Create Personal Websites next system updates will include 14+ new layouts. Each new layout will include the ability to customize just about every color and background area.
The new layouts will use the template builder functionality to allow customers to modify background images and adjust layout spacing to meet your needs.
Colors
CreatePersonalWebsites colors page will give customers more control over their site colors. It will allow you to customize specific areas/design elements. For example. you can click a color box and more. Some layouts will have customizable areas.
Layout selection
CreatePersonalWebsites layout selection page will now be displayed in a larger overlay window making it easier to review the different layout options. The layout preview images will be larger as well.
Banner area : Content slider/HTML
More and more sites are making use of dynamic content sliders integrated into their designs. With this update, you will have more control over the header & images area. You can add a content slider to the site header area. The content slider can be set as your default header or as page specific headers. You can also choose the HTML option if they want to add your own custom HTML to the header area.
Background textures
The new designs will use the layout builder. This gives you the site owner control over the background image and appearance of all of the major sections of your website. A large number of new background textures are being added to the background library. These background textures can be used for any area of the site. Quickbar, content area, menu bars, footer area....
Default site and standard styling
In addition to adding new layouts we are also working on enhancements to the default trial site and system styles. We are working to create coordinated sets of styles/layouts to be used for the default trial sites. Customers will start with a improved design to show them how to create a better looking website. These styles will give customers a great start to getting their website setup and make it easier to customize the overall look and feel of their site content. The default font, site titles, groupboxes, product display, tabbed content areas, forms, photo galleries and more would all match in a coordinated style set.
When used with the site builder the style sets would give you an easy way to change/configure the entire look of your website. By making one choice of style your entire site would be updated.
We are planning on creating some great looking style sets so you will not need to go into each section of the style/design area to customize the look of your site.
Showcase/reference sites
We are investigating setting up showcase websites for each of our templates. These sites will allow you to see a live preview of how each of the templates look. The pages (content/images) of the showcase sites would be coordinated with high quality styles, images and well formatted content. These sites would display all of the capabilities of the system, provide customers with samples and layout ideas to use for your own website as well as show how you can make great looking sites with well structured/formatted content.