This guide is designed to serve as a brief introduction to some of the key elements of your HotWax website. Click on the tabs above to display a set of links. When you click each of the links it will bring up a brief text description of the process, and an instructional tutorial video.
If at anytime you want to get a closer view of the tutorial videos, click on the icon in the lower right hand corner to expand the video to full screen mode.
These videos will not cover all of the many features that HotWax has to offer, but will serve as a good jumping off point to getting your site up and running.
The HotWax Dashboard is your complete administrative control area.
Sitemap:
Here you have the ability to add, delete, and move pages on your website.
Reports:
HotWax has a variety of manners in which you can gather information from your users such as forms, and email captures. When you use these tools, the information they gather is stored here.
File Manager:
This tool is used for uploading, storing, and managing files such as pictures for use on your website.
Users and Groups:
Here you can manage and give users the ability to edit your website. Editing and creating users and groups is a bit technical, we reccomend leaving this option alone until you are confident in your use of HotWax.
Scrapbook:
HotWax offers a scrapbook tool that allows you to copy and paste items from one page to another. You can visit this page to edit and manage the content that is currently copied to your Scapbook.
Theme Customization:
Here you can edit and customize the general look and feel of your entire website. You can change the fonts, colors, and styles of your text, as well as adjust background colors of each of the different parts that create your website.
HotWax Functionality, Maintenance, and Sitewide Settings:
These tools are all for advanced and expert users. You are urged not to alter or use these tools unless being guided or instructed by a HotWax employee.
When you are signed in as an Admin to your HotWax website, you will see this toolbar at the top of all of your pages.
*Edit Page: Press this button to go in to edit mode. This is the way in which you will change and add content to your website.
*Add Page: You can add a page to your website by clicking here, but adding pages through the site map on the dashboard is easier.
*Dashboard: This button will take you back to the dashboard page where you started from originally.
*Help: This button takes you to the HotWax tutorials page.
*Sign Out: When you’re finished editing your website you can log out of HotWax by pressing the Sign Out button.
The Edit Page Toolbar
The options in the toolbar change when you are in edit mode.
* Exit Edit Mode - the Edit Page button switches out to become to leave edit mode button. When you press this button you will have the option of Discarding, Saving, or Publishing your changes. * Properties - page properties let you change the name, use of the default logo, meta data, and some other general information about the page. * Design - choose a new page type this page, such as Left Sidebar, Right Sidebar, Full Width and so on. * Permissions - change who can see or edit this page. This option is a tool that is recommended for advanced users. * Versions - a complete history of every set of changes made to the page. You can approve previous published versions of a page, select versions to archive, and delete previous versions. * Move/Delete - includes Copy as well. Take this page and put it somewhere else, or get rid of it forever. (Delete can not be undone.)
Areas:
HotWax is designed to separate a page in to different areas. There’s the top or Header area, there’s the bottom or Footer area, and between the two of these is the Main area.
You can add content to each of these different areas by using Blocks.
When you are in edit mode, you will see that as you scroll your mouse around the page, different areas and blocks will become shaded. This means that you can edit or add content to this area or block.
To add content to an area, find the link that says Add Content to [Blank]. Clicking on this link will bring up the new block window. You can choose any of these blocks to add to your webpage.
The Ez Content block is the absolute simplest way to post new content on your webpage.
It’s features include:
*Simple Word Processor: Ez Content’s word processor is an easier to use version of the more advanced word processor found in the standard content block. You have the ability to select font types such Headline, Subhead, and Paragraph, as well as standard font accents such as bold and italic.
*Easy Image Posting: Choose an image file and a text wrap format and Ez Content applies it automatically.
*Image Zoom: Simply check this box and let your users click on an image to see an enlarged version of it.
*Easy Linking: Type in a link to the text box and Ez Content automatically inserts a hyperlink to the image. (This feature cannot be used in conjunction with the image zoom option)
You’ll definitely want to upload some art work, photos, advertisements, and the like. You can do this by using the file manager.
Painless Uploads:
The file manager gives you the ability to upload, manage, and view images and other content all within your website. There’s o need to use FTP applications, HotWax takes care of it for you.
Mutliple Uploads:
The file manager also offers multiple file uploading. Just press the more link beside the upload button, and select multiple files on your pc, and upload them all at once, rather than each one at a time.
Sets:
You can choose multiple files and assign them a set. This is useful for using HotWax content blocks such as The Slideshow. You can assign file sets when uploading multiple files at once, or go through the files you’ve already uploaded and select them by pressing the radio buttons on the left hand side and selecting “Sets” from the drop down menu near the top of the page.
HotWax gives you the ability to drag and drop blocks of content that you have created on your webpage. You can change the order in which blocks of content appear in an area of your webpage, or move blocks from one area to another area completely.
To move blocks, click on a block while you are in Edit Mode. A window of options will appear, select the option called Move. Once you select the move option HotWax will go in to Move Mode. You can now click on individual blocks and move them around the page. When grabbing a block it is best to grab it from the top and center portion of the block.
By this point you should be somewhat comfortable with adding content and uploading files using the HotWax file manager. You’ll most likely want to add a page or two to your home page in order to expand your website.
Selecting a Layout:
When you create a new page one of the first options you’ll be presented with is the page type selector. You will see a scrollable graphic menu with your choice of layouts. Choose the one that suits your needs best. If it’s a page with only one form of content, perhaps a full width page is good. If you’re looking for a more dynamic design, perhaps one of the sidebar layouts, or multi1 may be the best choice for you.
Choosing a Name:
The name you choose for your new page is the name that will show up on the navigation bar at the top of the page. For this reason a short and concise name is the best choice. Pick something that you are pleased with, and will be clearly understood by first time visitors to your website. Pages such as Contact, About Us, and Schedule are all examples of clear and concise names. Names such as The Email Page are not as understandable and should be avoided.
HotWax gives you the standard ability to format text in one of three ways.
Headline
Subhead
and Paragraph
You can define how each of these styles look in the theme customization area of the Dashboard. These three styles are selectable in the Ez Content window at any time. However, if you want to format your text in a more advanced manner, you can use the standard Content block.
The standard Content block gives you the ability to format text in the same manner as most standard word processors such as Microsoft Word. You can adjust the font, the size, the color, and background color of the text.
Content blocks allow you to post photos on your website just like the Ez Content blocks do, but give you an advanced ability to control the image and how the text within your content block interacts with it.
When using the Ez Content block, you simply choose an image and define how large you want it to be and how the text will align itself with the image.
The Content block gives you the ability to see the image that you are working with inside of your content block as you generate your material. Some users like having this advanced level of control, while others prefer the Ez Content method.
You can embed Youtube videos into your content in the exact same manner that you embed photos.
The process has changed a bit since Youtube’s major facelift in April, but this video goes over the process of finding the html link necessary for posting youtube videos within a content block.
When viewing a video on Youtube, look for the button that says “Share” beneath the movie you are watching. Copy the URL that appears when you press the share button and follow the rest of the steps in the same manner as they are outlined in the video.
Content block vs. HTML block (for Advanced users)
In a Content block you can embed Youtube and other flash videos on your website, and type and format text around these movies as you see fit. However, you may lose some of the options that Youtube offers, such as full screen mode.
If you are an Advanced user and having the ability to maintain these options is more important than writing words or information around the video, you can use the HTML Block. Simply copy the embed code present on the Youtube page for the video you wish to use, add a new HTML block to your website, and paste the embed code into the window that appears once you select the HTML block.
HotWax gives you the ability to generate Content blocks that your users can leave comments on.
This provides your website with the ability to host user generated content, and serve as an outlet for the thoughts and opinions of your visitors.
The Content With Comments block is identical to the standard Content block, simply use it as you use the standard Content block window, and HotWax automatically creates the comments section and positions it on the bottom of your content.
Some HotWax users prefer to monitor and approve or deny comments before they are posted online. In order to approve a comment, you will have to sign in to your HotWax website and view each of the blocks that have comments enabled and manually approve them. Other HotWax users set the comments to post immediately without approval. This is done by checking the box that says “Show User Comments Without Approval” located at the bottom of the content word processor window.
HotWax gives you the ability to set up a logo area at the top of your page that is automatically reproduced whenever you create a new page. This saves you the time and effort of having to recreate the logo for each and every page as you create your website, and provides your website with a professional level of uniformity.
Keep it Simple
When setting up a logo area it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and add altogether too many objects or images. A cluttered logo area can take away from the appeal of an entire website. With this in mind it’s much better to create and use a very simplistic logo area, with an image or two, and perhaps some text.
Keep it Small
Visitors to your website aren’t viewing your website to see your logo area, they want to view the content beneath it. Thus, it’s best to keep your logo area small. We highly recommend not using any images more than 200 pixels tall. Don’t overwhelm your visitor’s eyes with a massive logo area, subtlety and composition go a long way.
HotWax has the ability to frame pages outside of your website while keeping your visitors on your site. This is done by placing the external site’s page on your website directly beneath your logo and menu area.
You can set how this works and how much of your logo area is shown by heading to the sitemap, selecting the hidden pages folder, and visitng the logo-area/header set up page. Once you’re on that page you can either manually set the depth of the logo area, or automatically have HotWax detect and set the depth.
Keep in mind, if you make major changes to your logo area such as changing the height of a picture, you’ll want to return to this page and reset the header depth.
When your users click the link all of this extra hidden content is revealed with a fluid animation. This is useful for making your website look more cosmetically appealing, rather than appearing as a jumble of words.
The content is revealed when you click the link that says read more.
When your users click the link all of this extra hidden content is revealed with a fluid animation. This is useful for making your website look more cosmetically appealing, rather than appearing as a jumble of words.
You can also take readers to another page to read the rest of the content by typing ! full, but since this is a tutorial we won’t be showing you that option so as to keep you on this page.
HotWax has a built in archiving feature. To use it, you must first turn it on by heading to the SITEWIDE SETTINGS page on your dashboard. Once it is activated you can select which of your page’s previous versions you wish to archive.
You can delete older content on a page, and replace it with new content, but still give your users the ability to view the older deleted content.
This is especially useful if your website is constantly generating new content. You can do away with the older clutter, but allow your users to view it whenever they wish.
There will be times when you publish changes to a page on your website that you may be unhappy with. You may inadvertantly copy and paste some hazardous code that makes one of your pages inaccessible or unviewable.
In this case, you have the ability to revert your webpage to an earlier saved version that does not contain whatever element is causing your page to not function properly.
Please be careful when copying and pasting html code and scripting as it can create these sorts of problems.
