Skip to main content

Behind the Screens, Pt. 2--Customizing Site Design in Tizra Publisher

By

If you’ve seen some of the sites created with Tizra Publisher, you know how different they can look.

But how does this happen? In this second in our series on the Tizra Publisher web based control panel (first post here), we’ll show how easy it is to completely re-skin and restructure an Tizra Publisher site in a matter of hours.

First, a little slideshow of some recent results:

As in the first post, we’ll use the eat.shop guides from Cabazon Books as our example. Founded by a graphic designer, Cabazon has a strong visual identity and has done a great job reinforcing it across its print and online properties.

Step 1: Pick a design
While Tizra Publisher does provide pre-made templates for publishers to customize, Cabazon already had a site design they were happy with, and wanted to carry it over to the new online books site they were building on Tizra Publisher. Screens from the preexisting design they wanted to match:

Cabazon’s original eat.shop homepage

Cabazon’s original eat.shop homepage.

Original purchase page for print books

Original purchase page for print books.

Step 2: Upload images
The first step in implementing the design on Tizra Publisher is to grab the GIFs and JPEGs created for the original site and upload them through the Tizra Publisher control panel, so they can be incorporated into the new web pages.

Uploading an image

Uploading an image.

Step 3: Upload stylesheets
Like most sites, Cabazon’s existing design relied on standard cascading stylesheets for type, layout and other design information. These styles were imported into Tizra Publisher by uploading a CSS file.

Uploading CSS

Uploading CSS.

Step 4: Set up page structure
Tizra Publisher lets users build pages by arranging drag-and-drop Smart Blocks, rather than writing code. There are Smart Blocks for all of the dozens of page components and functions that can appear on an Tizra Publisher site, including Search, Login, Sales Promotions, Commerce, and even advertisements using Google AdWords. Watch the video to see how the components of the page used to display tables of contents for the eat.shop guides were dragged into place. Larger version here.

Click for larger video.

Step 5: We've got a match!
In just a few steps, we've matched Cabazon's design exactly and tied it in with the preexisting eat.shop site. Compare this new catalog of online books with their original printed book catalog back at the beginning of the post.

New online book purchase page

New online book purchase page...compare with original print version above.

Step 6: Experiment, learn, evolve.
So now Cabazon has extended two of its biggest assets—its content and its brand—into a new online presence based on Tizra Publisher.

Next: The really interesting part. Using Tizra Publisher's integrated commerce and content management tools to leverage those assets by unbinding, remixing and rebundling them into a new range of online products.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Einstein Taught Us About Searching Inside Publications

By
When the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein went live on Tizra a few years ago, it was a huge step forward. Suddenly, anyone anywhere could search and access the output of one of the 20th Century’s great minds…from love letters to breakthrough articles that changed how we think about the nature of time and space. But the project also showed the limits of traditional tools for searching within large, complex publications. These limits sparked a collaboration with Princeton University Press and Einstein Papers Project editors, which this year resulted in a dynamic new search interface, which we’ll be demonstrating in a  Webcast Friday, December 15 at 1pm ET . The interface not only makes it easier for Einstein researchers to home in on relevant content on both mobile devices and desktops, it points the way toward faster, better searching within a wide range of publication types, from reference books to periodicals, technical documentation and standards to textbooks. Click T...
Post a Comment
Read more

Using XML to Create a Better Online Reading Experience for the American Payroll Association

By
Congrats to the American Payroll Association on their recent launch of XML-based publications on Tizra!  Thanks to this collaboration, APA's authoritative books for payroll professionals are now available in crisp, reflowable HTML, creating a user experience that feels like a truly digital native product, rather than a conversion from print. XML-based publishing also creates a better mobile reading experience, supports more precise search and navigation, and opens the door to better accessibility for users with low vision and other disabilities. Our partners at  Scribe  did a great job supporting APA through the process of producing the XML for loading into Tizra, and we’d definitely recommend them to anyone interested in such a transition. It’s hard to overstate what a big step forward this is for Tizra as a platform and a company. XML has long been planned for in the product's architecture, but now for the first time, we have a working example that demonstrates t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Webinar: Why not Use Your Content to Build YOUR Brand?

By
Update: New Session Added. Join us for a live webinar , Friday, May 21 at 1pm EDT If you own valuable content, there's a dizzying proliferation of new ways to sell and otherwise distribute it electronically...from downloadable Apps, to embeddable widgets to expensive custom XML-based websites. All have their tradeoffs, but at Tizra, we think there's one factor that, more than any other, should guide your long-term strategy: Does it build your brand? Brands aren't just colors and logos. Brands are what happens when publishers deliver content that readers believe in visit after visit, and build audiences that authors want to reach. Like Joe Esposito, we believe in the power of publisher brands . And we agree with Mike Shatzkin that the publishing brands of the future are being built right now on the web . Our software sits quietly in the background, helping some of the most respected organizations in the world promote, sell and deliver their own electronic ...
Post a Comment
Read more