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The new Replace Assets feature that debuted in EverWeb 3.4 is a small but incredibly powerful addition to EverWeb‘s feature set.

Why Use Replace Assets?

Replace Assets simply replaces one image asset with another and is beneficial to use for a number of reasons:

1. The feature replaces all instances of an asset in your site with the new asset that you have chosen. This includes where the asset has been used in widgets e.g. in EverWeb’s Image Gallery widgets, or even the FlexBox and Text Section widgets.
2. The replacement asset inherits the attributes of the original asset. This is incredibly useful as it means that you do not have to do any reformatting in your website.
3. The ‘One Stop’ Replacement. You save time and effort as you only need to replace the asset once. This can be an incredible boon if you need to regularly replace an asset in your site with an updated asset.

Caution!

If you replace an asset with another, you cannot undo this action. It is therefore recommended that you have a copy of the original asset stored somewhere in case you make a mistake and need to undo your asset replacement. The good news is that you can always replace a replaced asset with another asset.

It is also recommended that you backup your EverWeb site before you use Replace Assets. You can set regular project file backups in EverWeb-> Preferences which is recommended anyway. You can also instantly backup your project file at any time by clicking on the up/down arrows to the right of the project file name in the Projects window, then selecting ‘Male Backup…’ from the dropdown menu. Follow the instructions given in the dialog boxes to complete the backup.

How to Use Replace Assets

The replace Assets feature is super easy to use.

1. First go to the Assets tab in the Inspector Window in EverWeb.
2. Secondary click on the asset that you want to replace.
3. If you are not sure that you have selected the right asset, either click and drag the asset a little bit out of the Assets tab, or use the Preview Eye to see what the asset is.
4. Once you have secondary clicked on the asset, select ‘Replace Asset…”
5. Locate the asset that you want as the replacement then click ‘Open’ to finish.
6. The asset will be replaced.

Usage Cases for Replace Assets

There are many different ways in which you can effectively use Replace Assets to help save you time and effort, now and in the future!

1. Rebranding: If you have updated your company branding, Replace Assets is the ideal one hit solution to updating your brand. For example, just replace your old company logo with the new one in the Assets List and the logo will be updated throughout your website.
2. Change of location: If you have images of your business location in your site that need updating after an office
3. Frequently Updated Images: Some websites have a fast turnaround of their content. If you are using image based content that needs replacing e.g. daily, weekly or perhaps monthly, then using Replace Assets could make this task easier.
4. Making Text Importing Easier. If you import text in to your site on a regular basis, it may be easier to save this as a PDF file in the source app then use Replace Assets to replace the old PDF text with the new in your page in EverWeb. This will save you time formatting the text every time you import it in to EverWeb.
5. Multi-lingual Websites. Sometimes you may have two websites that are essentially the same, for example you have a multilingual website. The pages for all languages are essentially the same in terms of layout and images, widgets used, social media icons etc. The only difference is the language the content is written in. If you need to update your images across each language site, Replace Assets will make this process a lot easier. Especially if all the pages for each language are in the one project file.
6. In a similar vein as multi-lingual websites, you may find that you update two similar project files with the same images e.g. you may have online help pages for an app that is available for Windows and for the Mac. As there are some differences between the two operating systems you may have started by developing one website project file for the Mac app. After completing the project file, you may have duplicated the project file for the Window version of the product, as this is quicker and easier that building it from scratch. Replacing the images in the Windows project file is easy, just use replace assets to replace the Mac images with Windows ones!

Tips on Using Replace Assets

Here are a couple of tips on using Replace Assets:

1. As mentioned above, make sure you have made a backup copy of your project file in case you need to rollback your changes.
2. Always have copies of the original images that you are going to replace at hand in case you make a mistake and replace the wrong asset.
3. Take care in naming your assets. Make sure to name your assets so that you can easily recognise each asset. This will make the replacement process easier, especially if you will be replacing assets on a regular basis. It will also reduce the risk of replacing the wrong asset by mistake. Usually it is best to follow the naming practices as outlined in our SEO for EverWeb video course, so that you better your SEO and have user friendly file names!

EverWeb’s new Replace Assets feature, is a small addition to the product that will save you time and effort, both now and in the future!

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