|
 |
Many additions and enhancements have been made for the current Version (3.0). The stand-out features are a fully-editable multi-column home page module and the new image resizer which means you don't need any image editing software. If you want to know more phone 3004 7900, or continue reading below.
|
Modern sites are now designed to fit nicely within monitors with a resolution of at least 1024 x 768 pixels.
At ToadShow we have settled on a site 960 wide which offers a lot more freedom for visual design. This, by pure coincidence, is the size Apple also chose for their site. In fact most developers seemed to have arrived at this size, or thereabouts, as the "new standard".
Globally the use of 800 x 400 has fallen to less than 5 per cent (ultrastats.co.uk). Our own stats show that audiences of our sites using 800 x 600 or less has fallen to lower than 3 per cent. This concurs with the "Web Development Blog" who records their recent stats on usage of 800 x 600 as 2.13 percent.
|
| Multi-column editable home page |  |
One of the most requested features since Version 2 is the ability to have separate columns on the home page and to size them unequally at will, add columns, delete columns, and fill them with different home page items including links to content, links to events, even links to other web sites.
In version 3 we implemented this feature with a visual guide that shows you if the sizes you are using match the space available.
For example, in the new site for the Queensland Resources Council there are three columns, of roughly equal size, two below the animation and one to the right containing clickable tiles for other sites in the QRC family and quick links to important pages below.
|
| On-board image resizer | |
We realise many clients don't have the skills, the time or the software to resize images for the web, so we have made it easy via the image resizer button (the little one to the left displaying the stacked + and - signs).
|
| Edit this page | |
This handy link has been around for a while. It only appears when you are logged in as an administrator. In the latest version it has moved to a floating layer with a clickable graphic. This helps keep the site visually the same for the administrator as for the public user. We did this update mostly for ourselves, because we log in and administer so many sites.
|
| Content management enhancements | |
Instead of having to move a text block into position after you create it, you can now add it wherever you like.
Very handy. But wait, there's more.
Sometimes you might want to move the list of links to subheadings, or the links to pages in a section, to above a particular text block. This is now possible in Version 3.
For those occasions where you want a search inside a section (for your knowledge base areas) you can now turn the navigation dropdown off — this stops people getting distracted by what else is on the site and focuses their attention on the task at hand.
Few new administrators, there's now a handy guide to the main site dimensions (in pixels) so that images can be sized correctly.
|
| Making it easy to add and navigate sections and pages | |
Many of our clients have good content skills, so they like to learn the content management early in the piece and add the content themselves. This reduces the budget they need for web development, and fast-tracks training.
To help with ease of admin, we have added a "You are here" line with clickable breadcrumbs. A few more handy features like "Add Level 1 Nav" and "Add Level 2 Nav", "Next Page", "Next Section" appear when the appropriate conditions prevail.
|
| Multi-banner eNews | |
Want to send different eNews mailouts to different users? Now you can have unlimited banners, allowing you to visually style eNews according to your whim. Just create them, upload them to the image library and use them whenever you like.
|
| Competitions | |
We admit it, not everyone wants to offer prizes to their audience for sending in responses of 25 words or less surrounding questions like "Why this web site is the best web site in the world".
But if you do want to, now you can with the new "Competitions" database integrated into eNews. It stores the entries in a database, and allows you to export them as a spreadsheet file whenever you want.
Try it - it's a great way to get your audience engaged. If the prize is a bottle of Henschke Hill of Grace, we might even enter ourselves.
|
| Simplied, more powerful user database and sending options | |
The user database combined with eNews is a powerful tool for connecting with your audience. People can subscribe to your eNews from the site, or you can keep the list private and add them yourselves. We can import your existing database, matching your fields to ours.
Version 3 has seen a major upgrade to the user database, the search for users, and its related sending options which allow you to send to particular groups in your database.
By popular demand, we have simplified the fields in the user database to limit what people have to complete when they first join.
You can add unlimited numbers of filter groups to their profiles, which users tick off if they match their interests. These can also be hidden (admin only).
Many clients are now using this system as their "one true database" — the master database by which they manage memberships or mailing lists.
New features in the sending options include:
|
 | key word search | |
date range search | |
separate filter groups each with "and/or" options for a reductive search | |
simple logs of the mailserver results to see whose mail landed and whose did not | |
and best of all, a new feature allowing you to set up the sending options and then preview the targeted users before sending. |
|
Previously you could see which users were going to get an email by doing a search with the same parameters. But this new method (Preview) makes it so much easier.
|
| | |
|
|
|
