Pro 6.0 rc1 - Functionality of the "Remove Spacing" right-click option

Beta
#1

I’m wondering if you could confirm what the Remove Spacing right-click option does?

As far as I was aware, it was introduced as a shortcut to remove the default 65px padding on the Section element. It no longer does this, and has some peculiar behaviour.

If the Section is empty, the Remove Spacing option has no effect. However if you add a blank Row to the Section, then the Remove Spacing option only affects the Row and switches off the Global Container option, making it full width. The default 65px padding on the Section remains.

The Remove Spacing option then also shows up on the Row element itself, where it seems to affect more than just the Global Container option. Here, it resets the Gap Width and Gap Height to the default of 20px, as well as resetting the values of and disabling the Margin and Padding control options.

This all seems quite inconsistent, since the Remove Spacing option then isn’t available on the Grid or Div elements, even when they are direct children of a Section element. And also to reset the Gap Width and Height seems very counterintuitive for a Remove Spacing option.

Is this all working as intended, or does this need to be looked at?

To have a Remove Spacing option that switches off any Global Container option and sets the Margin and Padding to 0px, whilst leaving any Gap options or anything else, makes the most sense to me. And being able to apply this to other top-level elements e.g. Section, Grid, and Div would also make sense.

#2

Howdy @arthurodb,

Thanks for writing in. I took a moment to review the “Remove Spacing” option in the context menu and it would seem that there are some issues with it, namely not removing the padding from the Section itself if your apply it there.

That being said, I’d like to provide a little more context on this option and why it likely feels somewhat inconsistent in its implementation, because upon further review this is honestly a feature that we will likely sunset moving forward.

This feature was introduced around the time the initial Global Block Builder was released. Global Blocks at that time required the whole document to be output when you referenced one in a page, meaning any wrapping Sections, Rows, Columns, et cetera. This is fine if your Global Block was intended to be a whole section on your page, but if you were trying to use the Global Block Builder to craft a global button style to use on multiple pages, you’d likely not want all of this extra markup to appear visible in any way.

This is why we introduced the Remove Spacing option, which was meant to effectively “zero out” the markup surrounding your content. At the time, you will also recall that markup in the tool was rather strict, requiring a Section first, then a Row, then a Column, then you would finally arrive at your “content.” This is why Remove Spacing only removes the width / max-width and other options from the Row and not the Grid or Div, because it was originally developed when only that was available as an option. The fact that the padding is not getting removed from the Section is likely a bug that came up during the UI reshuffle.

Additionally, this option was helpful at the time as we did not have the toggles next to controls like Padding or Margin to completely turn them off with one click.

All that being said, with the new Component Builder allowing you to export only the markup you want, the flexible nature of the document structure now that can allow any Element at any level, and the addition of “quality of life” controls like the toggles next to Margins and Padding, I believe that this control is simply a holdover from an era where it served a purpose, but is likely no longer as helpful as it once was. For all of these reasons mentioned, this feature will likely be removed in the next release. I appreciate you bringing this up so I could take some time to review it, as it is honestly a feature I haven’t used myself in years due to the changes in the tool over time.

Hopefully that all helps to provide a bit more context. Thank you!

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#3

All that you have said makes total sense, and yes I do now recall the original context within which it was added in.

I’d agree with the decision to sunset it as honestly I don’t think I’ve ever used it, and was only poking around and then noticed that it didn’t exactly behave how I would have expected!

Also it’s nice to look back at the previous limitations of Cornerstone to see how far you have come in developing a stellar website building tool! I’m sure I speak on behalf of everyone in really appreciating the new flexibility of Div and Grid elements at the top level, and of course everything the Component Builder brings.

#4

Thank you, @arthurodb! Your kind words are most appreciated. It has been an honor to work on this tool and serve our customers. :slight_smile: