and
buttons
to move the selected item up or down the list; | Personal | Small Business | |
Have you ever felt amazed at how things changed over the last years? The Internet has become as common as the telephone. E-mail makes people totally forget about the existence of regular mail. Having a web site is now more important than having a business card.
Actually, many people now think that having one web site is not enough. Really, would you present yourself the same way to your potential employers, family members and former schoolmates? Of course not! On the first site you would probably place your professional resume—and will refer to it in an employment classified. On the second, you would place new pictures of you and your fiancé—you may want to share them with your parents in Minnesota and your sister in Paris. On the third, you will open a picture gallery out of the old school pics—maybe, this will help you find your old good friend whose trace you lost many years ago…
And so, you have decided to make up your own website. High time! But do you know enough HTML? Or do you want to create your site using a text editor? In either case, you will end up spending days and days to have your site look attractive and getting all things work. Not the best solution. Or, maybe, you want to pay hundreds of dollars for the web designer to do the job?
Well, here is the solution. We will save your time and efforts, and what's even more important, you can be personally involved in the Art of Web Design. To create a professional-looking web site using SiteStudio, you don't need any special knowledge or experience. The wizard-like program structure will guide you through the whole site-construction process step by step. Now you become a web designer, a creator, an Artist! You can juggle around with page layouts, colors, themes, add various effect and much, much more, everything with a single mouse click! Within a half hour you can have your site created and published on the Internet!
So, if you feel this is what you need, welcome on board!
SiteStudio allows creating websites in two categories: Personal and Small Business. Each category serves its own purpose.
A site in each category constitutes of a series of pages, each devoted to a separate topic, article or resource. SiteStudio offers you a set of templates for all common pages:
In the Personal category you can create a site for your fiends, school-mates and relatives. You can tell about yourself, your background, hobbies, share funny stories and show your photographs. Here you can also post your resume for potential employers and even more. To create your personal website, add any of the following pages:
Every time your site is visited, the first page to open would always be either FlashSplash or Welcome Page, or Splash Screen. These page will also automatically include links to all other pages you create. So, it would be a good idea to begin your site with one of them.
After choosing a page, click Next to continue with the design of the page.
In the Small Business category you can create a site representing your company or business. It's a good mean of telling about the history of your company, listing the services you render or products/goods you sell. Here you can also create your own online store, look for new employers and more. To create a business website, add any of the following pages:
Every time your site is visited, the first page to open would always be either FlashSplash or Welcome Page, or Splash Screen. These page will also automatically include links to all other pages you create. So, it would be a good idea to begin your site with one of them.
After choosing a page, click Next to continue with the design of the page.
Splash Screen is the home page that welcomes visitors and contains links to all other pages.
To configure Splash Screen, fill out the Splash Page form:
As you finish, click the Next button to save your settings. The View tab (see Tabs for details) will open for preview. How do you like your welcome page?
Okay, now let us look back at the themes. Click the Edit tab and select a different theme, then go to the bottom of the page and click Next. Try other themes to choose the best one.
Important: your site will be published to the Internet only after you press the Publish link on the menu bar, in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
FlashSplash is the home page in Flash that welcomes visitors and contains links to all other pages.
To configure FlashSplash, fill out the FlashSplash page form:
As you finish, click the Next button to save your settings. The View Tab will open for preview.
Okay, now let us look back at the themes. Click the Edit tab and select a different theme, then go to the bottom of the page and click Next. Try other themes to choose the best one.
Important: your site will be published only after you press the Publish link on the menu bar, in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
The About page is commonly used to provide the following blocks of information:
Enter your text into the boxes provided. Paragraph headings are optional.
SiteStudio allows you to include a picture into the About page. This could be a picture of yourself (for a personal site), your working team (for a company), a logo or any other relevant image. To include a picture, click the Select Image button. Then follow the on-screen instructions.
After you add an image, its thumb view will become available in the form, as well as a Remove Image button. Click it to remove selected image from the About page.
After you key in or copy/paste the data you want to show on your About page, click the Next button to save your settings, and you will be brought to the View tab.
The Welcome page can be used as the home page that welcomes visitors and automatically contains links to all other pages that are taken from the titles of the latter. When you change the title of any page, it will reflect on the Welcome page as well. It introduces visitors with all other pages on your site with images and short descriptions to them.
To configure the Welcome page, fill out the page form:
Enter your text into the boxes provided. Paragraph headings are optional.
SiteStudio allows you to include a picture into the Welcome page. This could be your picture, a logo or any other relevant image. To add a picture, click the Select Image button. Then follow the on-screen instructions.
After you add an image, its thumb view will become available in the form, as well as a Remove Image button. Click it to remove selected image from the Welcome page.
After you key in or copy/paste the data you want to show on your Welcome page, click the Next button to save your settings, and you will be brought to the View tab.
This is the central page for those who seek employment via the Internet. It provides an easy-to-use wizard that allows you to effectively manipulate the data you would like to include into your resume.
As the first step, you will see seven boxes with suggested section headings,
each with an Add button on its right. Click the Add button to
enter data into the relevant section. A new form will appear. Fill it out
and press Next to return to the main Resume page. The information you
entered will show in the box; also, Edit and Delete buttons will
be added. Click Edit to change contents of the box, and Delete
to clear the contents. Follow this instruction for every section you want to
include into your resume.
Note: In the Experience section form, you will have
an in-built form for job duties. The instructions are exactly the same as above.
Attention: Make sure you don't add empty forms! They will be included
into your resume, too.
You can preview your resume at any moment by clicking the View tab (see more on Tabs). All your changes will NOT be lost. At the end, however, don't forget to confirm the changes by pressing the Next button!
Now that you see your resume in a complete form, you may see how to make it more visually appealing. Click Settings tab to change color, font or style (see more on Tabs).
When you have your web page in front of your eyes, you may decide to change the order of some paragraphs. It's simple and fast.
and
buttons
to move the selected item up or down the list; Part of expressing yourself through a web page is including links to your favorite web sites. The links you choose to include on your page can communicate your interests and hobbies. A carefully designed collection of related links can make your site a good launching place and will help you promote your site.
To keep your links organized, SiteStudio places new entries into categories. To add a category or links to your Links page:
To edit an existing category:
To delete an existing category, click Delete button. Warning: All links contained in this category will be permanently deleted!
Custom page table is a page with any data organized in a table format. To create a table, fill out the form:
If you want to group and join some cells, check the corresponding boxes and click the Join Selected button.
Note: If you input an incompatible set of parameters, SiteStudio will optimize conflicts in these data.
This page shows the structure of your site. It is generated automatically and does not allow editing. However, you can configure its settings, just like you it for other pages.
For you, a photo gallery may become the central element with photos of yourself, your friends, your family, your art works, postcards, etc.
To create a photo album, fill out the fields in the form as the first step:
In the next step, add images to the Photo Album:
To change or remove images, use the buttons under the Image.
To add more images to your album, click Add and repeat the steps above.
This tool allows you to copy already existing HTML page and paste it into the input box. However, it is recommended that you create your files in specialized html editors. Before publishing this HTML page, you can choose wheather it will use its own titles and layout, or those provided by SiteStudio.
- If you want to insert your HTML page with originally
created layout, click Yes in Include layout code?.
- If you want SiteStudio to insert all the headers,
titles, select NO in the Show as is option.
To upload a file from your hard drive, click the Upload File button at the bottom of the page.
When uploading your own HTML page, try to avoid non-Latin characters, spaces, underlines, commas, dots, hyphens, etc. It is recommended that your file name only includes letters of Latin alphabet and numbers.
Fun page template helps you organize your fun topics. To add an item, click the Add button for the appropriate category and fill out the form that appears.
To add pictures to your Fun Page:
To change or remove images or texts, use the Edit and Delete buttons on the left of the picture or text.
To add more images to your album click Add and repeat the steps above.
To change the order of the jokes, images or stories, click the Order Items button in the appropriate form. A new form will appear. Follow on-screen instructions to change the order of the items in the topic.
This template will help you develop a custom online questionnaire. Use it to research public opinion or to get feedback from your customers.
To generate a questionnaire, fill out the form:
Page Title:
Page title is the text that will show at the top of the menu bar. For convenience,
it duplicates the same field in the Settings tab. In this field, you
can change SiteStudio default name from "Survey" to, say, "Questionnaire" or
"Feedback".
E-mail To:
Here, enter the address where you want the survey results e-mailed. It can
be the Webmaster's (i.e. your) address as well as any other address you specify.
Questions:
To add a question, click the Add button on the right. A new form
appears. Checking "Yes" in the Is The Answer Required field marks the
survey question with a red asterisk. The survey will not be accepted from a visitor
If one or more asterisked questions remain unanswered.
The Question Type determines the format of the suggested answer:
On Successful Submission of the Form:
Here, enter the text you want the visitor to see after the form has been accepted.
On Error Submission of the Form:
Here, enter the text you want the visitor to see after
the form has been rejected or an error occurred.
Click the Next button to generate the questionnaire.
Generic Page template has been designed to enable fast and simple creation of custom pages that do not fall into any other categories. You can choose how to lay out your images and text depending on your tastes, needs and circumstances.
To add or edit paragraphs:
Your family page includes two major blocks of information, one about the whole family, and the other about its individual representatives.
To provide general family information, enter the following fields:
To provide information about individual family representatives:
Warning: Clicking the Delete tab will remove the whole Family Tree Page, not a family member page! To remove individual persons from the family tree, click Next in the Family Member form to return to the Family Tree form and click the Delete button on the left of the person’s name.
On the Family Tree central page you can see the general family genealogy information.
To view individual family member’s page, click this person’s name. To return to the general family page, click Back to Family Tree at the bottom.
The calendar is nothing but a page listing events like birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
If you extensively use ICQ, you will find this form of messaging the most convenient.
To add the ICQ Contact Center page, fill out the fields:
Press the Next button to proceed.
This is a powerful tool for visitors to get the driving directions to any address in North America that you specify. For a personal site, this can be your home or hangout. For a business site, show the location of your restaurant, store (supermarket) or a service center.
To create the page, make sure to properly enter the details of the destination address and press the Next button to preview. It will result in the amp itself.
To change data, click the Edit tab.
Important: The Get Directions button will work only in the published site. You won't be able to check Directions until then.
Please note that driving directions are not a part of SiteStudio, those are third party products and even minor changes on the corresponding site can break links to the map. We are trying to track any changes, but in case there are some problems, we bear no responsibility for broken links and incorrect maps.
To create your online bookstore, do the following steps:
You need to sign up to become an Amazon.com associate. Click here to sign up or here to find more about the associate program.
Configuring mobile messaging with SiteStudio is as simple as entering the phone or pager number, selecting service type and provider and clicking the Next button.
To configure External Page, enter:
- URL that addresses site visitors to an external website;
- Button text that will appear on the Site Map, Welcome, Splash Screen
and other pages and tell site visitors about its relation to your site.
You can name the External page, say, Our Partner, Our friends or Our associates in the Button text.
Make sure to click the Next button to save changes.
It's important to know that this page will be available for viewing only after publishing.
You are now able to create a fully integrated and usable on-line shopping system. To do it, add the BUY buttons created by Add-A-Cart to the catalog page created with SiteStudio. The Add-A-Cart shopping system also creates multi-functional online e-shop that can be easily referred to.
With this e-commerce-solutions system you will have everything you need to operate a successful on-line business: a shopping cart, secure payment gateway and a merchant account issued by One Stop Merchant Services.
You need to log into your Add-A-Cart Admin page. In case if you do not have the Add-A-Cart account, you need to open it using the link on the editing page of SiteStudio.
There are two instructions to get a snippet: for new and existing items:
The Download page is a simple page where you can upload any files with descriptions to them. Subsequently, visitors of your site can download them.
To provide general information, enter the following fields:
To provide information and a link to an individual file, click the Add button.
On the Download page, enter the following information about the download element:
To upload files onto the website, do the following:
- To edit the files, click the Edit icon next to the necessary file.
- To remove file, click the Delete icon against the file.
Make sure to click Next to save all changes.
Part of introducing your business through a web page is including links to resources related to your industry. A carefully designed collection of related links can make your site a good launching place and will help you promote your site and business.
To keep your links organized, SiteStudio places new entries into categories. To add a category or links to your Internet Links page:
To edit an existing category:
Make sure to click Next to save all changes.
To delete an existing category, click the Delete button. Warning: All links contained in this category will be permanently deleted!
One more way to introduce your business and tell visitors about different areas of company's activity is to create the Firm Profile page. It's also a good place to show pictures of your staff, partners, describe social activities or professional services offered by your company.
Click the Add button to create a new Firm Profile. It will call a new form.
To save changes, make sure to click Next.
The FAQ page is used to provide detailed answers to the most commonly asked questions about the industry of your business.
To configure the Frequently Asked Questions page, do the following:
Give general information:
Add questions by clicking the Add button and fill out the form that shows:
Once you completed the page, click Next.
This page allows to list your company products and goods with descriptions and images to them. Use it to advertise your products or services.
To configure the Catalog page, enter general information in the form as the first step:
In the next step, add images to the Catalog Page:
Catalog Page can be edited:
Once you completed the page, click Next.
The News and Events page is a good way to inform your site visitors about the up-to-date events of your company, e.g: presentations, conferences, seminars, corporate receptions, issueing new products and etc.
Page Title is a text that shows at the top of this page as a header. It can serve as a header to the introductory paragraph.
Intro paragraph is introductory information about your company's history. To add a paragraph:
News serve for posting specific dates and related events. To post your company's news or events:
Click Next to preview the newly-created page.
The News page can be edited:
Make sure to click Next to save all changes.
This template will help to post your announcements about free vacancies in your company on the Careers and Jobs page with all necessary requirements and contact info.
Page Title is a text that shows at the top of this page as a header e.g:"Our Vacancies", "Find a Job" etc. It can also serve as a header to the introductory paragraph.
Intro paragraph is introductory information about free vacancies in your company or your business partner.
Text is an optional field. Here you can say, for instance, "Our current positions are:".
To configure this page and add as many positions as you need:
Positions can be edited:
Make sure to click Next to save all changes.
This page is most relevant if your company specializes in rendering services. On the Services page you can describe all services provided, their prices, conditions.
To provide general services information, enter the following fields:
To add services, click the Add button. It will call a new form:
The Services page can be edited
Make sure to click Next to go to preview page.
The Contact Us page is a detailed description of your company's contact info. It has the same functionalities as the About and Welcome pages, but includes more specific information.
To configure the Contact Us page, fill out the form:
Enter general information:
Enter your postal address:
Other contact Info:
The Contact Us page also allows to attach a map that will help to get to your company. There are two options to add a map: either the one generated with Mapquest or a map of your own.
Mapquest takes the address you have entered in the form above and generates a map. To add a map:
Important: The Search Location on a Map link will work only in the published site. You won't be able to check any maps until then.
Please note that Mapquest is not a part of SiteStudio, it's a third party product and even minor changes on the corresponding site can break links to the map. We are trying to track any changes, but in case there are some problems, we bear no responsibility for broken links and incorrect maps.
To add a map created by yourself:
To add info about your partners or staff members:
On your Contact Us page, an info request from will show. Site visitors can fill the form and submit it to the email address you have entered above. You can add your own texts for error/successful submission of this form.
Click the Next button to save all your settings, and you will be brought to the View tab (see Tabs for details).
Look at the tabs right under the toolbar menu. They supplement every page-designing tool:
Edit tab opens by default, suggesting that you should enter or change your data before viewing it. Forms in the Edit tab vary greatly from page to page.
View tab allows you to view your changes. This option is always available when you work on Edit or Settings tab. This means that after you introduce any changes to your page data or settings, you can immediately view them by clicking the View tab.
Settings tab. Here you can customize all parameters for your page. For details go to Standard Settings Tab.
Delete tab permanently removes the page from your site.
Note: You can switch between tabs to change any data or settings any time during the page construction process or later.
Page title is the text that will show at the top of the menu bar. In this field, you can change SiteStudio default name from "Fun Page" to, say, "Laugh with us".
This is the text that will show up on your site’s menu among other page names. It may be the same as the Page Title, or you can give it a different name. For example, if your Page Title is "Fun Page", you may want to add some versatility by typing something like "Smile!"
Technically, your site is nothing but an organized inter-linked group of html pages (files). SiteStudio enables you to assign a specific name for every page that you add to your site. It is recommended that your file name only includes letters of Latin alphabet and numbers. Try to avoid non-Latin characters, spaces, underlines, commas, dots, hyphens, etc.
You can select:
After you change the settings click Next to see the result.
When you move your mouse over some elements on a page, they may change their color, shape and other properties. This is called Rollover Effect.
You can place the contents of your page on an image. However, try to be discreet with choosing the background. Avoid using photographs or bright decorations, as they may hinder text readability.
SiteStudio allows you to change the color palette for every site's page. Their
default HTML codes are in the boxes next to the parameter names. You don’t
need to know these codes. Instead, click the 
icon to call
a Color Picker—a palette with colors available—and select the color you
like. The "Color" section allows you to change background,
text and links color. Just select the element you wish to modify and click on
the color you like.
Note: If you decide to change background color, ensure that the text on your page is clearly readable. There must be sufficient contrast between the text and the background image. A background with too much contrast competes with the text for reader's attention and makes it difficult to read.
You can make your page open to general public or closed (secure). Secure sites or pages are often used by multinational companies to communicate closed information to its representatives worldwide, where e-mailing is not appropriate.
Choose Yes if you want to restrict access to the page. The frame will expand to include a drop-down list box where you can choose who is allowed to view the page. To create an authorized user or user group, go to Site Settings -> Edit Security Information (for comments see Edit Security Information help section).
Go to the directory or folder on your computer where your picture is saved, select the picture you want to add to your page, and click the Open button. The location of the selected file appears in the "Upload Image" window. Click the Upload button in the "Upload Image" window.
You can select images from:
To re-order your pages do the following:
and
buttons
to move the selected item up or down the list; Click the category you need help with:
Note: When available, use the navigation buttons inside the browser window. For some pages, your browser's Back and Forward buttons will not work correctly. If a page fails to load, or does not reflect last changes, click your browser's Reload or Refresh button to update the page.
To select the website category, scroll the list of suggested topics in the box in the right half of the page. Select the topic for your site and click it. Then, click the Next button. You will be brought to the Select Website Color and Style page.
Attention: Once you begin to create your site you may not change the website category!!! To change the category, you will have to start anew, which will delete ALL PREVIOUSLY SAVED SITES.
Choosing a correct layout is crucial for the success of your web site, as it will determine the look of every page. SiteStudio is equipped with a number of pre-designed Overall Site Layouts. Go through the list in the upper left box by mouse-clicking each item or using cursor keys on your keyboard. Sample pages will be shown in the preview window on the right. Stop on the one that will best suit the contents of your site.
Then, select a color scheme in the lower box. It will only affect the menu bar; colors for every individual page are set at a later stage (see Standard Settings Tab).
You can change your layout and color scheme any time in the future without losing any information whatsoever, even when the construction of the site is complete.
Selecting Site Layout
The checkbox allows you to apply selected layout and color scheme to all pages on your site. It comes checked by default. If you uncheck it, the layout and color settings will only affect the pages you create after applying these changes; the pages you created before will remain unchanged. Changing this option doesn’t affect your settings in any way, if you are only beginning to create your site.
After you select the layout and color settings, click Next to move on.
Web readers often want or need to contact the person who created and maintains the web site. Global Settings form requires you to enter basic information that will help identifying the site and its author after it is published.
In the Search Engine Keywords box enter the words or word combinations that distinguish your site from all other sites on the Internet. They will be helpful when somebody tries to find your site with a search engine. Think of the words that would be most characteristic of your site.
In the Search Engine Description box enter a short description of your site, like an answer to the question: What is it about? If an Internet user finds your site with a search engine, this description will show right under the site name.
You can enable visitors to perform text search on your site. This functionality takes a form of a textbox added to the menu bar. A visitor will type a word or a combination of words and they will be searched throughout all texts on your site. If you want to include a search engine into your site, click "yes" at the bottom of the form. Otherwise, choose "no".
At this point, you are done with general site settings. Click the Next button to configure individual pages.
Add themes and special effects! Make snowflakes fall down in the browser, add logos that stay put as the user scrolls, and tons of other cool features, all with easy point and click selection.
There are several check boxes to indicate and select the theme (javascript effects) that you can see on your web page. Use pull-down menu for selection. Then, click Next to preview.
Falling Things:
Items. Please use pull-down menu to select the number of snowflakes (leaves).
Theme 1. Here you can include the "Top down curtain" effect. Try not to include too many effects. Cursor pointer. Here you can select:Site logo. Specify where you want to place the Logo image.
Logo duration. Specify how long you want the Logo to show on the page after it is loaded. Alt text. Enter the tooltip text—a brief message that will pop up next to the cursor when it stops over the Logo image.You can save up to five different versions of your site. Make sure the names you enter reflect changes between versions.
Attention: Before retrieving a previously saved website, save your work! If you don’t save your current project, you will lose it. SiteStudio can work with only one site at a time.
Warning: Starting over will delete ALL PREVIOUSLY SAVED SITES. To start a completely new site, you need to register as a new user.
Note: Saving your web site will not publish it. To publish your site, click the publish link at the upper left-hand corner on the menu panel.
Scrap all your pages with one click, and begin designing anew. Use this option only if you are completely sure. There will be no way to get back your current pages if you start over.
This option allows you to delete all your web pages with ONE click and start to design from the beginning. Warning: You will lose your current site as well as ALL PREVIOUSLY SAVED SITES. Don’t use this function if you are not strongly sure!
You can make your site open to general public or closed (secure). Secure sites are often used by multinational companies to communicate current information to its representatives worldwide, where e-mailing is not appropriate.
In this section you need to specify the users or user groups authorized to access your secure site. After you include them into the authorized user list, communicate to them their passwords.
To secure individual pages, go to Page Settings tab (see Page Settings help section for details).
Here you can see and inspect all the web pages your web site consists of.