We just finished converting Larry Gotkin's website from an old Dreamweaver technology to the modern Sitebuilder technology in just two weeks. Hundreds of pages, probably thousands of photos.

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Your Site Builder Editor may automatically create links from phone numbers, especially on iPad and iPhone. This can render phone numbers invisible if your default link color closely matches the background on which the phone number appears. This article explains how to use link color styles and SPAN tags to make the phone number visible again.

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Google recently decided to cancel their Google Checkout offering by November 2013. This affects customers who are using Google Checkout through our E-Commerce Shopping Cart system. Sitebuilder websites using e-commerce will be changed to integrate both Google's preferred solution (Brain Tree Payments) and Stripe.

The 4.6 system update has now been fully deployed to all Site Builder systems. In addition to previously announced features, this update includes:

NEW LAYOUTS
A few new layouts are now available from the design area. To use the new layouts, go to the design area, click "site layout" and then click "modify layout". The layouts are listed in the new layouts section.

Many of the layouts take advantage of the latest HTML5/css design features such as rounded corners, transparency, transforms (rotations) and shadows. In older browsers, the site will not display with the enhanced features. Example: The rounded menu buttons will appear square.

LOGOUT
The logout link is now available by clicking the gear icon to the right of the help tab. When the gear is clicked, a menu opens with a logout option, which works like the Facebook gear/logout option. Users also can also log out by closing all their browser windows.

PRODUCT IMAGES
To clarify the product image upload process, the product images area is now easier and more flexible. To access the upload options from the previous system, simply click the "advanced upload" link on the right side of the ecommerce product images area (all the same image sizing features are available).

FUTURE SYSTEM UPDATES - COMING SOON
The next update will include more enhanced layouts, new design features, enhanced mobile support and more dynamic image generation.

Automatic responsive mobile site:
By default websites will fit on mobile devices. The responsive features will work for most templates. With the automatic mobile responsive sites, you will not need to create a separate mobile site. Images are shrunk and all multi-column layouts become stacked into one long column. A mobile bar added to the top of the mobile site includes a dropdown/slide out menu for mobile site navigation. We are also investigating tablet specific site displays. The option to create a separate dedicated mobile site will still be available for customers who require more than just a generic mobile site.

Auto fit image galleries:
With the auto fit image galleries, you simply upload your gallery images and the images are scaled to fit the width of the page. There is no need to set the size of your images. You only set how many columns you wish to display. The system will fill the page with images based on your settings.

Enhanced image styles:
Using css features, enhanced image styles allow you to choose how you want to display images on your site. Choose from standard styles, rounded corners, circle shapes, box shadows, colored borders and more. These styles can be applied to any image on your site (page images, galleries, and product images).

Image captions:
The image caption styles allow you to create captions that overlay an image with a transparent background.

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5/21/13: Site Builder (CoolTools) update 4.6 is fully deployed. » Read more.

3/7/13: Site Builder (CoolTools) update 4.6 is available now. This was a BIG update with tons of wonderful new features, emphasizing general usability, graphics, and e-commerce. It includes the following updates and system enhancements. 

Feature Overview

• User interface adjustments
• Section slider component
• Updated text editor
• IE 10 multi file upload
• Image tools
• Footer columns
• Simplified design options
• Site style configuration
• Font styles
• Font families/selection
• Color
• Advanced page background settings
• Advanced css
• Page editor
• In page image tools
• Component alignment changes
• Misc updates
• Ecommerce Updates
• Product edit page updates
• Product images
• Product detail tabs
• Dynamic pricing page updates
• Product options
• Product skus/advanced options
• Inventory tracking for options
• Inventory import/export
• Shipping weight for options
• Change product image based on selected options
• Color swatch option type
• Copy options
• Quantity based pricing setup
• Shipping integration​

To find out your current Site Builder version number, log into your web hosting account and look at the right-hand side of the page for the "System Update" graphic, which shows the update number and installation date, along with a summary of the most recent features (the sample at right illustrates System Update 4.6).

More details are below.

User interface adjustments

Several minor user interface adjustments have been added. These include hover/rollover effects and counts added to the main editor icons. Ex. The admin home page now displays the number of outstanding orders, number of users/customers as well as your default mailing list size.

Section slider component

With the section slider component, you can setup content sections using the page editor. A section menu is displayed on the left side. When a menu button is clicked, the content section associated with the menu button slides into view. Using the page editor you can add any component type into the sections. The section slider works like the tabbed content and accordion components.

Updated text editor

The text editor has been updated. The updated includes many miscellaneous enhancements as well as a new style. The text editor is also more optimized for tablets.

The new format option makes it easier to style your text. Click anywhere in a paragraph and set the paragraph/line style (heading 1, heading 2, heading 3, normal). You do not need to highlight text and select a style.

IE 10 multi file upload

Support has been added for multiple file upload on Internet Explorer 10.

Image tools

The image tools have been updated to provide quicker access to resize functions. Standard image sizes have been setup to help adjust images and keep image sizes consistent throughout your website.

The system automatically detects when uploaded images are too large and gives you the option to adjust the size.

Footer columns

With the new footer columns feature you can setup multiple columns in your site footer area. Create up to 5 columns. Easily add text, images, links and social networking icons. To enable the feature, view your website, click settings and then set the number of footer columns.

Simplified design options

The new design page now displays the most commonly used options. There is a link on the left side of the page for more advanced settings.

Site style configuration

The new site styles area provides an quick preview of how all of your site styles look together. Click on a area of the page to select new style options (font, buttons, links, groupboxes, page titles and more).

Font styles

New title/default font combinations have been added. Go to the design area and click the text/styles option.

Font families/selection

Many new fonts have been added to the system. The new font browser makes it easier to view font previews and make font selections. The new default title option makes it easier to create a consistent look throughout your site. You can set the logo builder, menu, groupboxes and titles to use the same setting. When you update your title style to use a new font, all the other areas are set to use the same options.

Color

The new color area includes preset color schemes to choose from and updated color selection/color scheme generator options.

Advanced page background settings

With the advanced page background settings you can choose customize the positioning and alignment of your main site background image. Choose to have a fixed (non scrollable background) or set the background image to always cover the full screen size.

Advanced css

If you are familiar with web design and style sheets (CSS) it is now even easier to make custom adjustments to your website. To access the custom CSS area, go to the main design page, click the advanced button and then click the advanced css link.

Page editor

Move components in and out of groupboxes, column groups and tabs. To move a component into or out of a page section, edit your page. Click the green box to the right of the component edit bar and then click the "move to" drop down menu. Select where you would like to move the component.

In page image tools

When you move your mouse over an image while editing a page, you can click the image tools icon to open the image tools window. Resize and rotate images.

Component alignment changes

The component alignment option has been moved. To align components, click the small green down arrow box above the component. Then click the alignment option.

Misc updates

• Links list component allows you to use the default menu or submenu style

Ecommerce Updates

This update includes many enhancements in the ecommerce area. These enhancement are designed to make it easier to manage products, provide more ecommerce display options and allow better integration with other systems.

Product edit page updates

The main product edit page has been reworked to be more streamlined. The description, short description and text description are now displayed in tabs. This helps make the page shorter and easier to read. For many cases the short and text descriptions are not needed or used. These fields no longer take up extra space on the page.

The edit product list in the store manager now displays your small product image making it easier to manage your products/see your product entries.

Product images

It is now easier to manage your product images. Set the default sizes for the overview and detail images. Your uploaded images will be sized to match your settings. If you want to adjust the image size, just change the settings and the images will automatically be updated to match your settings.

Product detail tabs

If you have a lot of information about a product you can now display the additional information in tabs that are displayed at the bottom of the product detail page. Create up to 5 custom tabs with additional information about your product.

Dynamic pricing page updates

The pricing page will now update the product price to reflect the price for the currently selected set of options and addons.

Product options

The product option features has been reworked to provide for more flexibility. All of the same option types are available, but it is now easier to edit and organize your options. Use drag/reorder to organize your options list and option values.

Product skus/advanced options

The new advanced options area gives you more control of your option settings and display. When you add an advanced option, more management features will be available for the product. These advanced features enable you to set the image, manage inventory, configure the weight, and modify the price for a set of options.

Inventory tracking for options

With option based inventory tracking, you can track multiple inventory levels for the same product. Ex if you sell tshirts that come in red, blue and green as well as three sizes SM, M, LG - It is now easier to track the inventory for each combination of options.

• red - SM
• red - M
• red - LG
• blue - SM
• ...

Inventory import/export

Use the new inventory data options to import and export product inventory levels. This feature also works with SKU based product options.

Shipping weight for options

If you have products with options that change the weight of the product, you can use the advanced setting to set the shipping weight for a set of options.

Change product image based on selected options

The product image on the detail page can now be configured to change based on the selected set of options. Many customers like to see what the product looks like after their option changes have been made. Ex. If you sell tshirts, you can now set the product image to change to the red tshirt when customers select the red tshirt option. Advanced options must be enabled to use this feature.

After setting a SKUID for each option set, go to the more images area, upload your images and set the SKUID that is associated with each image.

Color swatch option type

The color swatch option type lets users click a color box to choose the color that they want instead of selecting the color from a drop down menu.

Copy options

Setting up product options is now even easier with the copy option feature. When editing a product, choose the copy option menu and select a product to copy options from an existing product.

Quantity based pricing setup

It is now easier to setup quantity based pricing by using the quantity pricing entry screen. To set,up quantity based pricing, click the quantity table icon next to the pricing field. Enter the quantity amount and the unit price for that quantity.

Shipping integration

You can now configure your website to integrate with ShipWorks and ShipStation for enhanced shipping management.

1. When announcing events, include detailed date, time, and location info. This will help a global audience keep their bearings. If you say "yesterday," "tomorrow," "next Sunday," etc., it's more difficult for people to know what's when and where. Example: 
   Come to our Grand Opening on Sunday, February 10, 2013 from noon-3pm at 4747 Pacific Highway, YourCity, YourState, USA. Details at [link to a web page goes here].
2. Include full links to specific web pages if you want people to visit those pages. (Facebook will make your links clickable after you post the message.) Example:
   Instead of writing: 
   "See our Free Trial page to sign up for your 10-day Free Trial Website",
   try something like:
   "Visit our Free Trial page at http://pcartsonline.com/fastwebdev/no-risk-trial to sign up for your 10-day Free Trial Website". 
3. If your site has multiple administrators, always sign your posts with your name or initials. Examples:
   your post goes here -- EO
   your post goes here -- Elizabeth O
4. Pin To Top any important upcoming event. And, for those whose Facebook pages have multiple administrators:
   1. If you notice a past event still pinned to the top, feel free to unpin it.
   2. Do not unpin events that are yet to occur unless you feel the new event is much more important. 
5. Try to keep sentence and paragraphs short for people who prefer to skim rather than read every word and have trouble with long passages of very small text. You can easily create line breaks while composing a message by pressing the Shift+Enter key. Press Shift+Enter twice to create a blank line.

9/14/12: Site Builder (CoolTools) update 4.40 is fully deployed now. It includes the following updates and system enhancements. 

Feature Overview

• Button component (also available for page group links)
• Updated links list component
• New layouts
• New Google fonts
• IPAD text editor (be sure to enable pop-ups in Safari)
• ReCaptchaTM setting - enhanced form spam protection
• Ecommerce updates
• Popup overlay window support (click here for instructions)
• Mobile site enhancements
• PREVIEW: optimized checkout (single page)
• Miscellaneous corrections

To find out your current Site Builder version number, log into your web hosting account and look at the right-hand side of the page for the "System Update" graphic, which shows the update number and installation date, along with a summary of the most recent features (the sample at right illustrates System Update version 4.40).

For more details on all the features, please visit http://updates.bizsiteservice.com/sysblog.