I have not yet installed RSD2. I am working with RSD, but I think these comments will apply to both the older and new versions.

I am reading the introductory article for RSD at this link:

http://www.coffeecup.com/help/articles/practical-responsive-site-design-with-rsd/.

The attached photos are a grab of the layout from the help article and a grab of RSD with a resized window. I have put a few notes on the grab to show what I mean in the following statements.

Large Margin: The tutorial has a very small waste area. I would like to have zero waste area, or at least be able to adjust this. Where do I find where to do this? Why is it different for my "clean" install and the tutorial?

Column not Row Height: If you look at the tutorial, there is no "white" top and bottom border in the row compared to the "shaded" column. I have tried to find where to adjust this, with no luck in finding the control/variable to adjust it.

Goes off Edge: This is probably just my screen/display resolution, so I really don't care, but it is a noticeable difference between the two grabs.

I guess what I'm saying is that the tutorial is for absolute newbies (like me), so why did you not use a "fresh" installation of the program for your screen captures? Either RSD has changed greatly over time for these things and the tutorial needs to be updated, or the writer used his custom desktop/interface layout to do the tutorial. Due to these differences, the tutorial is confusing for a newbie, and anyone who is not a newbie would never even visit the link.

Best regards,
Don

Hi Don,
I have had a look at your images.

When you open a blank project you will find that there is a (usually) single row shown on the workspace, with a column in it. The ROW is set to 1200px by default, and the column has left and right padding applied.
To change any of the settings you need to select the element you want to change - you can do this in a couple of ways - the most reliable is to go into the 'Inspector' tab (shown as a white square with a magnifying glass on it), and from there double-click on the element you wish to alter.
You will then be taken to the 'Design' menu. From there scroll down through the various options until you find the relevant section. For the ROW, for example you can change the size in the dimensions section.

The reason that your column goes off the edge is that your view of the workspace is obscured by the right hand menu.

To see the whole work area adjust the white slider; If you can't see the slider (as is the case in your screen grab, adjust the view by clicking on the + and - magnifying glass icons at the top left of the screen. You can also enter preview mode that will hide the right hand menu and allow you to see the slider. Adjust this to the left and then exit preview mode and, voila! you can then adust away to your heart's content.

Hope this helps.

David

Thanks for the quick response, David. I've continued playing with the "blank" file, following the link I originally gave. I've expanded my layout to 1600 px, made the minimum height of columns 60, removed the row padding, and have started working with types instead of classes or id's so that my changes are promulgated for all new instances. I have done a lot of programming in the past, just not so much recently. Due to my programming background, none of this is soul wrenching or putting me into a state of despair.

It is just that when one is working with the novice level help files of any type (tutorials, videos, actual help files, etc.), one would expect the results shown on the novice's screen to match what is in the help file, at least closer than what I am seeing. I am able to soldier through and still make progress, but why should I have additional and easily-avoidable obstacles to deal with? Part of my job in the past was employee training. Because of this, I am probably hypersensitive to things not matching up.

At the least, the QA process should have a beta test where someone "pretends" to be a novice and goes through the training aid to see if there are any glaring discrepancies such as "that doesn't look very much like what the novice is going to see," such as I have described in my posts. It is obvious that the writer of the tutorials/how-to guides would need to be a very experienced user, if not an expert, and as such a user, his set up would already have been modified for his preferences. To then use that set up for the guides puts all beginners at a disadvantage such as I have tried to describe above.

It's just unnecessary questions such as "Did I do something wrong?" when trying to follow the recipe presented in the novice guide. I was frustrated trying to make "my" file look like the "example" file, without success.

What I now have looks like the example, but it's likely I'll have to make changes later, as I've probably changed the wrong property to make my display appear the same as what I am seeing.

Thanks again,
Don

Hi Don,

No problem.
I'm with you on the tutorials not matching up with the application, can be kind of frustrating.

However, just to defend the guys at CC a bit, they do know the tutorials need updating but they are heavily engaged in updating the applications; I am sure they will catch up with the written word eventually.

David

Don and David,
Thanks so much for posting this. I just bought RSD and haven't installed it yet, am just trying to look at the documentation. I'm a newbie at web site design and I count heavily on documentation and tutorials. I always blame myself if I get something wrong or something doesn't work. It helps to know that some of the material is a bit outdated so I can come here and ask questions of the community and the CC team if I get confused or stuck.