ArtSites Updates

Over the last little while, a number of you have expressed an interest in the addition of a Guest Book feature to ArtSites.us. We have now add a Guest Book feature that is included in every ArtSites.us website. On the Guestbook page, your visitors can leave a comment with their name and optionally an email address. The comments on the Guest Book page are listed with the most recent at the top.

How It Works

The Guest Book comment form is protected by the use of a picture that contains a code number that the commenter must enter. This keeps out all of the automated spam. Once a commenter has submitted their comment you will receive an that contains the comment information along with two links that can be clicked on to either approve the comment or delete it. If the comment is something that you would like to see on your website, you can approve it and it will immediately. If the comment is inappropriate for posting on your website's Guest Book page then you can just delete the comment and your other visitors will never see the comment.

The the commenter is allowed to add an email address but it won't be shown on the Guestbook page. It will show up in the administration system so that only the artist can contact the commenter.

Please let us know what you think of this feature and if you have any suggestions, we would love to hear them!

We have added a few new features to the ArtSites.us website hosting software. Here is a list of those features:

New Gallery Overview Page

The "matted" and "tiled" layouts have had a new page added that shows an overview of all the Galleries on a website. This overview presents each Gallery via a "featured" image, which can be selected by the artist. Visitors simply click on any Gallery image and then they can view the other images within that Gallery.

Selecting a Featured Image for the Gallery Overview

The image that is featured for each gallery can be selected by the artist from the Admin/Gallery page. Clicking on the "make feature" link next to the image you want featured puts it on the Gallery Overview page. You will see "featured" next to an image that has been selected as the featured link for that gallery. If no image has been selected, the first image will be used.

Improved Navigation

Navigation has been improved using some subtle (and not so subtle) highlighting cues. The font size, weight and background colours are slightly different for a highlighted menu choice to allow the visitor to identify what part of the website that they are in. We have also added duplicate navigational links on the bottom of every page in the "tiled" and "vertical" layouts. This allows for visitors to see the navigational links on long pages when they reach the bottom.