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How to: Use Your Own Domain Name with Terapad

		Wednesday, 07 January 09 - 06:28 AM (GMT) By Ces Catubay in Terapad how-tos

Using your own domain name with Terapad is one advantage you can get even with a free website. Having a domain increases professionalism of your website and can improve your search rankings in search engines and gain additional traffic.

In order to use your own domain, you need to follow the instructions accurately. Read carefully below.

First, please understand you'll be making changes to your domain name at your own risk. If you are not comfortable with domain names modifications, we recommend you abstain from making these changes. In fact, should something go wrong, we'll be unable to help.

Terapad is an application platform. We do not provide Domain Name registration, DNS or redirection services, your registrar does. If you don’t already have a domain name we recommend either Godaddy or Enom. Both of these registrars provide good value domain name registration and provide free DNS services. Some domain name registrars will offer you domain name registration but will not provide you with a DNS service. In this case we recommend transferring your domain name to a domain name registrar that does provide a free DNS service (like Godaddyor Enom) or alternatively sign up for a DNS service from a third party like Gradwell or DyNDNS. If you require email to use with your own domain name we recommend Google Mail which, like Terapad, is also free of charge.

Please carefully follow the instructions below in order to set up your own domain. There are two options. We cannot provide assistance in these areas and if you require additional help we suggest you contact a Terapad Reseller in your area that provides Domain Name Registration advice.

Different Domain Name Registrars will have different screen layouts and options, but the underlying theory is the same. We have provided examples using some major Domain Name Registrars, for further assistance making these changes you should contact your Domain Name Registrar or a Terapad reseller.

OPTION 1 - Change Your Host A record

This is the recommended method of using your own domain name with Terapad. It is slightly more complex than Option 2, but does result in a more professional set up recognised my Search Engines and Statistics Packages.

The IP address of your website is currently 84.45.46.82. Terapad does not guarantee that this IP address will stay the same forever. However we intend to do whatever we can to keep it. If our IP address changes for any reason we will provide all Terapad users with as much notification as humanely possible. The notification will appear in your today page. You will need to manually change your host A record if we change IP address.

NB: Terapad will only work for one HOST A record at a time. Therefore if you wanted two websites called http://www.mydomain.com and http://server.mydomain.com you will need to have two Terapad sites.

When you have made the change you must complete the form below and let us know the name of your custom domain, so we can make the final changes on our end and activate your new site address within our system.

We'll update your site address to http://www.mydomain.com/. This will fully replace your old http://mydomain.terapad.com address, which will cease to function. Your control panel will therefore be located at http://www.mydomain.com/cpanel after we made the modifications.

Let's use GoDaddy as an example.

Example of Option 1 – change your HOST (A) Record with GoDaddy

In your "Domain Manager" ensure that DNS Servers are currently set to Go Daddy’s "Default Parked NameServers" . They should look like this:

To change them simply click on one of the name servers and change to "Default Parked NameServers"

Under the "Total DNS" setting in Domain Manager click on the link that says "Total DNS Control and MX records"

First make sure there is no CNAME (Alias) record for "www" ... if there is then delete it by clicking the black cross on the right of the record:

Then on the panel which is labelled "A (Host)", select "Add New Record" . Add a record for ‘www’ and click OK:

The end result will look like this:

Now you must contact Terapad using our dedicated form.

The form is for those who have created a HOST (A) Record in their domain name's DNS and pointed it to Terapad's IP address (currently 84.45.46.82).

When you have submitted the form the following will happen:
a) Our technical staff will check that www.yourdomainname.com is pointed at our IP address.
b) Your Terapad domain name will be changed.

NB: You need to log in to your control panel to located the form.

OPTION 2 - Use a Redirect.

This is not the recommended way of using your own domain name with Terapad. It is not good for your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and it also stops statistics packages such as Google Analytics from working properly. However if this does not bother you then this is an easy way to get your own domain name working, and does not involve having to contact Terapad.

Domain Name Registrars call their redirect service by different names. You may here it referred to as a 301 or 302 Redirect, an http redirect, a URL forward, or a ghosted or masked redirect. Essentially these are all the same service.

Example of Option 2 – Use a Redirect with GoDaddy

NB: Godaddy refer to this method as a "Domain Forwarding"

In your "Domain Manager" ensure that DNS Servers are currently set to Go Daddy’s "Default Parked NameServers" . They should look like this:

To change them simply click on one of the name servers and change to "Default Parked NameServers"

On the main Domain Manager Page you will see " Forwarding" and the link that says "Domain is not forwarded" – click on this:

Add in the name of your Terapad site. Using a 301 type redirect will help with Search Engines, but if you are concerned about Search Engine Optimisation we still recommend you use Option 1. In this example we are redirecting to http://mydomain.terapad.com. When ready click OK.

Godaddy will prompt you to let you know that this will take a few minutes to set up, click OK again to acknowledge this and you are done.

If you have followed the instructions carefully, your domain name will be activated within hours. Double check your work before sending a domain change request.

10 Basic SEO techniques that you should practice

		Friday, 07 November 08 - 06:06 AM (GMT) By Ces Catubay in Terapad how-tos

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a practice of optimizing a website in order to increase its traffic and rank higher on search engine results. The higher the rank is, the greater the chance of attracting visitors from the target market. SEO helps to ensure that a website is accessible to visitors and web crawlers as well.

Terapad offers a News feature - a very powerful bit of technology that can help a website’s position on search results. When you write and publish a story on your site, Terapad sends it to a list of news aggregators that reads a set of contents. Famous news aggregators are Google Blogsearch, Bloglines, Technorati and Feedburner. Terapad has loads of built in SEO features that many people find them helpful on their rankings.

Learn the techniques that can help you in climbing Search Engines results.

1. Anchor Tags. Anchor tags are used to create links to pages on a website. A good keyword combination inside an anchor tag is important. In order to get your readers’ attention, your links should be interesting to gain clicks. Links within your website is also a good practice to point your readers to related topics in your site. Spiders that crawl websites love to jump on links to another.
2. H1, H2 and Strong tags. Headings give weight to your text especially if it is inside the H1 tag. Use H1 for the main heading or your target keywords and H2 for sub-headings or sub-topics. These headings show the spiders that these are the main subjects on your site, helping your content to be indexed.
   Strong or bold texts also give emphasis to a series of words. Just like the h1 and h2 tags, they also weigh more than the regular texts. Make sure that your headings are related to your content. Again, a good combination of words pays a lot.
3. Titles. The title tag is one of the most important parts of your website. Your target keyword should be used on your website’s title. To activate this on your Terapad website, go to settings, and type the keywords on the boxes for site name and tagline. Different title tags on each page should also be practiced. On Terapad, we do this automatically for you.
4. Alt tags on Images. Being said that texts play an important role in SEO, alt tags should be placed when you use images on your website. Oftentimes, we use images to further illustrate our subject and give life to our content. Since spiders cannot see these images, use alt tags to describe what is being shown. Here’s an example: < img height="70" width="120" src="banner.gif" alt="Free Websites" />
5. Choose your domain wisely. Spiders also read domain names when they crawl. A relevant domain pays more on your search engine rank. A number of factors should be considered when choosing a domain (or sub-domain) name. Most of the time, the domain of our choice is already taken. Don’t lose hope. Try to experiment by re-arranging the words or adding a new word to generate a new domain related to your first choice.
6. Quality Content. Pay attention on the quality of your content rather than quantity. A long post might bore your readers making them leave your site instead of staying longer. An efficient practice of writing a blog post is by summarizing it in bullets just like this post. In this way, your readers can easily see the important points clearly. It is also necessary that the keywords you used in your Meta tag can be found in your content.
7. Usability. Bear in mind that in websites, ‘First impressions last’. If you give your visitors a good experience during their first visit, they will come back. Simplicity is the key to usability. If your goal is to rank well on search engines, set aside some design factors. A simple interface with a simple menu is effective because your visitors can immediately see where they can navigate. If your site is not user-friendly, your visitors will lose patience and leave your site.
8. Update Regularly. Spiders love to crawl on new information so it is important that your website is updated regularly. Content is king! Make sure it is composed of unique and relevant information. Duplicated contents that are copied from other sites do not help on your rankings. In addition, a minimum of 250 words is necessary to get to higher spots.
9. Use SEO Tools. A number of SEO tools are available for free. These tools can help you monitor if you’re making progress and analyze your website. Avoid using automated software that promises to help you rank well or build links for you. It is important that you’re hands-on to the whole process. Few samples of free online SEO tools are, Google Analytics, Keyword Suggestion Tool from SEO Book, Alexa Traffic Analyzer, and Google Webmaster Tools.
10. Patience is a virtue. SEO is not a one-night miracle technique. It takes time before you can see results. The more you improve your content, the greater the chance you can get noticed by spiders. Avoid overdoing anything that is beyond the rules of SEO. Avoid black hat SEO techniques that promise quick results and increase your site’s traffic. Hidden texts, link-farming, spamming and duplicated contents are a big NO in SEO.

These are just basic and easy techniques to help your site be indexed by search engines. It is still all in your hands on how you apply these changes. Never stop learning. Learn new ways in optimizing your site. It takes time to get decent ranks on search results so do not be disappointed if you can’t get it soon enough. Good luck on your SEO quest!

3rd Party Help & Advice

		Tuesday, 09 September 08 - 11:01 AM (GMT) By Justin Dean in Terapad how-tos

Terapad provide sources of help and advice on how to create a free website in various forms. You have our help section on the personal control panels, the blue help mouseovers on key items, and of course our how to's and forums on this blog. For Pro and Standard users Terapad have a support email address, and for personalised support beyond the scope of Terapad there are our network of Resellers on hand to help with everything from design and SEO to domain names and email.

However sources of help and support for Terapad users are popping up all over the web, so we thought we would highlight a few on our blog. On the left of this page you will now see a links container called 3rd Party Help & Advice. These are links to resellers, and other Terapad users who have taken their time to offer their assistance to others in the Terapad community. Although we haven't tested any of these tutorials or how to's they all sound like they are being successful.

We have started off with a few, all of whom are providing great tips and advice.

• Al Smith at Terapad Reseller "Evolving Intelligence"
• Orville Chomer's "Learn to Use Terapad"
• Issai Ginro's "Cymen's Store"
• Tobin Truog at Terapad Reseller "Brain Bucket"

Both these resellers offer additional assistance in getting your Terapad free website up and running and you may want to consider contacting them for additional help and support.

Terapad are very grateful to all those offering help and guidance to Terapad users, and if we have missed you from our list please let us know we will add you immediately.

How to: Setup a Global Horizontal Navigation

		Thursday, 28 August 08 - 07:30 AM (GMT) By Ces Catubay in Terapad how-tos

While many of the Terapad templates have the option of horizontal navigation, here is another option if your design contains both horizontal and vertical navigation. For example, here is the new-look Terapad Blog with the type of Global Horizontal Navigation you can also create.

Did you know that you can make use of the vertical Nav bars and at the same time use horizontal Nav bars with different links on them?  Interestingly, this is possible by using your vertical container and activating the global header content feature on the  tab. The Global Content Header functionality allows you to place code in the text editors that will then display at the top of every page of your website. You can make use of this Terapad Tool to create your own custom navigation bar.

Here is a step by step guide of how to do that.

1. Login to your Terapad site using your username and password. If you have not signed up yet, start creating your free website.
2. Once inside your control panel, click the  tab and click layout settings.



3. You can see two text editors in Layout Settings, Global Content Header and Global Content Footer. Since we are setting up a new custom horizontal navigation, we will be making use of the Global Header Content. Insert a list  element on your editor.  Type in whatever link names you may want to use on your Nav bar.  On the Terapad blog, we have used these links:



Note: If the links that you want within each tab are part of your Terapad website, you will need to create the pages first.

4. Once finished listing the names, highlight one line at a time and click the hyperlink icon . When the  pop up box appears, select the Link, key in the URL and click ok.


Highlight the next line and click the hyperlink icon again to insert the hyperlink. Do the same steps on the remaining lines.

5. After inserting the links on your Nav bar, it’s time to modify the CSS code and add some creativity to your buttons. This will require a little knowledge in CSS  and html to make it look good.

Reference the buttons by inserting a div tag on the list you just created. To do this, click the source button located on the left part of the text editor.

The editor will switch to html source code for the list you have created.  Here’s a sample of how it will look:



Add an opening div tag <div id=”navbar”> above the <ul> html code and a closing div tag </div> below the </ul> html code.

Your codes should look similar to the example below:



6. It’s time to add some graphics to your buttons! To do this, you will need an image editing program to create a nice looking button. I used Adobe Photoshop CS2 to create a white and a black gradient that you can use as an example. Download them here:  download white | download black.

Save the images that you wish to use on your computer and upload it to your assets folder from your Control Panel.  You can do this by clicking the tab, the folder called 'images' and then 'Browse' your computer to locate the saved images. Click the ‘Upload button’ and they will now appear in your assets.



Highlighted in red are the 'Browse', 'Upload' and 'Blue Globe' buttons. The blue globe button contains the link of the image you just uploaded. You will need this on your CSS  codes later.

7. After uploading the Nav bar images, it is time to edit your CSS codes. Click the  tab followed by the‘Edit CSS’ link on the left. Clicking this will bring the CSS Body that you will need to edit.

Remember the <div> tag you inserted earlier? It’s time to use them now. Since we labeled our div id as navbar (<div id=”navbar”>), we will use the word navbar as the reference name in your CSS Codes.

Scroll down until you see the end of the CSS codes and type/paste these additional lines of code after the last line.



[Download the source code in text file]

After inserting the new code for your Nav bar bar don’t forget to press the ‘Save Changes’ button.

8. Go to your website and refresh your page.  The layout might look a little broken particularly the areas near to your header, content area and navigation. That is normal because you just added a new div on the global content header.  To fix this, you need to edit the margin property for the misaligned div wrappers. These are the nav_wrapper, content_wrapper and wrapper.

The NAV_WRAPPER is the div container the holds the html elements of your traditional navigation bar. This may be vertically or horizontally aligned depending on your template. The contents of a NAV_WRAPPER are image gallery, features, links, news, shopping cart, and custom panels if you have added any.  This is usually on the left of your content area and sits just below the header.

A CONTENT_WRAPPER is a div that holds your content area and usually appears on the right side of your NAV_WRAPPER.  This controls the margins, width and height of your content area.

The WRAPPER is the mother of all divs in your template. This is the parent div that holds the other div elements in your template – maintaining the margins and alignments of the child elements.  If removed or not properly coded, the whole template will be broken.

While you are still in the CSS body, press ctrl + f and type #wrapper  in the search box and press enter. Keep on looking until you reach the part where it looks something like this:



This shows the CSS properties of your wrapper tag. The values of width, margin and other elements may vary depending on the template you are using. The example that we are using belongs to the Consulting template in the public library.

Modify the margin; replace the 0px tag with -248px.We obtained -248px because we added the height of the header (212px) and the height of the Nav bar (36px) images. We added a negative sign before 248px because we are moving the html elements upward.

Some templates have “AUTO” after the 0px. You can modify it but never leave it unspecified. Modifying it means you want to adjust the left and right margins of your wrapper. If unsure, leave it as it is to avoid broken layout.

*You can determine the value that you need to use by getting the height of your header image and the height of the Nav bar (36px) image and add them together, As explained above because you are moving the html upwards, you add a negative sign (-) before the sum and px after it.

9. Next, we need to modify the margins of your nav_wrapper and content_wrapper. Press ctrl + f and search for #nav_wrapper.  You shoud find code similar to the example below:



On the margin property, add 36px (height of your Nav bar image) to the first value. In this example we will end up having a sum of 46px (36px + 10px).  

After that, press ctrl + f again and search for “#content_wrapper”.  You should find code similar to the example below:



Add 36px (height of your Nav bar image) to the first value on the margin property. Replace 10px with 46px and click ‘Save Changes’.

In some cases, the formula does not work properly due to different CSS implementations on each template. Since the nav_wrapper, content_wrapper and wrapper divs were pushed upwards, subtract some pixels on the top margin property. If unsure, the best option is to measure the height that overlapped your Nav bar using an on-screen ruler. JR Screen Ruler is a great tool to use on this.  When you have determined the exact pixels, subtract it on the value that you used on the top margin property of nav_wrapper, content_wrapper and wrapper to get the accurate fit.

10. There you go, you’re done! It’s time to admire your work. Go to your website and press ctrl + f5 to see the changes you made. Your site will look perfect after doing this. Here’s a screenshot of the example we were working on.

Click the thumbnail to enlarge the screenshot

Here are some other example websites that have already integrated Nav bar into their Terapad Site:

http://www.capozzoli.co.uk http://redochre.terapad.com
http://www.homecallcentre.org.uk

You may want to check out 13 Styles. They allow you to download CSS based navigation bars that you can use on your site.  If you get stuck on customizing your CSS codes, post your questions on the forum for Design Support to get some help.

Many thanks to Tobin Truog of Brain Bucket, a Terapad reseller, who helped us in this article.

How to embed FLV files to your Terapad website

		Wednesday, 13 August 08 - 05:30 AM (GMT) By Ces Catubay in Terapad how-tos

Video streaming has been popular nowadays in the World Wide Web.  Putting video on the online is a great way to show your work to others, whether you want to display it to your friends and relatives, or simply plan to offer sample clips to your prospect clients.

There are several techniques on how to do it but we have selected those that we think are the easiest for the users to follow.

This tutorial will cover on how we can embed flv and swf files on your Terapad website using JW FLV Player. We recommend using this player but there are many others on the market.

The JW FLV Player is an easy and flexible way to add video and audio to your website. It supports playback of any format the Adobe Flash Player can handle (FLV, MP4, MP3, AAC, JPG, PNG and GIF). It also supports RTMP, HTTP and live streaming, various playlists and captioning formats, a wide range of settings and an extensive javascript API.

In order to download a copy of JW FLV Player, go to their website and provide a valid email address. It is spam free so no worries on receiving unwanted e-mails. You will receive an email about your registration. Go back to their website, enter your e-mail address one more time and click 

Save the zipped file on your computer and unzip it after. Upload player.swf, swfobject.js, and your flv file on your assets folder to get started.

<div id="container"><a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Get _fcksavedurl=""http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Get" the Flash Player</a> to see this player.</div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    var s1 = new SWFObject("player.swf","ply","328","200","9","#FFFFFF");
    s1.addParam("allowfullscreen","true");
    s1.addParam("allowscriptaccess","always");
    s1.addParam("flashvars","file=video.flv");
    s1.write("container");
</script>

Replace the text in red of the exact path of your uploaded files.  Save your page and reload it to see your video.  If followed correctly, your video should be working fine.

There is an alternative way from Walker News tutorial to deploy your videos. Here is how:

<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" width="480" height="360"><param name="flashvars" value="file=http://walkernewsdownload.googlepages.com/Lion-hug-Rescuer.flv" /><param name="movie" value="http://walkernewsdownload.googlepages.com/mediaplayer.swf" /><embed src="http://walkernewsdownload.googlepages.com/mediaplayer.swf" width="480" height="360" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="file=http://walkernewsdownload.googlepages.com/Lion-hug-Rescuer.flv" /></object>

You only have to replace the red colour text with the URL of your own FLV video. The blue colour text refers to JW Media Player that “play” the FLV video file - replace it with the URL pointing to yours (if you’ve one), otherwise leave it as this.

Walker News provides the player directly on their website if you do not have a player. You simple have to copy and modify the codes they provided and you can easily have your video playing on your website. It is best to link back to them to address their work.

Now that you have the knowledge on embedding flv or swf files on your website, start streaming your best videos now. 

Your first 15 Minutes with Terapad

		Thursday, 03 April 08 - 03:30 PM (GMT) By Joshua Davidson in Terapad how-tos

This is a guide for those of you who would like to be taken through your first fifteen minutes with Terapad. That being said Terapad is an incredibly powerful web creation tool and if I was to list all of its features we would be here all day, so please just view this as a suggested path through its more commonly used features. To learn more you can make use of the excellent Help section and the buttons that appear throughout the control panel.

Setting up your Terapad Website

1. First things first, create your free Terapad website here, you will then be sent your Username and Password that allows you to enter the websites control panel. To enter the site simply visit,
and enter your details.


2. Once you have logged in your control panel will appear in front of you. Take a minute to notice all of the tabs that run across the top of the panel. Clicking on these tabs takes you to different features of Terapad. Clicking on the web link in the top right corner takes you to your website so that you can track changes.

3. In the tab of your control panel is ‘Your site tree’. This is the structure of your website and you can <right click> on any of the pages in the tree to edit, delete or rename the pages.

4. Use ‘Your site tree’ to group pages together into categories and sub categories. This is a great way of simplifying navigation and keeping your website attractive.


5. Fancy a new look? You can switch your sites template at any time in the tab.

6. You can even create your own unique site design using the ‘Edit CSS’ section in your tab. Visit the How-To section of the Terapad Blog to learn how to customise your template.

7. If you are itching to write something, return to your tab and delete the text currently within the box. Either, copy Ctrl+c and Paste Ctrl+v from existing documents or start to write new content. Try to keep content concise and relevant and make use of hyperlinks to other websites with relevant content. For example, when mentioning a company, highlight their name, and create a link to their website.

8. Obviously you can spend longer writing content if you wish but first you may want to check out the and tabs. These are very useful features and frequently updating the content of your site with links to other websites will help you increase your ranking in the search engines.

9. You should now check out the  tab. Web pages always look more attractive as a combination of text and images so try uploading a picture. Then return to the tab and insert an image . Select ‘Browse Server’ and you can select your image. Images are a great way of avoiding huge blocks of text on your site. When inserting pictures keep the names of the pictures relevant, e.g. a picture of Mountain Biking should be called "mountain_biking.jpg" not "DCS356.jpg" This will help with search engines.

(Resize and compress images for the web before uploading. For example an average digital camera will take a picture that is between 2MB and 7MB in size. Your computer will have a piece of photo editing software that enables you to resize an image. For example in Microsoft Office Picture Manager you will just need to click on ‘Edit Pictures’, then ‘Compress Pictures’ and then finally select ‘Web pages’.)

10. As you are now aware Terapad has loads of features but your website may not need to use them all. You can turn off the Terapad modules you are not using by clicking on the tab in your Terapad control panel and then selecting ‘Choose Modules’. You can now choose either ‘Activated’ or ‘Removed’ for the various features and remember to ‘Save’ your changes.

11. Upload a picture to appear next to news stories. Click on  in the Terapad control panel and then click on your name. You will be taken to a Modify Site Administrator page. Browse your computer for a suitable and web compressed image. When you have finished editing your profile remember to press ‘Save’.

12. At this point if you may want to upgrade your website to remove adverts and branding from your site, simply click on and then choose between Standard and Pro and follow the instructions.

13. You can access a detailed analysis of the people visiting your site through integration with Google Analytics. This is very simple to do and we have a useful How-To guide to simplify it further. You can read it here.

14. You may wish to consider adding additional features to your site. The Terapad Container Manger within the tab allows you to add additional functionality created by third parties. These could be things such as: media players, wufoo forms or world time. Simply select ‘Add Container’ then select ‘Custom Container’. Clicking on this container within the Container Manager brings up a box where you can paste the code given to you by the Plug-in provider.

15. The clock is ticking, so at this time I would suggest adding your website to a group and joining the Terapad community. To do this simply click on and follow the instructions.

Now that you have had a chance to see many of Terapad's features I suggest returning to your web pages to add more content to your site because as they say online ‘content is King’!

If you need more help and assistance then there is the tab and throughout the control panel are  buttons. Rolling your cursor over these brings up additional explanations and guidance. Upgrading your Terapad site does gives you access to email based support from outr technical team but if it is also worth considering contacting existing users for help and advice.

The possibilities for your Terapad site are endless, from functioning online business to social forum. We are here to help and really want you to make the most of your website and share the news of these great free sites with your friends and family.

All that is left to say is welcome to the community and your new website! If you follow these guides and create a great site one day we may feature your site in our community pages like we have done with these ones!

Customise your Terapad Site Part 2.

		Thursday, 06 March 08 - 02:04 PM (GMT) By Joshua Davidson in Terapad how-tos

How to Change your Footer Image

This is the second in a series of step by step guides that will demonstrate simple ways of changing the appearance of your Terapad site.

The footer image appears at the bottom of your website and is another way of illustrating the general content of your site.

It is possible to edit your Terapad site on a PC or a Mac and using any Internet Browser. However this guide assumes that you are using a PC and a version of Internet Explorer. This guide makes use of Terapad’s ‘Resurrection’ template. Before you can change your footer image you will also need access to an image editing programme. If you don’t have one that you are familiar with on your computer you can download Paint.net for free.

This guide transforms http://before.terapad.com into http://after.terapad.com. Feel free to visit both sites to get an idea of the changes.

Step 1: Save your current Footer Image

First visit your site and right click on the existing footer image. Then select ‘Save Background As’. A box will appear that asks you to name the file and decide on a location to save it to. The image is currently called feather.jpg. It will normally be saved into your 'My Pictures' folder but make sure you take note of the exact location you’re saving the image to, as you will need to locate it in the next step.

Step 2: Edit your Footer Image

There are many ways of creating your new footer image and the help file of your chosen graphics editing programme will be able to provide you with tips and hints. The two most important tasks are:

a.) Resizing an image to the exact size of the original footer, which in the case of the resurrection template is 103x51 pixels.

b.) Saving the image as a JPEG file and at a resolution of 72dpi. You must name the file so that there is no g a p s, I have called mine footer2.jpg

Step 3 uses Paint.net and is one possible method of creating your new footer image. If you want to use your own programme, simply follow the instructions above and skip to Step 4.

Step 3. Paint.net

Load Paint.net on your computer and select ‘File’ and then ‘Open’ from the top navigation bar. Browse your computer and select the existing footer image that you have just saved. You need to know the size (in pixels) of your footer image in order to replace it. Once the image is open its exact size (in pixels) will be displayed at the bottom right of the Paint.net interface. In the case of the resurrection template the image is 103x51 pixels.

Now that you know the exact size of the original footer image, you are ready to create your new one.


When choosing the image please remember that you’re new footer will have exactly the same dimensions as the original footer. So you will need to use an image with similar dimensions.

Once you have chosen an image that you wish to use, open it in Paint.net the same way as before.

Use the Rectangle Select tool from the vertical tools box and then click and drag to highlight the area of the image that you wish to become your new footer image. Once you are happy with your selection click ‘Image’ in the top navigation bar and then ‘Crop to Selection’.

You now need to resize the image. Click ‘Image’ again but this time select ‘Resize Image’. A box will pop up displaying the current size of the image. First deselect the Maintain Aspect Ratio by removing the tick from the box. Now change the dimensions of you footer image to the size you noted down earlier. The resolution of the image should be set to 72dpi.

If you are happy with your image return to the top navigation bar and select ‘File’ and then ‘Save As’. Save the file with a new name and as a JPEG, making sure that you don't include any spaces in the image title. Remember where you save the file as you will need it in the next step. A box will pop up asking you to confirm the quality of the image you are saving, simply keep it at 100% and click ‘Ok’.

Step 4: Upload the Image to your Assets

You now need to upload your new footer image. Go to your 'Assets' tab within the Terapad control panel. Click on the folder called 'images' and then 'Browse' your computer to find your newly saved footer image. Once you have found it, click 'Open' and the window will close. Now press 'Upload' and it will appear on the screen.



Once it appears, click on the blue globe under the file. You will be directed to a page which displays two lines of text. You need to copy the text in the top box as indicated in the picture above. Click in the box several times until all of the text is highlighted in blue. Then press Ctrl+c to copy it. Your computer will now remember this line of text.


Step 5: Replace the Existing Footer

Select the Layout tab in your control panel and then click on Edit CSS.
You are now going to edit the 'CSS Body'. The screen shot above shows you the section of text that you require. It is called ‘Extra DIV Element Specifications'
You can either search through the text manually or press Ctrl+f and then type in feather. If you are using a different template you will need to type in the name of the footer image that you first discovered when you right clicked and saved background as. Press ‘Enter’ or click on the 'Next' button to automatically search through the text to the places where the word appears.

Once you have found the ‘Extra DIV Element Specifications’ section look below it and locate the background URL.

It will look like this,

background: url(/csses/resurrection/images/feather.jpg) no-repeat 50% 0;
}

You only need to replace the text within brackets. Change it so that it now reads,

background: url(/resources/11744/assets/images/footer2.jpg) no-repeat 50% 0;
}


Remember to save the change you have made and now return to your website.

Step 7: Admire your Work

If your site doesn’t appear to have changed press Ctrl+r, this reloads the site. Congratulations you now have a completely unique web presence.

To see the results of following this guide you can visit http://after.terapad.com/ and see how it differs from http://before.terapad.com/

There are many more examples of people changing their footer image. Here is just a selection of our favourites:

 

Customise your Terapad Site Part 1.

		Friday, 08 February 08 - 09:08 AM (GMT) By Joshua Davidson in Terapad how-tos

How to Change your Header Image

This is the first in a series of step by step guides that will demonstrate simple ways of changing the appearance of your Terapad site.

The header image can communicate what your website is about and quickly persuade people that your site is worth spending time on.  When you select a Terapad template you are given a standard design that may not represent the content of your site.

Terapad supports the industry standard for design, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and this allows you as a user to redesign your Terapad template, creating a unique and appropriate design.

It is possible to edit your Terapad site on a PC or a Mac using any Internet Browser.  However this guide assumes that you are using a PC and using Microsoft Internet Explorer.

“This guide transforms http://before.terapad.com into http://after.terapad.com.  Feel free to visit both sites to get an idea of the changes”. 

As you can see from the illustration below this guide makes use of Terapad’s ‘Resurrection’ template. Before you can change your header you will also need access to an image editing programme. If you don’t have one that you are familiar with on your computer you can download Paint.net for free. Visit their website and follow the instructions to download it.

These steps will guide you through changing your web page header

Step 1: Save your current Header Image

First visit your site and right click on the existing header image. Then select ‘Save Background As’.  A box will appear that asks you to name the file and decide on a location to save it to. The image is currently called header.jpg. It will normally be saved into your 'My Pictures' folder but make sure you take note of the exact location you’re saving the image to, as you will need to locate it in the next step.

Step 2: Edit your Header Image

The following guide uses Paint.net and is one possible method of creating your header however there are many ways of creating your new header image and the help file of your chosen graphics editing programme will be able to provide you with more advanced tips and hints. The two most important tasks are:

a.) Resizing an image to the exact size of the original header, which in the case of the resurrection template is 770x209 pixels.

b.) Saving the image as a JPEG file and at a resolution of 72dpi. You must name the file so that there is no g a p s, I have called mine header2.jpg

Step 3 uses Paint.net and is one possible method of creating your header.  If you want to use your own programme, simply follow the instructions above and skip to Step 4.

Step 3: Paint.net

If you have already installed Paint.net on your computer, simply load it up.  Now select ‘File’ and then ‘Open’ from the top navigation bar. Browse your computer and select the existing header image that you have just saved. You need to know the size (in pixels) of your header image in order to replace it. Once the image is open its exact size (in pixels) will be displayed at the bottom right of the Paint.net interface.  In the case of the resurrection template the image is 770x209 pixels.

Now that you know the exact size of the original header image, you are ready to create your new one.

When choosing the image please remember that you’re new header will have exactly the same dimensions as the original header. So you will need to use an image with similar dimensions.

Once you have chosen an image that you wish to use, open it in Paint.net the same way as before.

Use the Rectangle Select tool from the vertical tools box and then click and drag to highlight the area of the image that you wish to become your new header. Once you are happy with your selection click ‘Image’ in the top navigation bar and then ‘Crop to Selection’.

You now need to resize the image. Click ‘Image’ again but this time select ‘Resize Image’.  A box will pop up displaying the current size of the image. First deselect the Maintain Aspect Ratio by removing the tick from the box. Now change the dimensions of you header image to the size you noted down earlier.  For resurrection it is width 770 and height 209. The resolution of the image should be set to 72dpi.

If you are happy with your image return to the top navigation bar and select ‘File’ and then ‘Save As’. Save the file with a new name and as a JPEG, making sure that you don't include any spaces in the image title. Remember where you save the file as you will need it in the next step. A box will pop up asking you to confirm the quality of the image you are saving, simply keep it at 100% and click ‘Ok’.

Step 4: Upload the Image to your Assets

You now need to upload your new header image. Go to your 'Assets' tab within the Terapad control panel. Click on the folder called 'images' and then 'Browse' your computer to find your newly saved header image.  Once you have found it, click 'Open and the window will close.  Now press 'Upload' and it will appear on the screen.

Highlighted in red are the 'Browse', 'Upload' and 'Blue Globe' buttons.

  Highlighted in red is the URL you require

Step 5: Replace the Existing Header

Select the Layout tab in your control panel and then click on Edit CSS.

You are now going to edit the 'CSS Body'. The screen shot above shows you the section of text that you require.  It is called 'Header (wraps logo_image and logo_text)'

You can either search through the text manually or press Ctrl+f and then type in header. Pressing ‘Enter’ or clicking on the 'Next' button automatically searches through the text to the places where the word header appears. 

Once you have found the Header (wraps logo_image and logo_text) section look below it and locate the background URL.

It will look like this:

background: url(/csses/resurrection/images/header.jpg) no-repeat 0 0;
}

You only need to replace the text within brackets.

Change it so that it now reads:

background: url(/resources/11744/assets/images/header2.jpg) no-repeat 0 0;                }

Scroll down the webpage to save the change you have made and now return to your site by clicking on the web address in the top right hand corner of your control panel.

 

How To: Track your users using Google Analytics

		Tuesday, 09 October 07 - 04:34 PM (GMT) By Joshua Davidson in Terapad how-tos

Integrate your Terapad site with Google Analytics  

All businesses need information about how they are performing, that is why Terapad has been designed to integrate with Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free website statistic service, which can give you access to loads of fascinating information about your website.

Integration with Terapad is so simple that once you have completed this quick How To you will be checking your ‘bounce rates’, ‘visitors percentages’ and ‘web traffic’ daily.

Step 1: Sign up with Google

A Google Analytics account can be opened by both individuals and companies at
http://www.google.com/analytics

The first thing you will need to do, if you don’t have one already, is create a Google account.
    

1. Click on Sign Up Now if you need a Google account, if not just Sign in.

Simply click the 'Sign Up' link on the Google Analytics page and let the site guide you through the registration process. Upon validation of your provided email you will be able to sign into Google Analytics using your email and chosen password.  

Step 2: Sign up with Google Analytics

2. Enter the URL of your Terapad site into the highlighted box.

The sign up process is in four stages.

1.    General Information. Enter the details of the site you wish to track.
2.    Contact Information.
3.    User Agreement.
4.    Add Tracking. You will be issued with a line of code to embed into the webpage you want to track. With Terapad this is a much simpler process, you only need the tracker code itself which is looks like this UA-*******-*

Step 3: Terapad Integration

Now log onto your Terapad’s control panel, select the 'Layout' tab and then 'Integration Settings' on the side bar. The very top box is for the Google Analytics tracking code. Paste the UA-*******-* number within the box, save and Terapad is ready.
      

3. Enter your Terapad c-panel. Integration Settings are in the Layout Tab.

Step 4: Explore your Google Reports

You can now log in to your Google Analytics account at any time to see your Terapad site statistics. Simply click on the 'Report' and you will be taken to your dashboard; a general overview with lots of information about your site which will be updated daily.

Spending some time getting to know what the various elements of your dashboard are can help you plan website updates and judge how your site is performing. I hope you enjoy learning more about your site users.

     

4. Enjoy lots of interesting statistics about your site.

How To: Set up an Online Shop

		Tuesday, 02 October 07 - 05:13 PM (GMT) By Joshua Davidson in Terapad how-tos

Turn your Terapad Site into a functioning online business

Setting up a shop on Terapad is free and easy and this quick guide shows you how it’s done!

 

Terapad are partnered with Paypal, the world’s leading payment gateway, which allows anyone to pay securely online, using credit cards or bank accounts. It is available in 190 markets and 17 currencies around the world and enables Terapad to offer a global ecommerce solution for its users, regardless of country, currency or language.

 

Selling online is essential for many small businesses in the 21^st century, and a Terapad shop is an ideal solution. Unlike platforms like Ebay, Terapad will never take a cut of your hard earned profits - Terapad  entrepreneurs keep all of the money from their sales.

 

If you are looking for inspiration for things to sell, just take a look around the Terapad community. Many of our users are already making use of the shop module to sell everything from original art works to replica models of the Cutty Sark!

It only takes 4 steps to get your store set up and trading, it couldn’t be easier.

              

Step 1: Get a Paypal Premier or Business account

A Paypal Premier or Business account is easy to set up and free to both individuals and companies at http://www.paypal.com.

Once you have your registration details just write them in your shop settings screen.      

                    

 

Step 2: Get a Paypal-assigned Terapad.com public certificate ID

The second piece of information you'll need is the Paypal-assigned Terapad.com public certificate ID. This provides security for your shopping cart and is easily obtainable by following the Terapad guide.

                 

Step 3: Finalise Paypal Details

While the above two steps will make your shop go live, it will not be secured until you complete the very important third step. Logging in to your Paypal account and following our simple instructions you can guarantee the safety of your online trading. 

 

Step 4: Begin Trading

Adding items to your shop is simply a matter of a few clicks. You can organise your products into categories, set a price and give a description and upload up to three photos of the product.

A complete guide is available in the ‘Help Section’ of your website's control panel.

Good luck and happy trading!

 

                              

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