How do I build a site with differently sized pages?
A very good question.
First, some questions for you. Does your page design have a footer, meaning are there elements of the page your always want to be at the bottom? Or does it simply end with nothing? (like this page). Is the main content of your page held in a text layer, or perhaps imported from and -xmedia layer? Is the main content the thing that is making your page shorter or taller?
Page Simply Ends
Main Content is a Text Layer or -xmedia Layer
Main Content Drives Overall Page Size
If the page simply ends, then the issue is fairly simple. Any content that exceeds the size of its container will automatically simply push on down the page. So make your Photoshop document size close to your shortest pages needs, and use a content layer that comes close to the bottom of that design. For long text passages, Photoshop is capable of holding them in a shortened text layer that fits the page. For this approach, do not use SiteGrinder's Interior Background Color nor the interior-tile . Instead use exterior-tile or Exterior Background Color. When the page is built the long content will naturally push down the HTML page and the background color/tile will dutifully follow it.
I Have Elements I'd Like to Stay at the Bottom of the Page
Main Content is a Text Layer or -xmedia Layer
Main Content Drives Overall Page Size
Here again, make your Photoshop document's vertical size close to your shortest pages needs. Place the "-grow" hint upon your content layer. SiteGrinder will automatically gather all the layers that are vertically below the bottom of that layer and place them into a page footer. As the content of the page grows it'll push the footer down the page. Unlike the previous approach, you can use interior-tile and interior background colors, and there is even a special case interiorgrow-tile available. Be sure to read about the -grow hint, it is a SiteGrinder 2 Pro hint.
No, I don't really fit those situations
Then the next best method for creating differently sized pages is to make your Photoshop document large enough in width and height to handle the biggest page and to not use a background layer that fills the whole document. SiteGrinder will size any page to its content (including any background layer). This means that you can use either no background layer or, if you would like a background of changing size that is set off from the page background color, you can have a number of background layers sized to your pages and visible in your page definitions or page layer comps.
Multiple Documents
If some of your pages are too different from others to practically place them in the same document you can easily use several documents and build all of the pages at once using SiteGrinder's Page Panel. SiteGrinder will automatically eliminate duplicated graphics and even match buttons in one document to pages in the other documents.
Click here for more information about building with multiple documents.