The client said that the website must be finished by evening – yesterday evening.
But guess who didn't yet supply the copy or the images.
Somehow, we need to get a layout design up and ready for the content – when it finally arrives. Not a problem – we have placeholder stacks that will automatically generate dummy text and load dummy images and if the final content ever arrives, we can just swap out the stacks and fill them with the client's content.

Only one thing troubles me with this scenario – I'm in a hurry and now I have to waste time swapping out stacks instead of simply adding the text and copy that was just supplied?

The copy is the simplest problem to solve – instead of using placeholder stacks that generate dummy text, use the original Header and Paragraph stacks that you intend to use and paste in your own dummy text. But what about the images? We want to show the client a layout, but cropping dummy images to fit??

Wait!! Marathia just released UltimateImage – a stack that will allow you to generate dummy images of any size and then – when the client finally condescends to supply the content – replace the dummies with the original images.
The dummy images are loaded via one of five servers – the first two place a coloured background with a text displaying the pixel size of the image, the remaining three load random images from their servers.
When the final content is ready for publishing, you set UltimateImage to Local Image, or Warehoused Image and add in your images saving yourself a couple of minutes with each image when compared to other placeholder stacks!

Stack settings
Image Source – Default: Local Image. Options: Warehoused Image, *Ipsum Image, Placeholder.com, **LoremPicsum, LoremFlickr, PlaceIMG
Force Fluid Image
Depending on the chosen placeholder server…
*Image Size – Width, Height
*Custom Text
*Font Size
*Colours – Background, Text
**Specific Image – number – "-1"=Random

11 further settings to Flip, Rotate and add filter effects to the images.

I've used dummy content stacks to knock up a quick layout before, or to build a style template for suggested fonts and colours etc. UltimateImage helps save production time by reducing unnecessary actions.

Invert. To turn [something] upside down or inside out; to place in a contrary order or direction. When we scroll a webpage, we expect into scroll up/down. Shaking the Habitual's Inverter stack does the inverse of what we'd expect - it scrolls horizontally, rather like a book, but without the page turning. AND, Inverter can do more.

Inverter stack allows for content to be distributed horizontally across a web page. Inverter then 'inverts' the user's scroll action so that instead of scrolling down the web page they instead move from left to right. Inverter allows for any type of content stack to be added and the possibilities for its use are endless. It does lend itself, however, especially well to such uses as timelines and storytelling etc.

Inverter stack also provides the ability to add a parallax background which gives the opportunity to create some really beautiful effects as the user scrolls across the screen.
The background image, foreground image and info blocks scroll across the page at different speeds.

The user should not add too much content to any one Inverter block as anything that does not fit on the page (height-wise) will simply be cropped. This is especially important to bear in mind when designing for mobile. However, a good option is to set some content blocks within an Inverter block to not display on mobile.



Inverter v1.0.1 has just been released (26th May) which allows for even wider Inverter blocks to be added (previously this was restricted to 1500px). This now allows for content such as very wide images to be used. A great example of this use case can be found on the Inverter web page.

Stack settings
Content
Scroll Width
Scroll Speed
Blocks Offset

Background Images (Parallax)
Rear Image
Near Image
Pin To Bottom? – Near, Rear
Image Widths – Near, Rear

Inverter Block
Position / Size
Start Point – Distance from Left in px
Width – px

Block Styling
Colours – BG, Border
Border – px
Padding

Inverter is STH's 3rd stack. With its nifty parallax effect, it goes further than other horizontally scrolling stacks and will be appreciated by many Weavers. If you're interested in purchasing Inverter, there's a 20% discount available until June 8th/18 using the code sth-ninja-inverter.
*Image not historically correct – For demo purposes only.

The one that got away! A fortnight ago, 1LD released a new stack – Feature Slider – that just arrived in my in-box. Not wanting to deny you a review, I decided "better late than never", so here we go:

Feature Slider is a slider that displays a headline, an icon or an image and a short description with a 'Learn More' button and is ideal for product presentation, or portfolios etc.
Let's say that you're advertising real estate, promoting art, or selling an assortment of products; drop Feature Slider into your Stacks' page and you have the perfect vehicle to do so.

Feature Slider may be configured to display as compact sliders in multiple columns, e.g. to present your staff from multiple departments, or as a full-page slider to present a portfolio. In its base configuration, Feature Slider displays an icon, but is readily set to display an image. The 'Learn More' button can then open a new page (or lightbox) to display more information about the product advertised.

As with all recent 1LD stacks, Feature Slider is fully customisable and the settings panel is a cubit long. Via the child stack settings each slide is individually customisable.

Stack settings
Autoplay – Deactivated by default
Active Slide – Slide that is displayed on page load
Max Width – px
Max Height – px
Radius

Slides
Hide Titles
Hide Descriptions
Hide Icons
Hide Titles
Hide Buttons
Title Font
Description Font
Button Font
Settings for all font, image and button sizes
Settings for all colours

Feature Slider is yet another 1LD stack that is not only timeless but versatile. I can envisage multiple uses for it. I'm sure you can too.

Modals. Windows that pop up on a page when a trigger is clicked, when a certain amount of time has passed, or when a certain position on the page has been reached.
A modal can usually display text, images, buttons and contact forms, etc. We've probably all used them to display extra content.

So what is Multistep Modal? Multistep Modal is a new stack from Weavium that does all of the above and more. Multistep Modal is a popup that triggers when a button is clicked, when a specific point on the page has been scrolled to, or after n seconds. O.K. – nothing new there.
However, when Multimodal window opens, you might see a combination of an image, a title and a text. But you will also see a question mark and a link, e.g. "Next".

Clicking the question mark opens up a further window within Multistep Modal. And this window can contain just about anything.
Clicking "Next" reveals what the "Multistep" in the stack's title means – the modal window is part of a slider and can display as many items as you wish.


Stack settings
Display – On Toggle, On Scroll To, On Timer.
A button is automatically added with 'On Togle'
Align Vertical – Top, Center, Bottom
Align Horizontal – Left Center, Right
Z-Index – default 999999
Radius – Corner Radius of Modal
Width – Max width
Height – Max height
Margin – Vertical, Horizontal
Padding – Vertical, Horizontal

Modals
Hide Images
Hide Titles
Hide Text
Hide Details
Image Dimensions
Image Radius
Image Spacing
Extensive formatting options for all text elements

Toggle
Toggle Text
Font Size
Toggle Radius
Padding – Vertical, Horizontal

Colours& Fonts
Font Options
Colour options for all elements.

Multistep Modal Slide
Overrides the formatting for each individual child stack

When first dropped onto your page, Multistep Modal is configured as quite a small window. Whilst it is possible to enlarge the stack to fill the page, it is not advisable – it is not (yet?) 100% responsive. I therefore currently recommend restricting the stack's width to mobile format.

Weavium's range of stacks is growing quickly and each stack seems more innovative than the previous. Multistep Modal is no exception.

If you've always wanted to publish keynotes, such as product presentations or training documents, then InStacks' new StageDive might be the very thing you've been looking for. Dubbed "Online presentations and slideshows for your next keynote" StageDive is an interesting take on Single-Page websites.

StageDive, as its subtitle denotes, is a theme/suite of stacks aimed at building presentations. The advantage over building your presentation with Keynote© or its Micro$oft equivalent, is that you can build your presentation with the app that you use every day – RapidWeaver.

StageDive arrives with its own dedicated theme and a suite of five stacks. The theme automatically adds the default formatting and the navigation to your presentation. Everything else can be designed just as you please. StageDive will allow you to place almost any stack on the page, including 3rd party navigation, or galleries.

The default stacks are: StageDive – the base stack which automatically adds the first child slide, Fixed Position – allows you to place floating stacks such as buttons in the corners of your slide, MediaPlayer – integrates video and audio, Slide – standard child stack and VerticalContainer – arranges slides vertically.
The difference to a standard webpage is that a) Upcoming slides and speaker notes may be may easily be viewed and b) The next slide may be called via the space bar.



Stack settings
Theme – Choice of nine themes plus 'Theme Builder' (not yet available)
Transition Style – Six transition effects
Transition Speed – Default, Fast, Slow
Centre Vertically – Active by default
Navigation Controls – Active by default
Controls Area – Bottom Right, Edges
Progress Bar – Active by default
Bar Height – px
Page Number – Deactivated by default
Timing – In seconds
Image Border – Deactivated by default

Slide
ID
CSS Class
Background – Theme Default, Custom Colour, Image, Video
Transition Style – Six transition options
Transition Speed – Default, Fast, Slow
Speaker Notes – Deactivated by default

StageDive is ideal for online presentations and if you're actually giving a keynote and have a second monitor, the possibility to view upcoming slides and slide notes is perfect.