Dreamweaver CC fluid grid controls disappearing and other info

Question

Hi All,
I have finally completed my first commercial fluid grid design in Dreamweaver CC and it was a bit of a mission.
One disconcerting thing about the program is that the fluid grid controls keep disappearing. You know, the ones where you can hide the div, duplicate it, move it up or down, or delete it.
I have found that when this happens, I need to close the html file I am working on in DW CC and then open it again. The controls then appear again, so you can rearrange your various layouts as demonstrated in those breezy demo videos about DW CC fluid grid layouts.
So don't just conclude you have broken the code when these controls disappear, try closing and opening the file again first.
Also you need to insert all the divs you need for all layouts in the mobile phone layout, as that is the main layout, governing all the others because of the way the media queries are set up in the CSS file that is created when you start your fluid grid layout.
I could not work out how to reorder divs in the different layouts, this may not be possible at the moment. Instead I created divs in the phone layout to cover all of the divs needed in the three layout sizes and switched them off and on in the various layouts. This works really well, but I found that DW behaved strangely if I switched a div off in the mobile layout and then tried to style it in one of the other layouts. So I suggest styling all of the divs first for all the layouts before switching any of them off in the mobile layout.
Also you can't copy the contents of one div and put them in another without freaking the program out, especially if you are working in a div that is hidden in the mobile layout.
I suggest saving regularly as you add new divs and style them and view live in a browser immediately, as the preview in DW CC is not reliable. It can't show rounded div corners or shadows for example.
Keep an eye on the code as it is built by your use of the CSS Properties panel. If it starts going wrong, close the html file without saving it or the attached CSS file. Then go back in and try what you want to do again.
If you save weird code errors, your work could be so compromised that you need to start all over again. So quit out without saving if you notice this.
After much experimentation I now insert images into a div, rather than make them a background image, as the background image will not completely show if the content of the div is not long enough. This may require a rethink of your design.
Doing any absolute sizes in a div will make the responsive design very hard to style and possibly break the code, so I don't suggest it.
Adding padding to a div can make it stick out of right edge of the design, I am not sure why this is the case and could not work out how to stop it. So use low pixel numbers in the padding of a div.
Also control z seems to be a sudden death move, so I stopped doing that.
So my first job has been a bit of a ride, but I seem to be nearly there on my first design.
I think DW CC is still a work in progress and I look forward to further updates of the software.

Answer 1

Hi Top Ten,
You can't get them back once they go. You now need to edit the css code manually to do the same thing.
For instance if you want divs to sit beside each other you put this in the css for that div:
clear: none;
This css means that div will allow other divs to sit beside it.
Then put in a width in percentages. For example if you have three divs that need to sit beside each other put:
width: 33%;
in each of them. Or maybe:
width: 31%;
margin-right: 2%;
Fortunately in DWCC it is now robust enough for you to do those code changes by hand. My original question in this thread was posed when DW CC fluid grid had just come out and crashed easily. A year later all is well, so you can do those changes in the css code without problems now.
Regards,
Mary