’re using a browsers with built-in code inspecting tools, my favorite being Chrome, you can right click and select “Inspect Element,” which will bring up a section in your browser where you can view the code. If you go to “Resources” you can see all the stylesheets that are being called in.

I recommend that if this amount is not over 31 then you really have no reason to consolidate CSS.

A majority of our themes often contain a stylesheet count somewhere in the lower 20’s. Why so many? RapidWeaver structure requires theme style options to work largely by alternating between different stylesheets – in other words, it’s just the way RapidWeaver is built.

What if I have a ton of Stacks on a page? No worries there – Stacks already consolidates the CSS, so if you have one stack or several there is still only a single stylesheet being called in.

RapidWeaver Stack Tutorials

RapidWeaver Theme Tutorials

RapidWeaver Project Documentation

Tutorials and documentation for all 1LD Project files can be found at the link below.

See Documentation

Get the power of a framework, for the price of a theme, in the convenience of a prebuilt RapidWeaver project file

Blog

Movable Windows

Move beyond the confines of static content layouts! Movable Windows allows your page visitors to effortlessly drag and reposition custom content windows anywhere in the browser viewport. Windows can be minimized to free up space and stay fixed to the browser viewport so they are always accessible.

Resize & Minimize

Windows can be resized to take up more or less space, or maximized to fill the entire screen. But that’s not all – these windows are like handy sidekicks, always ready to assist. Need quick reference? No problem! Windows can be minimized when not in use, saving precious screen space for what really matters – your page content.

Inline

Open windows stay fixed on screen so they are always accessible. Minimized windows have three modes to choose from. “Inline” keeps it in line with other content, “Fixed” is always on screen, and “Draggable” lets you move it around while minimized.

Customizable

It’s not just about functionality; it’s about style too. Customize your windows by size, position, and color. Add in text, images, forms, links – you name it! Want a little more flair? Allow window resizing, choose whether they start minimized or open, change the toggle icon, or hide the window title when minimized.

Check it out!

 

 

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