Monday May 9, 2005
We've reorganized the betatest site to make it easier for testers to get started. If you have come here ready to test, we thank you in advance. If you came here out of curiosity, please take a moment to try out our new system. We desperately need testers to help us get our new software ready for release. So... if you have a few minutes to spare, please try our new system. You won't be disappointed. You'll be "ahead of the learning curve" and you may just discover a "bug" that no one else has noticed. We want to find and fix as many bugs as possible prior to release. But we need YOUR help to succeed.
Saturday May 7, 2005
The registered beta-testers didn't show up, so we are opening testing to ALL users of the World Wide Web. All you need to do is click
Create Site to get started. You'll create a new Web site and be able to try all our new technology. Here are a few things you need to know before you get started:
Overview. A Max Pages Web site consists of a collection of pages. Each page consists of:
a) A page template that defines object styles and a page backdrop;
b) A collection of objects.
You control the look and feel of your pages by choosing colors and backgrounds for your backdrop and
by selecting styles for basic elements in your page templates. You control the layout of your pages by
inserting, moving, resizing, and customizing objects.
Objects. We give you thousands of objects to work with. Objects include Fields, Caption Boxes, Menus, Info Boxes, Images, Awards, Banners, Body Styles, Boxes, Buttons, Calculators, Clocks, Effects, Field Blocks, Frames, Games, Headings, Novelties, Puzzles, Tools, and much more!
a) All objects are movable.
*** Grab an object with your left mouse button and put it where you want it.
b) Most objects are resizable.
*** Grab the lower right-hand corner with your left mouse button and resize.
c) Objects can be inserted, copied, pasted, cloned, deleted, and customized.
*** Click the right mouse button to get a menu.
Styles. Styles define the appearance of Text-HTML and Image Objects. Text-HTML objects include Caption Boxes, Boxes, Titles, Subtitles, Headings and Scalable Text.
IMPORTANT-- styles for Text-HTML and Image object classes are defined in page
templates. To change style for an object class, Edit the page template. (Of
course, you can always change style for an individual object instance. But it
is much more powerful to use styles defined in the page template since these
styles apply to object classes.) Typically, a style consists of sets of
properties for Frame and Content.
IMPORTANT-- to change style for a class of objects, change the style for the
class in the page template. The page template defines style for Text-HTML
Boxes, Titles, Subtitles, Headings and Images. Text-HTML Boxes include Caption
Boxes, Fields, and basic HTML Boxes. Setting style in the page template
establishes style for all objects of a given class. If you want to change
style for a single instance of an object, simply customize the object and
select a new style. If you don't see a style you like, you can always create a
custom style by clicking Customize.
If you understand everything you just read, then you are ready to test the new system.
Thanks for your help!
Friday May 6, 2005
Overview. The first day of Beta Testing went poorly. More than 1,600 people registered to test, but fewer than 300 visited the betatest Web site. Of those who visited betatest, only 24 created Freeform Template Web sites! And finally, from a handful of feedback form responses, it is clear that no one actually tested or even understands the new system. We are developing a tester's checklist of things you need to do to try out the system.
Misconceptions. Alarmingly, everyone we heard from tested the WRONG things. And no one we know of actually used the system. Here are some of the WRONG things tested:
1) The Freeform Template Gallery. We made the Freeform Template Gallery look like the original Static Template Gallery for continuity and consistency. However, the new Freeform Gallery Templates have been COMPLETELY redeveloped using our new Web design technology. Unfortunately, NONE of today's beta testers figured that out. A Freeform Template is just a starting point for designing a site. One tester complained that Images and Text should NOT be mixed in a Field Block. Of course, it never occurred to this person that the Field Block that came with the Template could be deleted and independent Fields and Images inserted wherever desired.
2) The Object/Maxlet Collection. Yes, we DO want to know if any object in the collection is not working. But the collection of objects from Awards through Tools is merely a set of add-ons to Web pages. The heart of the new design system is it's interactive object-oriented methodology that lets site owners insert, delete, move, resize, clone, cut, copy, paste, and customize objects. Not a soul seems to have picked up on this fact. Instead, we received an imprecise report about one Java applet failing and vague praise for having such a large collection.
How You Should Test. Here is what YOU SHOULD DO to test our new system properly:
1) In the Page Editor, Click the right-mouse button to get a menu--and STUDY THE MENU. The right-mouse menu is your doorway into the system. You should insert, delete, move, resize, clone, cut, copy, paste, and customize one each of EVERY type of object available. That would be testing! Glancing at the Template Gallery or Object collection and forming an opinion doesn't help.
2) Click Edit Template and see what makes a Freeform Template! Study the styles and figure out what they mean. Sadly, only 60 people visited the Styles page. NO ONE can possibly use the new system properly without understanding styles! Notice that Text-HTML and Image objects
inherit their styles from the Page Template. This means that you can control the style of classes of objects from the Page Template. Also, you can customize any object and set a style specific only for that object.
Prayer. May tomorrow bring better testers and with them better insight into our system.
