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Over the last 12 months, EverWeb has added numerous features to enhance your website building experience, boost your website’s performance, and make designing your site more flexible than ever! Our releases over the last year included EverWeb version 4.1 in January 2024, EverWeb version 4.2 in June and the maintenance release, version 4.2.1 in July. We are currently wrapping up the testing of the new EverWeb 4.3 for Mac and Windows release which should be available in the next few days. We’ve got some great new features coming in this release together with an all new widget!

We have also been working hard behind the scenes over the last twelve months, laying the foundations for some awesome new features that we will be showcasing in the next twelve months!

In the meantime, here’s a review of what happened in our 11th Anniversary Year!

Your Wish Lists Items Fulfilled!

Adding features to EverWeb that you want to see is always a priority. Your suggestions, via the EverWeb User Forum, are always welcomed and we are always super interested in hearing from you about what you would like to see in future versions of EverWeb. Over the past twelve months a lot of these ‘wish list’ features have been added! This includes the new Draft Page Mode, Lazy Loading Image files and the ability to drag and drop pages between different project files.

There are more wish list features that we are going to fulfil over the next twelve months, starting with the addition of Justified Text in TextBoxes in the upcoming EverWeb version 4.3.

Expanded and Enhanced Shape Options…

It has been a great time over the last two years for EverWeb’s Shape Options Fill options! Firstly, Fill Slideshow debuted as a new Fill option in EverWeb 3.6, followed by new Map Fill and Video Fill options that were introduced with EverWeb 4.2. These new options allow you to add slideshows, maps and videos to most object types and in the case of Map Fill, you have expanded mapping options that go further with Google Maps than EverWeb’s inbuilt Google Maps widget can!

More Video Options Come To EverWeb!

Adding more video related features to EverWeb has also been something that we have wanted to add for you for a while. EverWeb version 4.1 and 4.2 made this a reality with the aforementioned Video Fill on the Shape Options tab and also the arrival of video fill for the Browser Background. Again, we added lots of options for this feature so you can easily get the video background as you want it on your site!

User Interface and User Experience Improvements and Enhancements

Since EverWeb’s 10th Anniversary, we also took time to make EverWeb easier by adding a settings log to most objects so that you no longer need to mouse over to the Inspector Window. We also introduced a Toolbar for the Responsive Row widget, and enhanced many settings such as new alignment options for Page Background and Shape Option’s Image Fill feature.

In addition, the SEO Check Page addon was updated to include more SEO features, and WebP support also came to EverWeb to help make your pages load even faster in any browser that supports this feature.

All of our updates reflect our ongoing commitment to you to make designing your website easier and more professional. Please let us know your feedback and what you would like to see in future EverWeb updates! And don’t forget EverWeb 4.3 will be available soon!

Thank you as always for your continued support!

# Team EverWeb

In the first part of this blog, How EverWeb Can Keep Visitors Interested in Your Site, we looked at how you should prepare before going live with your EverWeb made website. We also looked at how to create an SEO strategy so that your website’s chances of being found on the Internet are the best that they can be. In this second, concluding part, we look at things that you can do in EverWeb from a design and content approach that will help keep visitors interested in your site.

Create and Maintain a Dynamic Landing Page

Perhaps the most important page of your website is the Landing page, also known as your site’s Home page. This page, typically, will be the first page which new and returning visitors will access. So, it is important to keep it up to date. For example, anything that is time sensitive should only be on the landing page whilst it is relevant. If you have, for example, an event on your page that is three years old, chances are that your visitors will think that your site is no longer active and may stop visiting you!

New Content Creation Is Important for SEO

Adding new, fresh content to your website is an important ingredient in keeping visitors coming back to your website. Use the Home page of your site to highlight what is new and trending. Updating at least the Home page of your website on a regular basis is a simple, effective way of telling your visitors that your site is active and alive and kicking! How many websites do you know of that are not updated for years? If you are selling goods and services on your site, this is doubly important.

When creating content for the Home page of your site, make sure your message is clear and simple, typically with only one objective in the message. Clear and simple is always best. Avoid just updating your Home page just for the sake of it, and whilst using SEO Keywords on your Home page is great, do not sacrifice your content for the sake of SEO.

Blogging – Is It For You and Your Audience?

One great way to add new content is to add a blog to your site. This can become a tool that will hook your visitors on your site if you add content that is fresh, relevant and interesting to your audience. A regular blog is something of an investment and it is not for everyone but if it is right for your audience then it is worth trialling.

Remember To Keep EverWeb Up To Date!

One other vital factor in keeping visitors interested in your site is to keep EverWeb up to date. In addition to maintenance and stability releases, major point version releases of EverWeb will bring new features, or enhanced existing features, for you to use. EverWeb usually gets three to four major point releases throughout the year so don’t get left behind!

Consider Revamping Your Site From Time To Time

Sometimes keeping your visitors interested in your site can just come down to revamping your site from time to time. Changes in colors, fonts and layout can have a huge impact – both positive and negative – so figuring out what works for your target market is important. When it comes to design in EverWeb, remember to use Paragraph Styles in all of your pages. We also recommend that you assign Document Colors to your site as well. When it comes to revamping your site, you only need to update your Paragraph Style and Document Color defaults which will then ripple throughout your site, saving you lots of time and effort!

Spreading the Word About Your Website

One of the best ways of getting more traction to your website is by spreading the word through social media such as Facebook pages, Instagram, Pinterest, LnkedIn and other social media platforms that are appropriate to your business, or interest group. Linking your website’s content to social media is a good way of keeping visitors and customers informed and up to date about your site and business.

Remember as well that social media is not for everyone either, again think of what best suits your audience. For example, including an email newsletter sign up Contact Form in your website. Creating a regular newsletter may be a better alternative to social media and blogging for some audiences. If you choose to go the newsletter route, you can use EverWeb’s Contact Form Enhanced addon to manage the contact forms that are submitted to you from the Contact Form Advanced widget.

Keeping Visitors Interested: Final Take Aways…

There are a number of different tools within EverWeb that you can use to help keep your website live and fresh to your current visitors as well as potential new visitors. If you run a business over the Internet, remember that your website is your calling card so needs attention!

When you build your website in EverWeb it’s a great feeling to finally publish it to the Internet for the whole world to see. All those hours of effort you put in to designing and building your site are rewarded when you ‘Go Live’. So does this mean that it is now time to sit back and let your site do the work that you intended it to do? It’s a tempting thought, but the reality is that going live is only really the start of the journey…

Is Your Website Achieving Its Objectives?

Anyone who builds a website is doing so for a purpose. Behind the purpose will be one or more specific goals or objectives that the website should meet, both now and in the future. Once your website has gone live, you should check if its goals are being met, or if they need to be modified, on a regular basis. It is also important to think about how your website will need adapt in the future to meet ongoing changes in business, or personal, goals and objectives.

Fix Issues Before They Become Problems

After going live, the most immediate task for any website developer will be to fix any issues that may have come to light after go live, as quickly as possible. The best test of how any website is going to work is when it goes live on the Internet. Obviously, it is important to test your site as thoroughly as possible before go live as this should help iron out most, if not all, potential issues or problems.

Prior to going live, your testing phase is also a good time to double check your site’s workflow. Is your site easy to use and to navigate? This is an important part of your site’s development. If your site is difficult to navigate you will probably lose you visitors once it has gone live. Remember as well to check all of the links in your pages and navigation menus.

In addition to looking at your site’s workflow, also make sure that you include a ‘404 Page Not Found‘ page to your site’s pages. The 404 page appears if a visitor clicks on a link to a page that does not exist or cannot be found. Using a 404 page in your site helps keep the visitor within your site and helps you direct them back to another page within your site e.g. your 404 page could include a button to take the visitor back to your Home page. In EverWeb, add your 404 page to your site in the Site Publishing Settings page which can be accessed from the File-> Edit Publishing Settings menu option.

When it comes to rooting out potential problems before you go live, often developers publish the site to a ‘test’ area on Internet until all issues have been resolved. This is as close to a Go Live as you can get. Once any problems have been resolved, the site can then be published to its true URL for Go Live.

The final way of checking for any potential issues on your site is to test it once it has gone live and to look out for any feedback from the site’s visitors about things that do not work, or work in unexpected ways. It may be possible that you cannot test some features using a test setup and Go Live is the only way to try out some of your sites features. In this case, whenever possible, fix any such problems as soon as possible. This will add credibility and professionalism to your site. If a visitor to your site posts an issue on social media, respond quickly, courteously and positively as possible. Also remember to update those who flagged the issues as to the progress in fixing the problem they highlighted. This approach is good PR for you even though if it is hard work at the time.

Get Your Website’s Stats!

Once your site is up and running, you can find out how interested visitors are in it by analyzing your visitor statistics. If you have an EverWeb+Hosting account, you can access your site stats through your EverWeb Client Area. If you use your own Hosting Provider, please contact them for more information on getting your stats.

Using your visitor statistics, over time, will detail how your site traffic is holding up. It is also useful to check your stats after you have made any major changes to your site as this may indicate whether the changes you have made have been successful or not. Site statistics can also be affected by your site’s SEO in relationship to Google, Microsoft Bing, Alexa and other search engines algorithms.

Is Your SEO Strategy Working?

Often you will attract visitors by having your site found in internet searches. Your site’s visitor statistics is a good indicator as to whether your site’s SEO strategy is working. If your SEO strategy is working properly your chances of being found in an Internet search will be better.

SEO can be tricky to evaluate, as any changes that Google (or other search engine providers) search algorithms may affect your site’s traffic. As such, monitoring traffic on a regular basis may provide you with valuable insights in to whether your SEO is on target or not.

For more information about SEO in EverWeb, either follow our SEO for EverWeb Video Course or check out the chapter on SEO in the EverWeb User Manual. Additionally, you can also fine tune your SEO using EverWeb’s SEO Power Up Addon.

Keeping Your Visitors Interested: Initial Take Aways…

Keeping visitors interested in your site is a constant task that needs attending to. If you fail to do so, over time you will find that the number of visitors to your site will decline. In addition, you should also review at your SEO strategy on a regular basis to make sure that you are still in synch with search engine algorithms and that you are targeting your market audience properly.

In the next post we will be focusing on website design and content as ways to keep your visitors interested in your site. Hooking visitors to your site is key to retaining and growing your site’s traffic and your business!

The new global styles feature that debuted with the release of EverWeb 4.0 makes setting up default font styles and color palettes for your site easy and flexible. You can now define all of the text styles that you want to use in your EverWeb project file in one place as well as define the color pallete that you want to use for your site.

We recommend setting up your global styles as one of the first things you do when you create a new website project file. If you already have a project file, that is also no problem as you can apply global styles to any existing pages of your site.

In this post we are going to look at how to create global text styling and document colors.

Accessing Global Styles…

To access a project file’s global styles you will need to be using EverWeb 4.0 or higher, for Windows or Mac. Once you have opened your project file, go to the Format-> Default Styles menu option. The default styles dialog box will appear.

About Default Settings…

In the top left hand corner of the dialog box are the project file’s Default Settings. These settings are found in all versions of EverWeb and they set default the site’s default font family, font size and color for TextBoxes. It is also where you set up the defaults that you want to use for Shape Objects and Hyperlinks.

Note that if you change these settings they will be applied to any new TextBoxes, Shapes and so forth, but will not affect any existing objects.

When finished changing your Default Settings, click on Save. Your changes will be applied to any new object or hyperlink that you create.

Preferred Fonts

To the right of the Default Settings is the Preferred Fonts column. Preferred Fonts are used by everWeb’s Styled Text Editor that is found in widgets such as the Text Section, FlexBox and PayPal widgets. By default this column is filled with nine web safe fonts. You can add fonts to the list by selecting the font and font style you want from the dropdown menus below the list of fonts, then clicking on the Add button.

As with all list boxes in EverWeb you can move the fonts in the list simply by dragging the font you want to move from its current location and dropping it where you want it in the list.

To delete fonts from the list, first select the font you want to delete then press the backspace key. If you have used a font that you have deleted, the text will default back to Arial.

When finished with your changes click on Save.

Paragraph Styles

In the second row of settings you will find the defaults for your Project’s Paragraph Styles. You can apply paragraph styling to any text in a TextBox, text used in the Styled Text Editor in some of EverWeb’s widgets, or text within Blog Posts in the Blog Post Editor. By default there are eight predefined Paragraph Styles. To change the name of a Paragraph Style, double click on the name of the Paragraph Style you want to change, edit the name, then press Enter to finish.

Click once on the Paragraph Style to manage its properties. For example, click on ‘Secondary Body’ to select it. Use the Font Settings in the middle column to change the styling of the selected Paragraph Style.

One of the great new additions to EverWeb 4.0 is the addition of scalable text for TextBoxes. In the Default Settings dialog box, set the Minimum Font Size that you want the Paragraph Style to have e.g. 16 point. Next, set the maximum font size for the Paragraph Style using the Font Size field to the right of the Font Style dropdown e.g. 24 point. Now you have set up the Paragraph Style to automatically scale the text between 16 and 24 point depending on the device the text is being displayed upon.

Click Save when finished with your changes. When you apply the Paragraph Style to your text, it will automatically scale if needed. in a nice and smooth way.

When you set up your Paragraph Styles you also have the option to use a Back Up Font if your main Paragraph Style font is not available. We recommend setting this up, preferably using either Web Safe Fonts or Google Fonts.

If you want to add a new Paragraph Style simply click on the ‘+’ button below the Paragraph Styles section. To delete a Paragraph Style, click on the Paragraph Style, then click on the ‘-‘ button. If the Paragraph Style being deleted is used in your site, you will be asked to select another Paragraph Style to replace the one you are deleting.

When finished with your changes, click on Save. Your changes will be applied to any text in your site that uses the Paragraph Style that you have change.

Document Colors

In addition to setting defaults for text, EverWeb 4.0 and higher also lets you define settings for the colors that you use in your site’s pages. The Document Colors section is where you define your site’s color palette. If, for example, you want to set the Page Background color of a page in your site, you can choose a color to use by clicking on the color swatch in the Page Background section of the Page Settings tab. You will see a selection of color swatches to choose from. In this example, I am going to choose the blue color at the top of the first column.

The color swatches you see in the color swatch are the ones defined in the Document Colors section of Default Styles. In my example, I have a blue background for my page, but I can change this default to something else if I want. The blue color swatch is at the top of the Document Colors list. To change the color, click on the color and adjust it using the Color Picker. When finished, close the Color Picker and click on Save. Wherever the blue swatch was used in your site, it will now be changed to the new color.

It may be useful to note the hex number of the default color before you change it in case you change your mind later on and want to revert to the original default color.

EverWeb’s Global Styles feature allows you to easily set up default font styles and document color palettes for your site. If you change any of these defaults in Document Styles, the changes will be applied to any object that uses the global style making updating your site super easy!

If you have any questions about this post, about EverWeb 4.0, or EverWeb in general, please let us know in the Comments Section below.

if you are a Mac user, you are no doubt aware of Apple’s recent release of macOS 15, also known as macOS Sequoia. In our testing of the current version of EverWeb – version 4.2.1, we have not found any issues when running on this new operating system.

We are already testing the next release of EverWeb against macOS Sequoia to ensure that it is fully compatible with Apple’s latest OS release.

If you have any questions about EverWeb and Operating System compatibility, please let us know in the Comments section.

In our last blog post, we looked at getting started with blogging in EverWeb and whether you should choose to blog or not. We finished off the last post by creating a blog. In this post, we will take a deep dive in to EverWeb’s blog Post page!

Exploring The Blog Posts List

As you may already have discovered, the Posts page is the page where you will probably spend most of your time when blogging. The page is divided up in to a number of sections. When you view the page you will see that there are three horizontal sections and the Blog Post Settings pane on the right hand side.

The first horizontal section is the Blog Posts List section where you create and manage your blog posts. The blog posts that you create can be easily ordered by Blog Post, Date or Draft status. Just by clicking on these Titles at the top of the section.

By default, when you create a blog in EverWeb one post will also be created, called ‘New Blog Post’. To change the title of the post, simply double click on the post’s title, make the changes you want and hit the Enter key when finished.

Also by default, EverWeb enters the current date and the when you create a post. You can easily change this to another date/time if you need to. Again, double click on the date of the post whose date/time you want to change. A calendar will pop up allowing you to set the date and time as required. Additionally, you can also set the date/time to the website’s next publish date/time by checking the ‘Use Website Publish Date’ field.

Typically when blogging you will probably have some posts in development for publishing at a later date. In this case you probably will want to set the post to Draft so that it does not get published inadvertently until you are ready to do so.

At the bottom of the section is a Settings Cog on the left hand side and ‘Add Post’ and ‘Delete Post’ buttons on the right. The Settings Cog has three options: The first is Post Options which is where you can add a Short Summary of the blog post as well as Keywords for the post which is useful for your SEO.

The second option is Import which allows you to import blogs from iWeb or WordPress. If you want to import photo galleries from these two products, use the File-> Import menu. Additionally you can also import photo galleries from Sandvox using the File-> Import menu option.

The last option lets you choose whether you want he blog post editor to be in Dark Mode or not. Just toggle the option as required.

Exploring The Blog Post Editor Window

The second section of the blog posts page is the Blog Post Editor Window. This is where you enter your blog post’s text and images. Simply add your text and use the Blog Post Editor’s Toolbar to stylise as you want. If you want to add images to the post, just drag and drop them in to the post. Use the image’s Toolbar to choose whether you want the image to stand on its own or be integrated with your text. You can also use the image’s Toolbar to add Alt Text to your image.

If you are using EverWeb 4.0 or higher, you can also add paragraph styles to your text. Just select he text you want to use a paragraph style with then choose the style from the Blog Post Editor Toolbar.

When you create your blog post text and add images, you will see them in the Blog Preview window below the Blog Post Editor Window. This is the third section of the Posts page.

Exploring the Blog Preview Window

The final section of the Posts page is the Blog Post Preview. This section is similar to a Master Page. If you add objects in to this area, they will appear on all the pages of your blog so be careful what you add! This section is useful as it shows you a live preview of how your post will look. Typically, you will add objects in to the header and footer areas of this section, leaving the middle empty for your post’s contents. If you are not comfortable using the Blog Preview as a Master Page, you can always add a Master Page to the Posts page using the Inspector Window’s Page Settings tab. Just set the Master Page you want to use in the Master Page field dropdown menu.

Post Page Widget Settings

The last section of the Posts page is the Widget Settings that run down the right hand side. Here you can set multiple options that will affect all of your blog posts. This is the section where you define the style of your blog posts. In addition, you can also add a Comments Section if you want to engage with your audience. EverWeb supports both Disqus and Facebook Comments.

For more details on the blog Posts page , please checkout our other videos, or take a look at our blogging videos in the EverWeb Video Training Library!

If you have any comments, or feedback on EverWeb’s blogging feature, please let us know in the Comments Section below. We’re here to help!

Creating your own website is often a first step in a journey. As you begin to find out what EverWeb‘s capable of, and the features that it includes, you may find that your initial website becomes something more! Adding more features to your site often comes as you gain more experience and confidence in using EverWeb. Once you have built your initial website, you will probably have more time to add any additional features you may have kept back from your site’s initial release. Once such feature may be to add a blog to your site.

Is Adding a Blog To Your Site The Right Thing To Do?

The first question you should ask yourself if you are considering adding a blog to your site is “Is adding the blog the right thing to do for my business and customers?” On the plus side, adding a blog to your website is a powerful way to enhance your online presence, engage your audience, and drive business growth. Whether you’re looking to improve your SEO, build authority, or simply to better connect with your customers, a blog can be an invaluable tool.

On the negative side, blogging may not be the right solution, or even beneficial, for your business. If the commitment to maintain quality, consistency, and strategic alignment is not feasible, it might be better to explore other ways to engage your audience and achieve your business goals. Managing and maintaining a blog can be very resource intensive.

Preparing to Start Your Blogging Journey!

If you have decided that blogging is right for your business, there are a few things that you might want to consider before creating a blog in Everweb:

• Build a Pipeline of Blog Post Ideas: Having a list of possible posts for the future is always worthwhile creating. This will give you a pipeline so that you can post on a regular, consistent basis. Also remember that your pipeline should include some ‘Evergreen’ content too i.e. content that has a regular anniversary or is content that is good to repurpose from time to time. Examples include product or company anniversaries, Black Friday, getting started guides and so forth.
• Posting Frequency: Choose a blogging frequency that suits your customers and also make sure that it suits you too. Writing a blog can take time and research so make sure you can handle the workload. When it comes to choosing a publishing time for you blog posts, check out when your social media feed is most looked at, then post at that time to maximise customer engagement.
• Blog Post Comments On or Off?: It is your choice as to whether you want your community to be able to comment on your posts or not. If you allow commenting, you, as a moderator will have to monitor and vet comments. This may take you time and effort. Also dealing with the potential for inappropriate or negative comments should be taken in to account as well. Allowing your community to comment can be a rewarding experience, so you may want to consider trialling commenting before committing to it.
• Choose Your Comment Engine: If you do decide to allow comments on your posts, you have two choices in EverWeb – Disqus or Facebook Comments. Check out the section in the EverWeb User Manual which takes you through the pros and cons of both as well as how to set up your blog on either platform.

Creating a Blog in EverWeb

Now that you have finished your planning tasks and have everything you need to start blogging ready, now is the time to create a blog in your EverWeb site.

1. Start by adding a new page to your site
2. If you are using a Theme Template already for your pages, check to see if there is a blog page available. If so you can use this.
3. Alternatively, choose either a Blank, or Blank Responsive Theme Template, then choose the blog page.
4. Click on the ‘Select’ button to add the blog page to your site.

EverWeb’s Blog Page Structure

The blog page in EverWeb is a special type of page. When you add the blog to your site, you will see that, in fact, the ‘blog’ page is a directory page, consisting of three pages:

Blog: This is the main page of the blog where you see a summary of the latest blog posts that you have created. The latest post is usually displayed at the top of the list with other posts displayed in descending date order.

Posts:This page is your blogging engine where you create the blog posts themselves. This is the page you will probably spend most of your time on.

Archive: This page is where you can view summaries of all of the blog posts that you have created in your blog.

Getting Started with Blog Posting in EverWeb

After creating your blog in your project file, the first thing you will probably want to do is to write your first blog. To do this, simply click on the Posts page in the Web Page List that runs down the left hand side of EverWeb. You will see that the first post has been created for you, ready to fill in!

In our next post, we will take an in-depth look at the Posts page so that you can get the most out of it!

If you have any comments or questions in the meantime about blogging in EverWeb, or any EverWeb related question, please let us know in the Comments section below. We are happy to help!

One of our most requested feature requests for EverWeb has come to fruition in EverWeb 4.2: The ability to copy pages between project files!

If you are developing more than one website, you may want to copy pages from one, or more, existing project files for use in a new project. This saves you both time and effort as you can recycle your work and be more time efficient as well.

In this blog post we will be looking at copy pages, folders Master pages and objects between project files.

Copying Pages Between EverWeb Project Files

EverWeb 4.2 introduces the ability to easily copy pages between project files. To copy a regular page between project files, first open the project files that you want to use. In this post, we will refer to one project file as the ‘source’ i.e. the project which contains the page that you want to copy, and the other project file as the ‘target’, i.e. the project file that will receive the copied page.

We recommend that you open the target project file first, then the source project file. This will make it easier for copying the page from one to the other as the source project will ‘float’ above the target project on your computer screen.

After opening your project files, position the source and target project files on screen so that you can see both project file’s Web Page List. Now simply drag the page you want from the source project in to the Web Page List of the target project. You may need to wait a moment before you see that the page has been copied over.

If EverWeb encounters any problems, or issues, when copying a page from one project file to another, a dialog box will appear informing you how to proceed. The most common issue that you may come across is if the page name in the source project already exists in the target project. In this instance, the page will not be copied across, so before you copy the page over check that you do not have a duplicate page name in your target project. If you do, rename that particular page in the target project to something else.

Copying Folders Between Project Files

In addition to copying regular pages from one project file to another, you can also copy directories from one project file to another in exactly the same way as you do for copying pages. If you have many pages within the directory, it may take a few moments for the copying to complete.

Copying Master Pages Between Project Files

Master pages are another type of page that can be copied from one project to another. Once you have your source and target project files open, go to the source project file that contains the Master page that you want to copy. Drag and drop the Master page that you want to copy from the Master Page section of the Web Page List in to the regular page section. This will create a copy of the Master Page in the regular page section. Next, drag and drop the Master page ‘copy’ from the regular page list in to the Master page section of the target project file. Once you have completed the copy, delete the Master page ‘copy’ from the regular page section of the Web Page List in the source project file.

Copying Objects Between Project Files

EverWeb 4.2 also allows you to easily copy and paste objects such as widgets, TextBoxes or images, from one project to another. The easiest way to do this is to first select the object you want to copy in the source project file. Next, either use the Edit-> Copy menu option, or the Command+C shortcut key on a Mac, or the Ctril+C keyboard shortcut in Windows to copy the object to the Clipboard. Once the object has been copied, go to the target project file and use the Edit-> Paste menu option, or Command+V (Mac) or Ctrl+V (Windows) shortcut key to paste the object in to the page that you want it added to.

EverWeb 4.2 makes copying pages and objects between project files easy saving you time and effort! if you have a question about this post, or about anything EverWeb related, please let us know. We are here to help!

Almost all websites today include some way in which you can make contact with the company, or individual, behind the website. Typically, websites use tools such as a contact form, and website builders such as EverWeb usually include tools to help you create your own contact form.

When we think about a contact form, inevitably two types of form come to mind, a newsletter sign up form and a contact, or feedback, type of form. However, there are plenty of other forms that you create using EverWeb such as a survey form, support form, evaluation forms, job interview forms and so on.

Why Your Website Should Include a Contact Form

A contact form can be a vital component of a well-designed website. It not only improves user experience and protects you from spam but also helps you gather essential information, manage inquiries efficiently, and can enhance your professional image. By making it easy for visitors to reach out, you can foster better engagement, collect valuable feedback, and ultimately drive more conversions. Whether you run a small business, a blog, or a website for hobby or non-profit reasons, a contact form can prove to be indispensable for effective communication and customer service.

Creating a Contact Form in EverWeb

EverWeb has always included a contact form generator, starting with the Contact Form widget in EverWeb version 1.0. When EverWeb 2.0 debuted, the Contact Form Advanced widget was introduced superseding the original Contact Form widget which remains mainly for legacy reasons.

We recommend using the Contact Form Advanced widget for a number of reasons:

• It is more secure than the Contact Form widget
• It is less liable to spam and include tools such as Google’s reCaptcha
• It has a wide variety of features and functionality enabling you to create the contact form you want for your site.
• It has the option to add the Contact Forms Enhanced Addon which helps manage your contact form submissions in one place whilst offering enhanced features such as file submissions.

Creating a contact form in your site is easy, just click on the Widgets tab in the Inspector Window then drag and drop the Contact Form Advanced widget to where you want it on your page.

Do You Need EverWeb’s Contact Forms Enhanced Addon?

You will want to use EverWeb’s Contact Forms Enhanced Addon if you want a tool to manage the contact information from the contact forms your website visitors have submitted to you via the Contact Form Advanced widget.

Contact data is stored securely in your EverWeb Client Area where it is easily accessible and can be downloaded to a CSV ?le. The stored email addresses gathered from your contact forms can be used to create mailings to existing and potential new customers, newsletter email lists, surveys, promotions and so on. You can also target speci?c groups or market segments based on questions you ask in your contact form.

Other Contact Forms Enhanced Addon features include:

• Calendaring features can be added to your Contact Form using the ‘Calendar’ control. The calendar is fully responsive so is perfect for mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers.
• The ‘Select Time’ control lets displays a popup window to select speci?c times.
• Visitors can upload ?les to the EverWeb servers. You can then download the ?les safely at a later time from your EverWeb Client Area.

If you require any of these features then you should be using the Contact Forms Enhanced Addon in conjunction with the Contact Form Advanced widget. Just follow the link above to sign up.

Contact Form Advanced Widget Features

When you first look at the Contact Form Advanced widget’s Widget Settings it may seem a little daunting as there are so many features included. The good news is that the widget is broken down in to sections making it easier for you to navigate.

The first section includes basic information required about the contact form, such as the name you want to call it, the email address where your form submissions will be sent to and a field to add in the Contact Forms Enhanced Addon if you have purchased this. The last field in this section is ‘Mail Sending’ which offers you three choices: EverWeb, PHP Mail and SMTP Details. If you choose EverWeb, you will need to have purchased the Contact Forms Enhanced Addon.

The second section is ‘SMTP Details’. Depending on your Mail Sending choice, you may, or may not, need to complete the SMTP Details section. For help with this section, click on the ‘More HHelp’ button.

The third section of the widget is the ‘Form Submission Settings’ section. This is where you define the title of the email subject, where you define the message you give the user once they have submitted their form, where to forward the visitor next, after the form has been submitted and lastly the style of form you want displayed on the page. You can choose between Classic, Modern and Transparent.

After the Form Submission Settings you will see the next section Form Controls. This is the section where you add and manage the fields that you want in your form. By default, three form controls are included when you add the Contact Form Advanced widget to your page. Below the form controls, is the Control Type which is where you define the function of the field e.g. click on the Name Form Control. You will see its Control Type is set to TextBox. You can change this to another type as desired. Below the Control Type are a number of different options to set up the initial parameters for the control, help text and tips as well as styling options.

The next section ‘SPAM Protection’ does just that, it helps your contact form against potential spamming. To activate this section you will need to sign up to Google’s reCaptcha feature which can be easily done by clicking on the ‘Sign Up for reCaptacha v2’ button. Note that if you want to use the widget’s Confirmation Email Settings section which is further down the Widget Settings, you will need to sign up for reCaptcha to use this feature.

The next section, Fonts & Styles, is again important for the styling of your Form Controls so that your form matches with the style of your page and site properly!

The Contact Form Advanced widget also lets you define how you want the Submit button to look. You can even set your own image as well if you want. The next section is concerned with Form Error Validation. This can be of great help when the person submitting the form has not completed the form correctly and tries to submit the form. Usually the default text is good enough, but of course you can change this as required.

The last main section of the Widget Settings is the Confirmation Email Settings section. As mentioned about, you need to enable reCaptcha for this section to work. This section is used to email the form submitter that their form has been received. Again you can customize this as you want.

EverWeb’s Contact Form Advanced widget offers a lot of potential for your website. We will shortly be uploading blog and video content about what you can achieve with the widget, starting off soon with creating a Newsletter Sign Up style Contact Form.

If you have a question about this blog post or about anything EverWeb, please let us know in the Comments Section below.

The new Shape Options Map Fill feature, introduced in EverWeb 4.2, gives you more options and control than ever before for any Google Maps that you may want displayed in your website. In addition to EverWeb‘s existing Google Maps widget, you now have map fill options available from the Shape Options tab.

Google Maps Widget or Shape Options Map Fill?

From EverWeb 4.2 onwards, you now have two ways of adding a map to your website: The Google Maps widget and the Shap Options tab’s Map Fill option. The Google Maps widget was introduced in EverWeb 1.0 and offers you a simple Roadmap view displayed in your website. Just enter an address in the Address field of the widget’s Widget Settings and you will see the resulting map in the Editor Window.

Now in EverWeb 4.2 you can now choose to fill a shape object with a map instead. Using the new Shape Options Map Fill gives you three different levels of map features.

If you only require a simple map with no extra features, you can use either the Google Maps widget or the Shape Options tab’s Simple Map (Deprecated) feature. They both use the same Roadmap feature. If your map requirements require more options and flexibility, you should choose either the Shape Options Map Fill Basic Map (Free) or Advanced Map option

Starting With the Shape Options Map Fill

To use EverWeb’s Map Fill feature, first

1. Go to the page where you want to add the map, or create a new page, in your site
2. Click on the Shape button in the Toolbar and select a shape. Note that when using the Map Fill option, whatever shape you have chosen here will be converted in to a rectangular shape in order to display the map.
3. Click on the Shape Options tab in the Inspector Window
4. In the Fill section, click on the dropdown menu and choose ‘Map’ from the menu.
5. You now see a notice informing you that you will need to use a Google API Key in order to access the available map Basic Map (Free) and Advanced Map features.
6. Choose to either ‘Get Google API Key…’ or ‘Got It’ if you already have an API Key, or want to set this up later. We will discuss getting a Google API Key later on in this blog post.

Map Fill Choices

When it comes to using EverWeb’s new Map Fill feature you have three different levels of map integration to choose from:

1. Simple Map (Deprecated)
2. Basic Map (Free)
3. Advanced Map

The first level, Simple Map (Deprecated), offers the same Roadmap map display as found in EverWeb’s Google Maps widget. Just enter the address that you want in the Location field and the map will be displayed in the Editor Window. The one difference between using the Google Maps widget and the Shape Options feature is that the latter allows you to set a zoom level for the displayed map in the Editor Window.

The second Map Fill option is the Basic Map (Free) option. This option requires that you complete the Google Maps API Key field in order to use its features (see below). This map option allows you to select either a Roadmap view or a Satellite view. In Roadmap view, you can toggle Terrain and Labels on or off, whilst in Satellite view you have the option only to toggle Labels.

Google Maps Cloud Platform and API Keys

When you use the new Map Fill option in EverWeb 4.2 or higher, you will need to include an “API Key code” if you want to use the Basic (Free) or Advanced Map features.

Once you have generated the necessary Key you will then enter it in to the Map Fill ‘Google Maps API Key’ field.

Generating the Google Maps API Key is easy because when you select the Basic or Advanced Map option, EverWeb will display a dialog box with an option to ‘Get Google Maps API Key’.

When you click on this option, you will be taken in to Google Cloud Platform which will then step you through generating a Maps API Key that you can use in EverWeb.

In order to generate a Google Maps API Key, you will required to complete the following steps:

• Create a Google account if you do not have one already, then add Google Cloud Platform to your account.

• If you already have a Google account, you may be asked to log in. Once logged in you may be asked to add Google Cloud Platform to your account.

• You may also be asked to supply billing details to Google. If you are using the Basic (Free) option in EverWeb, you will not be billed. If you are using the Advanced Maps option, you will be charged by Google for using the Advanced Map features.

• You will need to create a Google Could Platform Project, if you have not already created one.

• You will need to make sure that you enable Google Maps Platform APIs and SDKs for your Google Cloud Platform project.

Once you have completed the steps required by Google to generate a Google Maps API Key, copy the API Key to the Clipboard and paste it in to the Google Maps API Key field in the Map Fill section in EverWeb.

Next Steps…

Now that you have added your Map Fill object to your page in conjunction with generating a Google Maps API Key, you can now explore Map Fill’s options as explained in our “EverWeb’s Shape Options Map Fill Feature Set Explained!” post.

if you have any comments on this post, please let us know in the Comments Section below!