If you missed Class Creator's live webinar on using the Advanced Design Themes here's the replay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnDo89fpwIA&feature=youtu.be. For best viewing use the controls below the video to view at actual size or expand to full screen.

The individual videos demonstrated during the presentation can be replayed here:

Serif PhotoPlus video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVlnnBYLSYs
Photoshop Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78tMu28NrIA

Want some great inspiration? Check out a few examples below of how your fellow Class Administrators are using the Advanced Designs to personalize their sites:

ADVANCED DESIGN #1

Warren County Astronomical Society: http://www.wcas-oh.org
The Estates Community Association: http://www.theestates.net
Shasta High School Class of 1973: http://www.shs1973reunion.com
Asbury Park High School Class of 1963: http://www.aphs1963.org
John Adams High School Class of 1961: http://www.adams1961.com
St. Mary's High School Class of 1961: http://www.stmaryshs61.com
McPherson High School Class of 1962: http://www.mcpherson62.com
Terry Parker High School Class of 1975: http://www.tp75.com
Kecoughtan High School multi year: http://www.khs65-66.com
Poplar Bluff High School Class of 1990: http://www.pbshs90.com

ADVANCED DESIGN #2

Irondequoit Bay Fish & Game Club: http://www.ibfgc.org
Joplin Eagles Class of 1963: http://www.jhsclassof1963.net
Seahawk Lunchean: http://www.seahawkluncheon.org
Needham Broughton High School Class of 1963: http://www.broughton1963.com
Radford High School Class of 1975: http://www.radford75.com
Skyline High School Class of 1972: http://www.skylinehighclassof72reunion.com
Arlington High School Class of 1972: http://www.ahhs72.com
Pittsfield High School Class of 1977: http://www.phs77ma.com
Sammamish High School Class of 1961: http://www.sammamish61.com
Wichita North High School Class of 1970: http://www.wichitanorth1970.com
Garland High School Class of 1969: http://www.garlandowls1969.com

ADVANCED DESIGN #3

Lone Oak High School multi year: http://www.lohsalumni.com
Gallup High School Class of 1965: http://www.galluphs1965.com
North Springs Spartans: http://www.northspringsspartansandfriendsshindigwithwetwillie.com/class_index.cfm
T. L. Handy High School Class of 1963: http://www.tlhandy1963.org
Boca Ciega High School Class of 1962: http://www.bogie1962.com
Auburn Senior High School Class of 1972: http://www.auburn72reunion.info
New Rochelle High School Class of 1965: http://www.nrhs65.com
Notre Dame High School multi year: http://www.notredamehsreunion.com
Middletown High School North Class of 1983: http://www.mhsn83.com

If you have customized your site using one of the Advanced Design themes, please share it below!

When I get the courage to try an Advanced Design, is my current design saved so that when I mess up the Advanced one, I can just switch back to the old one?

Yes if you are using one of the standard built-in designs and want to switch back you'll be all set.

Jessica
Class Creator Support

Thanks, Jessica - Knowing that, I'm ready!

Dear Brad,

After applying the Advanced Design Number 2 to our web site, the top menus and the member online module are no longer visible on our home page. However, the top menus and the member online module are visible on all subsequent pages.

Please help us to resolve this problem.

We are very pleased with the new advanced theme designs. The new design we used on our site, gives our site a unique, clean, appearance.

Thanks,
Pound High Alumni

Pound,

There was something wrong with your PRICE OF GAS announcement. I disabled it and your home page works fine now. Something in the JavaScript was interfering with the ClassCreator JavaScript.

Dear Kyle,

For quickly coming to our assistance and correcting the problem, we send our sincere thanks.

Right after we updated our web design, we actually tried to get that little application to center in the announcement window and we were not successful. We had actually turned off a couple of the other home page announcements, but they did not resolve the problem. Apparently we were on the right track. We just corrected the wrong announcement.

Kyle, your expertise and accurate response will be a good lesson for our future. Thank you again for helping us.

Happy Easter

Pound,

Here is a clue to tell which announcement is causing the problems. If you POST ANNOUNCEMENT and click VIEW for each active announcement, the home page will refresh with only that announcement and the home page content. if the page still has problems, it is probably being caused by the announcement. If the page is OK, continue with the next VIEW of the next active announcement. This is how I discovered the problem because the first six announcements didn't have the problem and it wasn't until the PRICE OF GAS announcement that the home page had the problem reported.

Dear Kyle,

Thanks for the great tip! For future use, we will keep that tip close at hand.

To expand on Rhonda's excellent question:

What if I don't have enough time to complete the new design all in one sitting? Can one of these new designs be edited and saved in the background WITHOUT taking it live?

Thanks for the webinar video link and sample designs. I'm checking them out now!

Terry

Rhonda McClellan wrote:

When I get the courage to try an Advanced Design, is my current design saved so that when I mess up the Advanced one, I can just switch back to the old one?

After checking out the sample links provided for inspiration, I noticed that many of the ADVANCED DESIGN #3 links land the viewer at the login prompt -- BELOW the beautifully designed header area. Is that a bug with that template? Or a design feature?

FYI Mac users: it seems that Serif PhotoPlus Starter Edition is only available for Windows platforms.

I completed advanced design #2. Since 1963 yearsbooks et al were in black and white and my school colors are a fairly light blue and silver, adding photos of classmates didn't look good - to busy and too drab. In order to get things looking brighter, I lightened backgrounds so there would be more contrast with the lighter blue. So far people seem to like it though I'm still trying to get the black navigation bar in the right place.

All designs place the cursor in the login box when the home page loads. This is intended yes.

Diana I think you know this but just making sure: Just move that black navigation bar up a bit in your psd file. Then reupload top.

Brad Switzer wrote:

Can I see your .psd file? You can attach it here.

I just tried it again in a more elementary verion of Photoshop and it went where I wanted it. TX. It may be helpful to some to know that one version of photoshop may do what others won't. I have 3 versions, so I switch among them.

Brad Switzer wrote:

Brad, so does the curser location dictate how a page is displayed to the viewer? This is only happening with your third set of samples; the advanced design #3... I initially don't "see" the template design portion at all, on SOME pages (see: Gallup High School Class of 1965: http://www.galluphs1965.com), unless I scroll up. The page view lands with the top of the window scrolled down just below the top (navigation links) line.

Does that help make my comment more clear? Are the sample links above showing up that way for anyone else? (fyi, I'm using Safari v5.1.

I just tested in Safari and it loads at the top for me. I do not have a Mac to test on.

Hey Scott. Okay. It's not an issue for me, so if other's aren't seeing it, I won't worry about either!

Teresa,

I love your site! Very clean... You must have a design background Do you have trouble attracting people to your site after a reunion? We had our 35th last October and the visits to the website have dropped big time. Any suggestions on how to get people to participate?

Regards,

Mike Morin

Hi Mike, thank you! No, I'm using the Professional #6 template design. I haven't yet had a reunion since establishing our multi-year site. Our all-class reunion is coming up this July, so we'll see.

My own class held our last reunion in 2009 and my classmates returned to our fhhs79.com site to see photos from the event, but activity did gradually fall off over the years.

When I add anything new to either site, (pictures or forum discussion, etc), I will usually create a new Announcement with a teaser lead-in sentence and link to "read more..."

I have found that my largest spikes of activity occur following an email sent to the class (so long as the emails are not too frequent). I usually only send a full distribution email a few times per year, though I think once per month might be ideal. In between the email, I post the site link about weekly to our school's facebook group page.

Hope that helps!

Terry