The new Site Builder (aka Cool Tools) System 4.17a update is available. The new update is just awesome, just chock full of wonderful new features. These include changes to:

User interface, especially the editing features ~ Image and text components ~ Design and layouts ~ Social networking buttons ~ Google page translation ~ Google settings menu ~ Blogs and RSS ~ Ecommerce product links and other improvements ~ Mobile website administration ~ Account settings ~ Message Board ~ Media files ~ Spam Filters ~ Additional Layout columns ...and more » read full article

As our customer base grows, it's even more important that we track all support requests carefully, so that no customer requests fall through the cracks. The best way for us to do this is to ask that all support requests come via email. You can request support through our Contact page, or by using the email address you already have been using for support requests.

This doesn't mean we'll never talk with you! We love keeping the personal touch in our business. Often, a phone conversation or face-to-face meeting is the best way to achieve a great solution for you. Typically, we'll follow up voice conversations with an email message to confirm our understanding or to summarize work that we have done for you. But please do always make your initial requests in writing, via email.

The following guidelines will help us give you the best service possible via email.

• Please be sure the Subject line clearly describes your request.
• Should you need to make a new request, please send a new email with a new Subject line.
• To help us track our email conversations with you, please always copy the original message in any reply that you send. Most email programs are already set up to do this. Some, such as AOL, are not. For AOL, simply select (highlight) the text before you click the Reply button.
• If it is an emergency and you are on the road or do not have access to email, then by all means, call us. We'll always do our best to help you.
• If you need help with any of this, just ask! We'll do our best to answer your questions.

(PLEASE NOTE: We cannot offer free support, except during FREE Website 10-Day Trial Period.)

We are incredibly grateful for our customers, long-time and brand new. Our long-time customers are our bread and butter, and we thank you for sticking with us, especially during these difficult economic times. To our new clients, welcome! We like to share new-client websites with everyone and hope you will enjoy visiting these sites. Below are links to our most recent creations.

 New Leaf Renovation (Home Renovation Services and Home Remodeling. We provide home improvement, remodeling, and home renovation services throughout the Portland, Oregon metro area. We specialize in remodeling and renovating kitchens and bathrooms).

Kristen Moeller (Kristen Moeller is a highly respected coach, author, speaker and radio show host who holds a master’s degree in counseling and has more than 20 years experience in the field of personal development. Her Best-Selling book, “Waiting for Jack: Confessions of a Self-Help Junkie – How to Stop Waiting and Start Living Your Life” (Morgan James Publishing, April 2010) explores why we wait and look outside ourselves for answers.)

Coexist Celebration (New Thought and Ecumenical Spiritual Experiences. COEXIST creates a place to celebrate the deepest truth, that we are ONE HUMAN FAMILY. Whatever your spiritual practice or religious community, we promote acceptance among all races and religions.)

Celebration Church (A Christian church founded on the principle of honoring all faiths that teach love. Registered non-profit organization, with Music Ministry and weekly messages led by Reverend Barry Dennis.)

Coming soon...a website for Barry Dennis (author, minister, musician, speaker and spiritual leader of Celebration Church and Coexist Celebration, in the Portland, Oregon area).

Site Builder (aka Cool Tools) System Update: 4.17 is chock full of wonderful new features, summarized below.

Please let us know if you need our consulting help implementing any of these Cool Tools on your website. (Remember, these features are available only on the sites implemented with our Cool Tools system — officially named Site Builder. Not sure whether you're using a Cool Tools system? Simply contact us and we'll tell you.)

We are always looking to improve the quality of our services and your feedback is appreciated. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know.

MOBILE WEB PAGES
More and more internet users are using mobile devices such as the iPhone or Android. This release includes support for adding mobile optimized pages. You can create new pages that are designed to work on advanced mobile devices.

The mobile support is not for all mobile devices. It is designed to work with advanced mobile smartphones such as the iPhone and Android based devices that have full HTML support (we are not supporting WAP based phones).

To add mobile pages to your site, go to the page list and click the Mobile Website Settings button. Click here to view the Precision Computing Arts Sample Mobile Website.

BLOG ENHANCEMENTS
New customization options let you customize the styles, fonts, colors of many of the blog display elements. You also can customize how many blog posts are displayed on the first page. You can set the system to show all the posts from the last 7 days, last 30 days, or you can specify the number of posts to display. (We have customized some features of this blog to illustrate the latest and greatest.)

ECOMMERCE - REWARDS
With the ecommerce rewards system enabled, you can give your customers discounts for shopping at your website. Customers will earn reward points for making purchases at your website. They can log in to their accounts and redeem the reward points for credit that can be used on future purchases. You can configure how points are converted, which products are included/excluded, and set specfic products to be worth more/less points.

FORM BUILDER DATA

The form builder now allows you to view your form data on your website. All data is saved in a forms database. To view form data, you can log in to your website, click the Form Data link under Administration > Reports/Info and select the form that you want to view.

The form data csv file also has been updated. The csv data file for newly submitted forms will contain the form data fields in the file header. This will make it much easier to use/import the file into other applications. The form data file also contains all data fields such as radio buttons and checkboxes. Each time you change the form field data structure, a new csv file is created.

SECURE FORMS (requires UPGRADE to Business Website or better)
With the secure forms upgrade you can use the form builder to collect form information over a secure https:// page. The data that is submitted is saved in your site admin. You can then login to your site to view the form data over a secure link.

• When visitors browse to a page with a secure form they will be redirected to a https:// version of the page.
• Form data is not sent in the form, but you will receive an email notification when a secuform has been sent.
• You must log in to your website to view form data. To get started viewing data, go to the Admin page and choose Administration > Reports/Info > Form Data in the lefthand column. Or, edit the form, scroll down to the bottom SECURE FORM section, and click the link below Form Data.
• The secure form cannot be used to collect credit card/billing information.

Application Database - AppDb (requires UPGRADE to Business Website or better) 
Use the AppDb feature to set up a searchable/sortable data table. You can define your own custom fields when setting up the data table. To create a new AppDb, go to the page list, create a new page, and click the AppDb page type. You may have up to 3 AppDbs per site. Click here for a sample application database.

SOCIAL NETWORKING
You can add the social networking icons to the bottom of the product catalog detail pages. Social networking icons allow visitors to share the product page/information on their social networking pages (twitter, facebook...) To add the social networking icons to product detail pages, log in to your website, and then click Social Networking link under Site Editor > Settings on the left side of the page.

Google Buzz has been added to the list of social networking icons.

DESIGN

• New groupbox styles
• Advanced css menu settings (align right, margin/spacing, menu bar settings)
• Animated text/css menus
• Up to six groupbox styles available

MISCELLANEOUS UPDATES 

• Image tools: A slider on the main resize image page allows you to easily reduce the image size by moving the slider.
• Footer styles: Advanced padding/border/margin settings allow you to enhance the footer styles area.
• Image gallery/rotator: All image gallery/rotator modes support the image description display.
• Product search: The product search from within the store manager allows you to change the product category/login after clicking on the edit link from the search.
• Ecommerce order notes: Append to Notes button allows you to enter time stamped updates to the order notes area.

FIREFOX 3.6 FILE UPLOAD/DRAG DROP
Firefox 3.6 supports the HTML5 enhanced multi file upload. When the advanced file upload option is enabled, you can use the Firefox 3.6 upload features. When you browse to select files to upload, you can select multiple files in the file open dialog box.

Drag/drop upload: A drop files box appears next to the file upload/browse button. To upload files via drag/drop, open a file/explorer window. Select the files you want to upload, click the files and drag the files to the "drop files" area in the browser window. The files will be uploaded to your website.

UPGRADED RATE PLANS
This release comes with some revised web hosting rate plans, with more bang for your buck! Please see the New Plan Updates - 8/2010 blog entry for details.

Following the deployment of Site Builder Release 4.17, all web hosting plans have been upgraded. This is great news!

The biggest change is the disk space allocated to each account, with most plans receiving about 3 times as much disk space as the original plans. Accordingly, the disk space upgrades also were adjusted. Also, the $24.95 and $34.95/mo non-ecommerce plans were replaced by a $29.95/mo non-ecommerce plan. Please see the plan fees list for details on each of the new plans.

These plan changes apply to both existing customers and new customer sign-ups. If features in your current plan are not included in the equivalent new plan, these features remain available to you unless you change your plan. If you change your plan, you will receive only the features listed in the new plan and cannot return to your previous plan.

Customers currently using the $24.95 and $34.95/mo plans will remain on these plans, but you will not have these plan options when signing up or upgrading your plans. Customers currently on these plans will receive disk space upgrades in line with the new plan set.

These plans were replaced because the differences between these plans and the base non-ecommerce plan were small. The $29.95/mo plan, which replaces these two $24.95 and $34.95/mo plans, includes the Calendar, Site Search, Message Board, App DB, and Secure Forms features, which provide more value to you when upgrading your non-ecommerce plan.

Also, please note that upgrades on accounts will not be adjusted automatically. You must make any desired changes via your My Account area; or contact us for assistance. You will not receive a billing credit for adjustments to your upgrades.

8/23/10 Note: If you were using a beta test feature such as AppDb, you will need to upgrade your plan to the $29.95/mo non-ecommerce plan or better.

Please contact us if you have any questions or need help upgrading your plan!

There are many ways to improve your standings in Search Engines such as Google and Yahoo (the two most-used search tools on the Internet). The fancy name for this is "Search Engine Optimization," or SEO. Some SEO requires very specialized knowledge; other SEO requires simple common sense and facility with website design tools. Please contact us if you would like assistance with SEO tasks, especially those that fall into the "common sense" categories below.

What does it mean to optimize my website?

To ensure that your site works well with the search engines, your site should be properly. Be sure that your site keywords and phrases are displayed in the places that search engines look at when indexing your website. To do this, review the areas listed below...

• The visible content on your pages is the important area that search engines look at.
• Place your highest priority keywords and phrases in the content area of your pages.
• Your home page must include your most important phrases.
• Keywords must be placed near the top of your content area.

• The browser title appears in the title bar of your browser window.
• Be sure that your global browser title reflects the most important keywords.
• Use page specific browser titles for specialized pages. Page specific keywords are displayed right after your global keywords in the browser title

• Search engines will look at the names of your pages and links when indexing your site.
• Keep your page names short.

• Create text links on your site that take visitors to important pages.
• Use your keywords in the text links.
• For example, if you had information on televisions...Instead of creating a link called "click here" or "product specials", you could create a link called "Plasma Television Specials"

• Search engines rely heavily on links to determine the relevance/ranking of your website.
• You want other websites to link to your site. This will generate traffic from those websites, and also will increase the ranking of your website.
• Links from websites that are very popular and related to your keywords and phrases will give you the biggest boost in search rankings.

We've been busy creating and updating websites including First Hand Healing Massage Therapy in Tucson, Arizona; Rincon High School Class of 1970 Reunion in Tucson, Arizona; New Leaf Renovation in Portland, OR; Real Volleyball, Susan Hutchison Stables, and Cassidy & Associates Real Estate in San Diego, CA; Larry Gotkin handmade knives, edged weapons, jewelry, and pet portraits in Tucson, AZ; and PerioCDent non-surgical periodontal dental hygiene in Atlanta, GA. We hope to begin a new site soon for Mission Valley Shell in San Diego!

Precision Computing Arts welcomes four new websites, two for new customers and one for a repeat customer.

	David Thomas Law (referral from Karalyn Eckerle): David Thomas has practiced law in the state of Washington for over 25 years in the areas of estate planning, probate administration, real estate and business. His focus is on planning for and avoidance of controversy.
	Karin Finley Jewelry (referral from neighbor Lisa Dawes): Karin Finley creates individually designed and executed one-of-a-kind jewelry using various enamel techniques and incorporating copper, silver, gold, semi-precious, and precious gems.
	Shelley Wilson, MFT (referral from Nancy Lucas): Shelley Wilson is a Marriage and Family Therapist in Newport Beach, CA, who specializes in Individual Counseling, Group Counseling, Relationship Counseling, and Emotional Eating Counseling.
	Frank's Stuff (second site created for Frank Watson): Frank Watson, based in Hilton Head, SC, has some cool stuff to buy and rent, including a wonderful motorhome that is available for touring to a variety of fabulous vacation destinations throughout the Southeastern United States.
	Using Constant Contact (a great system for staying in touch with people on your mailing list), we designed and published a newsletter written by Registered Dental Hygienist, Lynne Slim of PerioCDent. We designed Lynne's website a number of years ago and remodeled part of it in July 2009.

We LOVE Qualified Referrals from Clients & Friends!

The above work was made possible by referrals and existing clients — thank you Karalyn, Lisa, Nancy, Frank, and Lynne! In addition to earning our undying gratitude, qualified referrals will earn you a free gift that we know you will enjoy. And, as always, we offer discounts for "bulk" jobs of 8 hours or more (see details here).

Site Builder (aka Cool Tools) System Update 4.16 offers many exciting new features and changes, summarized below.

Please let us know if you need our consulting help implementing any of these Cool Tools on your website. (Remember, these features are available only on the sites implemented with our Cool Tools system — officially named Site Builder. Not sure whether you're using a Cool Tools system? Simply contact us and we'll tell you.)

ROTATING BANNERS and OVERLAY TEXT
The banner/header system now supports rotating banners and custom overlay text/HTML. The rotating banner feature enables you to set up a sequence of banner images. The header area will cycle through the banner images, fading in and out between each image. Other options include banners that randomly display each time a page is viewed.

In addition to multiple banners, a text/HTML overlay can be set up that goes on top of each banner in the sequence. You can set the text, size and the position of the overlay. One use of the overlay text would be to create clickable text/image links that are in the banner area.

Instructions: Admin > Site Design Tools > Header & Images > Rotating Banners/Overlay tab

CUSTOMIZE FONTS AND STYLES

• Text/css menus
  Customize the colors and style for text based menus. Customizations include font color, style and background color for the regular menu, selected menu and hover over menu (to use this feature, you may need to reselect your layout or reselect your menu button style).
  Instructions:  Admin > Site Design Tools > Menu Design > (main menu or submenu tab) > Select TEXT menu button
• Forms
  Customize the style for your website forms. Adjust the font size, colors, borders and spacing of your form fields/labels.
  Instructions:  Admin > Site Design Tools > Text/Font Settings
• Product catalog display
  The product customizations allow you to set the borders/backgrounds/colors/fonts/styles for over 20 different areas in the product catalog display. The customizable areas include the product title, product links, labels, price fields, description text, title areas and more.
  Instructions:  Admin > Site Design Tools > Text/Font Settings

TABBED ACCORDION VIEW

The new accordion mode displays a vertical list of tab names with the tab content below the tab name. The update also includes an option to set the font size for the tab and accordion text.

Instructions:  Admin > Page List > (select a page to edit) > Insert Component > Design Accents > Tabbed Content > Change Layout > Accordion Content Box

ECOMMERCE - PRODUCT IMAGES

The product thumbnail image feature has been enhanced. The images are now be easier to set up. With the site builder preview/flash upload enabled, you can upload multiple thumbnail images at the same time for a product. The new thumbnail option displays the thumbnail preview images directly below the main product image on the product detail page. When a thumbnail image is clicked, the main product image will change to display the larger image for the thumbnail. This option lets customers view more product images directly from the product detail page. 

Instructions: Admin > Setup Products > (create or edit a product and add the main large and thumbnail images) >  Add More Product Images > In the More Images drop-down box, specify how the thumbnails should look and their width; you also can specify the number of columns in the Product Images Display Settings area. Then, choose upload image(s)/create thumbnails > specify the image settings > select & upload file and upload the files you want.

ECOMMERCE REPORTS

• Profit/cost report 
• Sales by state 
• Sales by country
• Updated graph/chart style

Instructions: Admin > Ecommerce Reports > select options under Sales Reports

COUNTDOWN TIMER

You may add a countdown timer to your website. The dynamically updating timer displays the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds to the date that you specify. You can set a destination page that users are taken to when the counter expires.

Instructions: Edit any page > click the Add button > Insert Component > Standard/HTML >  Countdown timer > Add Countdown Timer. Then, configure the timer.

ECOMMERCE MAP BUTTON

A map button has been added to the user account details page and the order detail page. When you click the MapIt button, a new window that displays a map of the user's contact address.

Instructions: Admin > Customer Database > select Account Details for a customer > MapIt. Or, Admin > View / Process Orders > select View/Process link for a customer > click MapIt > select either the main customer or the shipping address tab to see the detailed map.

MISCELLANEOUS UPDATES

• Set the font size for tabs in the tabbed content component 
• Updated image manager resize and crop features to work in FireFox 
• Added new view to image manager to see files 
• Added option to center align the main menu
• Popup calendar for date selection (blog, calendar, coupon editor)
• Text editor 2.0: background preview - allows you to see how your text will look on dark or light backgrounds

DESIGN SYSTEM

• New logos
• Updated banners
• Gradient maker (background images)
• Layout properties - updated page for selecting  page width

SITE BUILDER PREVIEW - MISCELLANEOUS UPDATES

• Miscellaneous graphic updates and adjustments 
• Added drop down menu to page properties button

USER MANUAL

The new downloadable site builder user manual is now available from the main help page.  The manual is a 14 Mb downloadable PDF file. The manual contains screen shots and instructions for using the site builder system. 

Most website clients want development tasks to be completed for no money and in no time. That’s understandable, of course, but it’s not realistic because building Web pages is as much art as science, and it’s time-consuming (though fun and creative) work that requires significant attention to detail.

To help her clients better understand what’s involved in building web pages, About.com “Guide to Web Design” blogger Jennifer Kyrnin recently wrote an article titled “6 Things Your Web Designer Wants You to Understand.” » read complete article

For those who want to know why things take time, cost money, don’t match printouts, aren’t the exact color you are expecting, and more, we’ve adapted her points as they relate to the work Precision Computing Arts does for our clients. As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you might have.

1. Most projects are feasible, given enough money and time.

Chances are, we can do almost anything you want, but there are two big caveats: money and time. If we’ve already done exactly what you’re proposing, the project will cost less and take less time than if you’re asking for something new. We’ll always do our best to give you a ballpark idea about whether something is quick, easy, and inexpensive; whether it’s slow, difficult, and expensive; whether it’s something in between; whether we’re just not sure until we try it; or whether it is beyond our capabilities. Of course, if you change the criteria, that likely will change the money, time, and/or feasibility.

2. Web design is not instantaneous.

We try to create pages that look attractive and load quickly. But this isn’t necessarily easy or fast. A good rule of thumb is to allow about one or two business days for minor changes; a week for medium changes; and even longer for more difficult changes. These rules of thumb may vary a bit with our workload. If it’s light, you typically will enjoy quicker turnaround; if not, you may need to wait a bit. We’ll always do our best to be prompt and to keep you informed about any expected delays.

3. Web design is not print design.

It’s almost impossible to exactly replicate a print design on a website because:

• Different web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari render pages differently. We do look at our designs in these different browsers and try to create designs that are pleasing, though not necessarily identical, in each one.
• Print designs can count on easily replicated paper sizes, colors, fonts, and so on. With web design, the fonts, colors, and screen sizes people will see can vary considerably.
• Website design involves more than just good looks! It requires careful attention to content, search engine optimization (SEO), navigation, and general usability issues as well.

4. Colors are a challenge.

While printed materials can specify specific color schemes using CMYK standards for ink, computers don’t use CMYK (they use RGB). Even if we exactly convert CMYK to RGB, the colors viewed on your screen still might not look 100% correct because different monitors are calibrated differently, and you may have different monitors, operating systems, Web browsers, room color schemes, and ambient light than we do. All these can affect a Web design in ways that the designer cannot anticipate or do much about. For example, we’ve had people refer to a red color that looks brown to us. Go figure!

5. E-commerce, databases, and other complex web applications can take a lot of time and work and can cost extra.

We employ our “Cool Tools” system to help us implement e-commerce, databases, and other applications as quickly and efficiently as possible. These Cool Tools typically will increase your web hosting charges over the cheap $3-$10 per month services out there. For example, a Cool Tools website with many bells and whistles costs about $20/month, whereas a website with the same bells and whistles plus a shopping cart costs about $40/month.

However, the Cool Tools save you money on development costs, and they enable you to maintain your own site with relative ease and without hand coding in HTML, PHP, or other difficult-to-use alphabet-soup programming languages. For example, adding e-commerce and databases in a typical hand-coded system can be astronomically expensive and take considerable time; with our Cool Tools system, it’s much quicker and less expensive. But you should expect that sites with these extra goodies still will require more work, time, and money than sites without them.

6. Remember why you’ve hired a professional web designer.

A professional web designer usually can get your website up and running faster and better than your typical friend or brother-in-law (unless they, too, are professional web designers). But, you often do get what you pay for (see “IF YOU PAY PEANUTS, YOU GET MONKEYS” blog article by Karalyn Eckerle). We promise to listen to our clients with respect, to consider your comments and suggestions, and to foster a great working relationship with you. We hope you will do the same for us so that your website can show off your company in the best possible way and provide your website’s visitors with a great experience.