General questions for new user

[publishing2web]

Our web design company is doing some SEO work on an Actinic site. Basically I have one session this week at the client's office - where the Actinic software is installed - to (hopefully) make some changes to the site. Just to make sure the changes I'd like to make are feasible I'd like some answers to the following questions (I've never used the software before so some of the question may be elementary):

1) Can you specify the values of the title tag, keywords and description tag for each page (including the products)?

2) Can you add alt tags to the images?

3) Can we add a link to the left-hand side of the site - in the same box as all the products - that links to another site in the same window?

4) In case I make a serious mistake on the site is there any way to back the entire site up before making any changes?

Thanks in advance.

[gabrielcrowe]

1) Can you specify the values of the title tag, keywords and description tag for each page (including the products)?

yes, yes and yes.
these things can be added to PAGES (in actinic, they are called sections) but products dont have them. this is becasue multiple products can reside on the same page, see?

2) Can you add alt tags to the images?

yes.

3) Can we add a link to the left-hand side of the site - in the same box as all the products - that links to another site in the same window?

yes, you can use the 'target'. and generally, you can do anything in templates with some fiddling.

4) In case I make a serious mistake on the site is there any way to back the entire site up before making any changes?

yes, its called a snapshot.

all things are backed up into compressed package.

have fun!!

[publishing2web]

Thanks for the fast reply. Could anyone elaborate on question 3 please? That looks to be the most fiddly of the questions.

[pnagames]

Tim

get yourself a copy of Actinic (even the trial one) and start editing the templates to see what is affecting what

also search the forum and you will find plenty of threads with people asking which template to change for what (i have started one or two)

[pinbrook]

Could anyone elaborate on question 3 please?

Take a look at Act_Primary.html this controls the overall layout.

No-one can give a specific reply to this q without being able to see the site.

But as already suggested download a trial and have a play before you visit the client, or get a snapshot (kill 2 birds with one stone and sort out Q4) and play with the client site on a test basis before you attempt to implement anything live

[publishing2web]

Thanks for that. My client has version 7; I've looked into the trial and for the UK it is version 8 only. Is there any way of getting version 7?

[wjcampbe]

http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/downloads.htm

[publishing2web]

Hi - tha'ts my point though. Under the 30 day trial software section they only have v8.

30-DAY TRIAL SOFTWARE
Ecommerce v8 and EPOS
software - current trial versions

[Cheapprices4u]

http://support.actinic.com/versions/

[wjcampbe]

Hi - tha'ts my point though. Under the 30 day trial software section they only have v8.

And under patches and updates is Actinic v7.0.7 which leads to a page with a choice of full version or patch...

But the next poster gave you an alternate link

[publishing2web]

Thanks both - I'll try it out.

[publishing2web]

I've got the trail up-and-running - thanks!

Is there a way to add some HTML to every single page of the site? I've added some code to ACT_Primary.html and some others but they only effect certain parts of the site.

[pinbrook]

if you want html on every section page add it to ACT_SECTION etc

similarly for products ACT_PRODUCT etc

[publishing2web]

So far if I modify Act_Primary.html and Act_BrochurePrimary.html it seems to effect every page - are there any others I should be aware of?

[RuralWeb]

As jo has replied to all your other posts - search the forum as you are asking VERY basic questions that have been covered before or are in the user guide.

TIP: Read the manual before you post again as you will hack people off and they will stop replying to your questions