-- Helping You Get The Most Out of Your Website --
December SiteSpinner® WebTips
Season's Greetings!
The holidays are upon us. This month we outline a few scenarios for creating mobile content and put out a call for Mobile Website submissions. We get into the holiday spirit by looking at ways to Animate your website and give it a festive feel - whether you have a business, club, or personal page, adding a seasonal touch lets visitors know that there is someone still actively involved with your site - which also keeps the search engines happy. Also this month we showcase sites by 3 major SiteSpinner Community Forum Gurus. In Special Offers and Announcements we have a new SiteSpinner Pro release.
In this issue:
Season's Greetings!
The holidays are upon us. This month we outline a few scenarios for creating mobile content and put out a call for Mobile Website submissions. We get into the holiday spirit by looking at ways to Animate your website and give it a festive feel - whether you have a business, club, or personal page, adding a seasonal touch lets visitors know that there is someone still actively involved with your site - which also keeps the search engines happy. Also this month we showcase sites by 3 major SiteSpinner Community Forum Gurus. In Special Offers and Announcements we have a new SiteSpinner Pro release.
In this issue:
- Design - Mobile Sites & Call for Submissions
- How To - Easy Snow Animation
- Community Tips - Free template for a photo gallery
- Site of the Month - The Community Forum Gurus
- Special Offers and Announcements - SiteSpinner Pro New Release
Design - Mobile Web Page Design
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Over the coming months we are going to start delving into ideas on how to ensure your webpages are optimized for mobile devices. Considering that more and more people are accessing the web from a mobile device, it is important that your site is viewable and functional. Consider a few scenarios:
Do you have a mobile site that you have designed with SiteSpinner Pro? If so, let us know about it. You just might find it in one of our upcoming SiteSpinner WebTips Newsletters.
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Over the coming months we are going to start delving into ideas on how to ensure your webpages are optimized for mobile devices. Considering that more and more people are accessing the web from a mobile device, it is important that your site is viewable and functional. Consider a few scenarios:
- You have a B&B in the Napa Valley of California. Prospective customers are driving up highway 101 and using their iPhone to look for accommodation for the night. 'Your' site has a layout designed to be viewed with a mobile device - your competitor's does not. What's more, your site has a phone number 'key' - one click, and in a second they are booking a weekend at your Inn.
- You have a number of properties for sale in Orlando Florida. After visiting the Epcot Center a couple sees one of your For Sale signs with your web address. They enter it into their PDA, and get a slide-show of the interior of the property in question, with one-click to call. You now have prospective lead.
- Some mates are out for a night on the town in Manchester. After a stint at the Rovers they decide to find out where your band is playing. No problem, someone pulls out their cell, goes to your mobile site, and finds out your playing at Livingstones at 10 - sorted.
- After a trade show in Montreal, a group of people decide to head out for some authentic French-Canadian Cuisine. Someone has heard of your restaurant on Saint Catherine Street, but does not know what type of food you serve. They use their Blackberry and find that tonight's special is Poutine Foie Gras, and reservations are optional. What's more, they text your address to their friends to meet them there!
- A group of Japanese tourists just watched Adelaide United FC trounce Wellington Phoenix FC at Aussie Stadium. They are sold-out of FC shirts at the concession, but using their cells, the tourists view mobile-optimized blow-ups of FC T's on your site, and make their selection while they are sitting in the stands.
Do you have a mobile site that you have designed with SiteSpinner Pro? If so, let us know about it. You just might find it in one of our upcoming SiteSpinner WebTips Newsletters.
How To - Easy Snow Animation with SiteSpinner Pro
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Add a Winter feel to your site in minutes, like on the Virtual Mechanics Home Page
Creating an animation is easy and fast with SiteSpinner Pro's powerful animation capabilities. You can recreate the animation viewable right now on our home page easily, and add it to any page on your site. Follow these steps.
Select the vertical line, go to Special FX, and select Hide While Loading and then Hide After Loading. Select the snowflake and select Hide While Loading.
To make the snowflake repeat, select it and open the Action Editor again. This time go to the Timing tab, and select Loop. Here you can also select the speed that the snowflake falls, as well as other things.
To make things easier when creating multiple snowflakes, you can rename any of the objects. For example, you can name the snowflake trail you created with the Polygon tool to traill1, trail2, etc. This makes it easier when it comes to assigning the snowflake to the particular path. To rename it, click the object name field on the top tool bar, and type a name without any spaces. You can do this for any object in your project.
The project file for a simple snowflake page can be downloaded from here. Set the background to white to see the trails.
Once you have done this, repeat for multiple snowflakes. Use your imagination and experiment to create all kinds of animation for your site. If you get stuck, post a note to our Community Forums.
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Add a Winter feel to your site in minutes, like on the Virtual Mechanics Home Page
Creating an animation is easy and fast with SiteSpinner Pro's powerful animation capabilities. You can recreate the animation viewable right now on our home page easily, and add it to any page on your site. Follow these steps.
- Use the Mona Lisa icon to import snowflake.gif (you can download ours from here)
- click on the Polygon tool on the left tool bar, then hold the left mouse button down and scribble a line down the page where you want your snowflake to fall. Double-click where you want it to end
- use your mouse to select the snowflake, then open the Action Editor on the left tool bar and go to the Paths tab. For 'Follow Object Path', select the polygon object you just created, and click OK
- Preview, and Viola! You just created a falling snow animation.
Select the vertical line, go to Special FX, and select Hide While Loading and then Hide After Loading. Select the snowflake and select Hide While Loading.
To make the snowflake repeat, select it and open the Action Editor again. This time go to the Timing tab, and select Loop. Here you can also select the speed that the snowflake falls, as well as other things.
To make things easier when creating multiple snowflakes, you can rename any of the objects. For example, you can name the snowflake trail you created with the Polygon tool to traill1, trail2, etc. This makes it easier when it comes to assigning the snowflake to the particular path. To rename it, click the object name field on the top tool bar, and type a name without any spaces. You can do this for any object in your project.
The project file for a simple snowflake page can be downloaded from here. Set the background to white to see the trails.
Once you have done this, repeat for multiple snowflakes. Use your imagination and experiment to create all kinds of animation for your site. If you get stuck, post a note to our Community Forums.
Community Tips - "Free Template for Photo Gallery"
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These Tips are created by readers and SiteSpinner users and posted to the Virtual Mechanics Community Forums
dB writes "If anyone would like a easy template for a thumbnail pop up photo gallery I have made the ims and a 3 page site. All done in a zip file ready to use in SiteSpinner..." continue reading...
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These Tips are created by readers and SiteSpinner users and posted to the Virtual Mechanics Community Forums
dB writes "If anyone would like a easy template for a thumbnail pop up photo gallery I have made the ims and a 3 page site. All done in a zip file ready to use in SiteSpinner..." continue reading...
This month we're bringing you some sites created by what many have come to know as the SiteSpinner Community Forum Gurus. If you have been by the Forums, you may have noticed their names, if you have asked a question, you most probably have received a response from one of them. The folks that built these sites give freely of their time to the Community, helping others sort out problems and build their sites. Their sites are not affiliated with Virtual Mechanics, but they contain a wealth of information on SiteSpinner, SiteSpinner Pro, and website building in general. Check out their sites, and swing by the Forums, no doubt you'll find them helping others. For all those you have helped, and from us - thank you!
Site Title: Bruceee's Sandpit
Site Author: Bruceeee
Site Link: www.bruceee.com
Site Description: Tips and tutorials for designing web pages with SiteSpinner and SiteSpinner Pro.
Site Author: Bruceeee
Site Link: www.bruceee.com
Site Description: Tips and tutorials for designing web pages with SiteSpinner and SiteSpinner Pro.
Site Title: LowTechGeezer's SiteSpinner
Site Author: larryd
Site Link: sitespinner.lowtechgeezer.com
Site Description: The aim is to provide useful information of SiteSpinner and SiteSpinner Pro in the form of tutorials, tips, scripts, tools and templates.
Site Author: larryd
Site Link: sitespinner.lowtechgeezer.com
Site Description: The aim is to provide useful information of SiteSpinner and SiteSpinner Pro in the form of tutorials, tips, scripts, tools and templates.
Site Title: Creative Management
Site Author: Roma
Site Link: www.creativement.com
Site Description: Creative Web Design for Businesses, Musicians Actors and Artists.
Site Author: Roma
Site Link: www.creativement.com
Site Description: Creative Web Design for Businesses, Musicians Actors and Artists.
Offers and Promotions - SiteSpinner Pro New Release
Hurry, 40% Off Until January 1st! Buy Now
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Hurry, 40% Off Until January 1st! Buy Now
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We have a new release of SiteSpinner® Pro (formerly WebEngine). As well as a number of new featurs, this release enable you to create 3 types of layouts - Web, Web+Moble, or Mobile.
Registered SiteSpinner and Print Shop Web Designer Customers: For a limited time you can upgrade to SiteSpinner Pro for $49.00 US (50% off the regular price). Simply reply to this email with your Serial Number (available under Help > About).
Registered SiteSpinner and Print Shop Web Designer Customers: For a limited time you can upgrade to SiteSpinner Pro for $49.00 US (50% off the regular price). Simply reply to this email with your Serial Number (available under Help > About).
Registered SiteSpinner Pro and WebEngine Customers: For Registered users of Virtual Mechanics SiteSpinner Pro and WebEngine this is a Free Upgrade - see the information on upgrading.
Download: Download the free trial of SiteSpinner Pro.
Download: Download the free trial of SiteSpinner Pro.
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Don't Forget to Forward This Newsletter To Your Friends!
Seasons Greetings from all of us at Virtual Mechanics.Don't Forget to Forward This Newsletter To Your Friends!
J. Peter White
President,
Virtual Mechanics Inc.
< Celebrating 10 years in business - 1998 - 2008! >
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ISSN 1488-7088. TM ® & © 1998 - 2008 Virtual Mechanics Inc. All rights reserved.
ISSN 1488-7088. TM ® & © 1998 - 2008 Virtual Mechanics Inc. All rights reserved.