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Features
On the iPad
Okay, we've spent the last several months exploring and developing things on the iPad tablet platform. While we don't want to sound like an Apple commercial, and we don't want to add needless volume to the noisy hype surrounding this new technology, and we don't want to sound like we've totally gone off our rocker, we do want to express our opinion...
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izotz!prototype : Prototyping Large Websites
Very often the things that take the longest in any website project are creating pages, filling them with content, and organizing (then reorganizing over and over) the website architecture. Prototype is a tool designed to make that part of the process much quicker and easier, and enable non technical users to work together.
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izotz!click - Building Online Marketing Campaigns
Online tools to help you build landing pages and marketing websites, split-test page performance, and create powerful online marketing campaigns.
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Building Flash Websites
The Flash Website Builder module lets you create an instant flash website out of the static webpages in your izotz universe.
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Wizard Module - Create Multi-step Pages to Display Info or Collect Data
Wizards have long been a powerful tool in guiding viewers through pages of information. If you are collecting info, a wizard can break a long form into user friendly steps. The Wizard Module lets you do all this.
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Web Tracker Tools - Get More Out of Your Websites
Let your users tell you how you need to make your website better. The Web Tracker tool gives you real time feedback on how your visitors are using your websites. Use this information to fine tune your pages.
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Want To Earn Commissions Selling Websites?
If you want to provide website building services from within your website, add this module and enable people to sign up with izotz, and collect a commission for every sign up.
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Making Landing Pages
An important part of having your website work harder for you is making stand alone webpages that support your online marketing efforts. The Stand Alone Static Webpage Module can really help you do this.
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Integrating Other Web Stuff Into Your izotz Universe
Most people have some kind of web presence. Some already have online stores, photo galleries, or other online things. It's not hard to integrate other websites into your izotz universe.
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Why Would You Need More Than One Website?
It's hard enough to build and maintain one website, who in there right mind wants two? Or three? Or a dozen? If you really want to make the web work hard for you...
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Are You Looking For the Competitive Edge in Your Business
The izotz tools are powered by a backend technology called the izotz!IMS Internet Management System. This powerful system can drive a lot of different business models, with the izotz web building tools being just one.
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Are You Into Online Games?
There are lots and lots of people out there publishing online games, many of them in the Flash format. This module lets you create pages for those games, and allows you to build your own gaming website.
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Make Your Own Online Email Forms
Email forms are a staple of nearly all websites. The Email Forms module lets you easily create custom email forms, collect information from users or send information out to people, and store that information in data files.
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Using the Mailing List Module
Combine the Mailing List module with the Broadcast Email tool and you have a very easy way to communicate with people who sign up for one of your mailing lists.
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The ISP Webmaster Module
This module will allow you to create multiple independent izotz websites. Whether you are a web designer, and ISP, or someone like the IT guy at a school district, if you need to make a lot of websites, all for different people, this module is for you. Make a BUSINESS doing izotz websites.
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Using Stand Alone Webpages
All izotz modules can run as stand alone webpages. Learn how this feature can really help you use your content in ways you might not have thought about.
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Create Your Own Social Network
Social networks are a fun and useful way for a varied group of people to connect, share, and interact. The new izotz Social Network module allows you to create your own private social network quickly and easily.
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Getting izotz onto Facebook
The izotz app on Facebook allows you to add izotz websites and web projects to your Facebook page.
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The Tao of iZotz
At first glance iZotz probably looks like one of the zillion website building tools that flood the internet highways. And on the surface it certainly is. Here's a little bit of the iZotz philosophy.
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iZotz as Add-on
You can use iZotz to build a big website. But you can also use it to build add-ons to your current website. You don't need to abandon everything you already have to leverage iZotz modules into your web presence.
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Using the Photo Gallery Module for Breaking News
One of the best things about the internet is how it can be so immediate. Say it, see it, post it, and everyone gets to share in it. And the Photo Gallery module can help you do that.
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Building Projects Offline
When building a new project, new pages for a website, or performing a major website overhaul, use these strategies to help you make the transition from stage to live.
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iZotz For Beginners
Putting things on the web using iZotz can be really easy. As your needs evolve, it can get more complicated. This introduction will give you a foundation which will make things easier for you.
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The Disposable Website
Thinking about the web differently. Maybe it doesn't have to be so permanent.
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Project Management Website Template
A disposable website that enables a team of people to collaborate on projects. Perfect for contractors, software developers, event planners, lawyers, or any other group of people who might need to communicate while working on a project.
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iZotz Mobile iPhone
iZotz Mobile gives you complete access to your iZotz administrator through your iPhone.
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WIKI
WIKI is that cool little thing you see at the bottom of many webpages that allows you to post comments about the content on a webpage. You can enable WIKI in many iZotz modules.
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When to Get Another iZotz Account
You can build as many websites and pages as you want under your iZotz membership, so why would you need more than one account?
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Messaging
The Messaging module allows you to create messaging applications that allow website members to send non-email messages to website adminstrators, a select list of people, or each other.
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Quick Prototypes
Whether or not you are building an iZotz project, iZotz can help you shorten development time on any website project. Use iZotz to prototype your projects.
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eStore
Designed to be easy to run, the eStore template lets you create online stores to sell either electronic products or hard goods, and includes a shopping cart, online payment processing, order manager, and a "specials" page.
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Schedules and Calendars
The new schedule templates let you build personal and shared calendars, work schedulers, appointment managers, and all kinds of other date related projects.
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Create an Online Newspaper
The Newspaper template makes it a snap to create and maintain online newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and when used with a little creative thought...highly adaptible standalone websites.
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Creating a Custom Administration Page
Use custom administration pages to limit administration options, reduce training, and make administrating projects painless.
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Using Friendly URL Names
When you create a new iZotz project, it gets assigned a randomly generated ID number. This ID number is then used in a URL to reach your project on the web. Using the Friendly URL Name tool you can create user friendly URL names and replace those random ID's, making it much easier to remember your project URL's.
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Building Flash Websites
Using the Flash Website Builder Module
 Flash technology lets you create stunning websites with some amazing user interface stuff. But building a flash website from scratch isn't for the fainthearted or anyone who is still struggling with what <a href> means.
The Flash Website Builder module lets you create an instant flash website out of the static webpages in your izotz universe. All you have to do is point and click, and if you get ambitious, create your own graphics, upload them to the website library...and voila...you have a cutting edge flash website.
Combined with the rest of the capabilities in your izotz toolbox, flash websites offer you just one more real interesting way to deliver content to your audience. You can use a flash website as an introduction to the rest of your web presence, or use it as your primary website and link to secondary websites and modules, or create special mini-websites to highlight products, services, or just about anything else you can think of using an advanced cutting edge user interface.
Flash Website Templates
The flash website builder combines content with flash website templates to produce a stand alone flash website. We add new templates to the library on a regular basis, so you should be able to find something that works for you. Here are a few examples of some of the available templates:
Template 1
Template 2
Template 3
Template 4
Template 5
Using the Flash Website Builder Module
The Flash Website Builder is a module, just like any other module in the collection.
- You first add it to your izotz universe by selecting NEW-->NEW MODULE off the top tool bar, and selecting FLASH WEBSITE BUILDER from the module list.
- The module will be added to YOUR MODULES on the administration page. Click the new module.
- The first thing you need to do is select a skin template. These skins are different thatn the normal izotz appearance skins. Select one from the list. Once selected, you can't change the skin, so preview the skins to see which one you like.
- After you select a skin, you'll then be able to create names for the menu items, pages, and assign content to each of the flash template webpages.
- Then, if you want, you can subsitute graphics for the default graphics that came with the template.
- Then click Build Website, and your flash website is instantly built.
- Click the VIEW PROJECT IN BROWSER to see what it looks like. Make a note of the URL...that's your flash website url. You can assign it a friendly name if you want using the Friendly URL tool.
The Structure of a Flash Website
The layout and makeup of a flash website is by nature very structured. It contains a fixed number of pages, the layout itself is very rigid, and you can't change the background or animations within the template itself. This means you can't add or delete webpages, make them bigger or smaller, or alter the size of the graphics displayed. You basically have to work within the boundries of the existing skin template...and adjust your content to fit.
This means that depending on what you are trying to accomplish, using a flash website as your primary website may or may not do what you want. You've got some limitations on what you can do to the template...so you'll have to think creatively about how you integrate flash websites into your web presence. The best way to look at it is to think of your flash websites as either "introductions" to the rest of your web presence...and use them to lead people to other websites or web applications, or to use your standard izotz websites to lead people to your flash websites which have been designed to accomplish a specific purpose...such as highlighting a product or service or telling people more about your company.
This isn't really a limitation...since it fits perfectly into the idea that instead of having one giant website that's supposed to do "everything", instead you are better off creating multiple websites, each designed to fulfill a specific purpose...then link it them all together back and forth. The flash websites you build are just one more powerful tool you have to help you "get the message" across to your users.
Placing Content Into the Flash Website
You place content into your flash website by linking each of the flash website pages to one of the static webpages in your izotz universe. You do this using the flash website administration page. Simply select a static page from your universe from the pulldown menu for each of the flash website pages. The content from the selected page is added to the flash website. A really powerful feature of this is that you can use that same page in other websites as well...effectively sharing content between multiple websites, either flash websites or standard websites. This gives you a lot of flexibility in how you package your content to deliver it to your viewers.
You can only place content from your static webpages into a flash website. Flash cannot understand the content from modules. See the section below about Integrating Modules Into Flash Websites to see how you can get around this limitation.
After you have linked all the flash website pages to content, click the Build Website button and the flash website is instantly built or rebuilt with the assigned content, menu names, and page names.
Note that if you should change the content on one of those static webpages, you will need to come back to the flash website administration page and rebuild the flash website to have the updated content included in the flash website version of the page. Updating content using the page editor DOES NOT automatically update it in any flash website that uses it.
Another thing you should be aware of is that Flash has some limitations in the kind of HTML it can handle. If you limit your content to simple HTML formatting and JPG, GIF and PNG images, you will be alright. But don't try to embed other flash movies, javascript, CSS, page widgets, or anything else other than the basic HTML formatting codes into your content. Flash can't read it, and the results may be unpredictable. You might have to experiment with your content and see how to best format it for Flash pages. The biggest limitation is that depending on the flash template, you might run into restrictions on how wide or how long your content can be without it disappearing out of the flash page. By nature Flash websites are designed more with "presentation" first in mind, and you'll usually have to make your content fit that presentation.
Integrating Modules Into Flash Websites
You can only place content from static webpages into your flash websites. At first this might seem like a fatal limitation...since you probably have all kinds of content buried within modules, or you want to include advanced function modules in your website. Well, you can integrate your modules into your flash website...it's just that you have to do it a little differently than just dropping them onto a menu bar.
Since all izotz modules can run as stand alone web applications, all you have to do to integrate them into your flash websites is to place a link to them within one of your content pages. For example, if you have a Contact Us email form module, and you want to put that into your flash website, then within one or all of the static content pages you should include a link to your Contact Us module. Then, when your viewer clicks that link...your Contact Us module opens in a separate window as a stand alone application. You can do this for both modules and website projects. This gives you a very powerful method of using your flash website as an "introduction" to the rest of your web universe. Design your content appropriately, and your flash website becomes a tour guide you can use to direct your viewers to the specific content and function modules most useful to what they are looking for.
Integrating Flash Websites into Website Projects
You'll also have times when you want to use a standard izotz website as a gateway to your flash website projects. For example, lets say you sell something big and fancy, and instead of having a boring static webpage describing each product, you want to make a nice flash website with multiple pages, something you can use to really highlight the product. In this case, you'd go ahead and create a flash website for each product, fill it with the appropriate content, then on your primary non-flash website simply create a "Product Overview" page or something like that, and link to each of the flash website product pages. If you design your primary website appearance skin to mimic the flash website skin, you're viewer will end up seeing what appears to be a single integrated website, but on the back end is built out of a number of different technologies.
Changing the Appearance of a Flash Website
The overall structure, layout, and appearance of a flash website is controlled by the flash file that generates the website pages. The only way you could edit this is if you owned the Adobe Flash CS editing program, and knew how to use it. This is not for the fainthearted. It's big, complex, and extremely time consuming.
However, you CAN control the graphics used in the website. Most of the flash templates have default graphics that do fancy animated things on the splash page, homepage, or sub pages. By swapping these graphics for graphics that you build yourself, you can effectively make that flash template "your own". For example, if the splash page has one or more graphics, replace the default graphic with one that contains your logo and whatever else you want in it, and you've customized the flash template to better fit your business.
The basic process you follow to replace the default graphics is this:
- Click the Graphics tab in the flash website administration page.
- This will show you all the graphics used in the selected template.
- Right click each of the graphics and save them to your home computer.
- Using Photoshop or any other image editor, open the saved graphic and use it as a template to change whatever you want. DO NOT ALTER THE SIZE OF THE GRAPHIC! The Flash template expects the graphic to be a specific size. If you change the size, the results will be unpredictable. Sometimes you can get away with it...usually not.
- Save the graphic using THE SAME FILE NAME, and make sure it's THE SAME FILE TYPE (i.e. it's a .png or .jpg or .gif).
- In the module admin tools, click the UPLOAD REPLACEMENT GRAPHIC button and upload your edited replacement graphic.
- The flash website will now display your new graphic. You do not have to rebuild the website, it happens automatically.
The general rule is that your replacement graphics MUST be the same size, filename, and filetype as the original graphic. Sometimes you can change the size of the graphic and end up with acceptable results. That depends on the flash template, and how it uses graphics. If you are feeling adventurous...experiment.
Conclusion
The Flash Website Builder module adds a powerful tool to your toolbox that you can use to package content in a lot of different ways before you deliver it to viewers. When used as a part of your overall web presence strategy, it gives you some real interesting new ways to communicate. Go ahead...FLASH the world.
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