I have added two more tutorials to the FreeStack Responsive Theme series: “Creating a Website Layout” and “Blogging”. The Creating a Website Layout tutorial walks through the use of some of the FreeStack R Stacks to build the layout of a website. The unique characteristics of responsive websites require that layouts be developed in certain ways, and so the tutorial discusses some of those special requirements.

The Blogging tutorial discusses how a blog can be added to a website built with the FreeStack Responsive Theme. Since all pages in a FreeStack R website need to be based on the Stacks 2 plugin, that reduces the blogging options that are available, and this is important to understand when considering a website built with this theme.

With 7 tutorials totaling just over 1.5 hours, most of the information you need to know about the FreeStack Responsive Theme is now available in this series. I will consider future additions based on your feedback, so please let me know if you find any information that is lacking.

View the FreeStack Responsive Theme Tutorials -- You will need to be currently logged-in to be taken directly to the tutorials page.

Thanks for your support!

-Ryan

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Tags: Freestack Responsive Theme

I am very excited to announce the release of a new series of tutorials covering the FreeStack Responsive Theme from Blueball Design. This is a brand new responsive version of the immensely popular FreeStack Theme, which makes it possible to build the entire layout of a website from the ground up using the drag-and-drop flexibility of the Stacks 2 plugin.

This FreeStack R Theme is responsive, meaning that it will optimize your website for all devices -- computers, tablets and smartphones. Responsive themes became a major trend last year, and it looks like it will be a lasting trend that radically changes how websites are developed. If you haven’t already viewed the series of tutorials on Responsive Themes, then I highly recommend viewing those for a better understanding of what “responsive” is, and how it impacts the way websites are developed.

This new series of FreeStack R Theme tutorials is being released in two halves, with the first half consisting of 5 tutorials spanning just over an hour of time, so you can be assured that the training is very detailed. These first five tutorials include an introduction, details on theme styles, two tutorials covering every stack that comes with the theme, and finally a tutorial on building menus.

I am planning to release the second half of the series towards the end of next week. The primary focus of this second half is the creation of a website layout using the theme and its stacks. If you have viewed the original FreeStack Theme tutorials then you can expect a similar format with these new tutorials.

In addition to all of this, I also have Elixir Graphics stacks tutorials that are almost ready for release. Check back for more information on these during the second week of March.

Thanks for your support!

-Ryan

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Tags: Freestack Responsive Theme, Responsive Themes

Two more seyDesign stacks tutorials have been added to the curriculum. Last week brought ZipBar and Slinkee to RapidWeaver Classroom, and this week I have added ZipList and MegaMenu tutorials.

The ZipList Stack creates an expandable list of content, and is a great solution for an FAQ, glossary, or simply to provide more details on items in a bulleted (or numbered) list.

The MegaMenu Stack is a very unique stack that can be especially beneficial when used in conjunction with the FreeStack Theme. It creates a menu with drop-downs that can contain descriptive content. While it is a great option for a main menu, it can also be used as a split-navigation menu in the main content of a page, or simply as a method of anchoring links to other areas of the same page. The MegaMenu tutorial will demonstrate a number of uses for the stack.

Check back next week for tutorials on stacks from Elixir Graphics -- another long-time RapidWeaver theme developer who has jumped into Stack Elements development in the past months. Also, as mentioned last week, tutorials on the new FreeStack Responsive theme are under development, so expect to hear more news on that very soon.

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Tags: seydesign, stacks, RapidWeaver 5, Stacks 2

I am glad to have added tutorials on seyDesign’s stacks to the RapidWeaver Classroom curriculum. Many of you may know seyDesign for their excellent RapidWeaver themes, but they have been producing Stack Elements for some time now and I am creating tutorials for each of them. I’ve started with tutorials for ZipBar and Slinkee, which both offer methods of presenting a lot of content in a small amount of space. ZipBar creates a carousel-like effect, and Slinkee offers an accordion-style menu. Both are great stacks with a lot of flexibility.

I will be producing tutorials on the rest of seyDesign’s stacks over the next couple of weeks. In addition, a new series of tutorials on the FreeStack Responsive Theme is currently under development. This is a very exciting release, and you can learn more about it by viewing this overview video.

Check back next week for more details on new tutorials. Not a RapidWeaver Classroom subscriber? Join now!

Tags: seydesign, stacks, RapidWeaver 5.0, Stacks 2

There are two new tutorials that have been added to the SEO series -- Cruftless Links and Google +1.

The tutorial on crustless links discusses a different way of structuring the files and folders on your website. The “File and Folder Structure” tutorial in RapidWeaver Lesson 5 discusses how to customize your file and folder names in the Page Inspector, and this new Cruftless Links tutorial expands on that topic. I’ve placed it under the SEO section because descriptive URLs can be helpful for SEO.

The Google +1 tutorial discusses how the +1 button can indirectly influence your website’s placement in Google search results, and how it can lend credibility to your website as well, in a similar way that Google Authorship does. The button is easy to implement and this tutorial discusses those details.

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Tags: search engine optimization, Strategies

Google Authorship has the potential to significantly impact the effectiveness of your website's listings in Google search results. This new Google Authorship tutorial will show you what Google Authorship can do for your website, and walks you through how to set up Authorship on your website. The tutorial is found in the Strategies > SEO section of the RapidWeaver Classroom curriculum.

I highly recommend that everyone implement this as shown in this new video tutorial. The click-through rate (CTR) -- the number of clicks your website receives in Google search results -- is likely to increase if you correctly set up Authorship, by creating a Google+ profile and linking it to the content of your website. When this is done correctly, Google will (in most cases) place your Google+ profile picture alongside your website's listing in search results. This provides instant credibility to your website and makes people more willing to click on your link, opposed to others that do not have a photo listed.

Note that Google Authorship doesn't automatically improve your website's placement in search results. It's still important that you follow the other SEO guidelines in order to improve your website's rankings, and your success with SEO will always depend on a number of factors, many of which are out of your control. Even so, implementing Authorship is certainly worth the effort and I highly recommend doing so.

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Tags: seo, Google Authorship

Stacks version 2.1.8 was released this morning. It is highly recommended that all Stacks users update as soon as possible. RapidWeaver should prompt you to update the Stacks plugin when you open your project, but if it does not, you can manually download the update and install it: http://yourhead.com/stacks/

Why is this an important update?

Yesterday Google updated its hosted version of jQuery, which is a javascript file that the Stacks plugin uses. This updated version of jQuery included some changes that caused problems for some Stacks add-ons. The change affects the functionality of those stacks in RapidWeaver and on the published website. One of the stacks on the RapidWeaver Classroom homepage was actually affected by the jQuery update, and it stopped functioning correctly as soon as Google made the change.

What you need to do.

Stacks 2.1.8 resolves the issue by reverting back to the previous version of jQuery. You should update Stacks through RapidWeaver, or download and install the latest version from here. Once you have the latest version of Stacks installed, republish all files from RapidWeaver (File > Republish All Files). This will update all of your Stacks pages to ensure that there are no issues with the functionality of any of your stacks.

If you prefer not to republish all of your website’s pages at this time, then I would recommend you go through every page of your website that was built with Stacks, and carefully examine everything to ensure that it is all functioning as intended.

Learn more about this update.

If you are interested in knowing the behind-the-scenes details of this update, then Isaiah (YourHead) has posted a topic to the Realmac Software Forums -- you can visit that topic to get more detailed information.

I hope that this is a relatively painless update for all of you. It is a very rare situation and I don’t recall ever seeing something of this magnitude occur in the past. Rest assured that this isn’t an issue specific to RapidWeaver -- major updates to something like a jQuery library can have ramifications for website developers across many different website development platforms.

A brief note about RapidWeaver Classroom.

Things are back in full gear for me following the holidays and the addition of a new baby girl to our family. I am excited about some new tutorials that I’ll be releasing this month, starting with a new SEO topic coming this week. I will post another update with more information very soon!

-Ryan

Tags: Stacks 2

The CartLoom tutorials have been completely re-done to reflect all the changes with CartLoom 3. One of the major changes is the official CartLoom 3 Stack, which is detailed in this new series of tutorials.

When the CartLoom 3 upgrade was announced, it was also announced that the CartLoom plugin was being dropped. This is no longer the case, and a new CartLoom plugin is currently in beta. Once the final version of the plugin is released, I will be sure to cover it and that tutorial to the CartLoom series. While I much prefer the CartLoom Stack, a new plugin is great news for existing CartLoom users who built their product pages with the previous CartLoom plugin.

I am personally very impressed with CartLoom as an e-commerce solution, and I think anyone looking to sell products online should strongly consider it. If you want to know more about the new features in CartLoom 3, you can read the article here.

A new tutorial on creating multilingual websites.

I have also added a new tutorial on how to build a multilingual website with RapidWeaver. The tutorial covers the use of multiple RapidWeaver project files to manage each language version, and how to work with RapidWeaver’s Site Setup and Publishing Settings to ensure that the individual files plays nice with one another once published. This new tutorials is found in the “How to…” section, under Continuing Ed in the main menu of the members’ area.

A different kind of addition, just in time for Christmas.

I’d like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! It will be a bit different for me this year, as my family will be expanding with the birth of a baby girl just before Christmas. I love being a father to my 2 year-old son, but I expect things will be forever changed with a little girl around! We are very excited to meet her and have her around during this holiday season.

As always, I (and my family) greatly appreciate the tremendous support and I hope you all have a blessed Christmas and great new year!

-Ryan

Tags: CartLoom, E-Commerce