We heard the cries and we now have a new text editor.  The main issue that we were facing with the previous on is the usage on FireFox and Copy/Pasting from MS Word.  The Paste From Word feature only worked in Internet Explorer. This meant when you copy and pasted from MS Word in FireFox, along came a nightmare of ridiculous code that only a Microsoft application could produce.  Don’t get me wrong, I use MS Word, but the code still produced major, ongoing formatting problems for users.

After trying dozens of different WYSIWYG text editors, we finally chose an open source application.  This was not just about cost.  The previous text editor not open source and required a license to use.  We wanted a simple, efficient and versatile application that would integrated well with our application.

So, all users should now keep this in mind when copy and pasting from MS Word.  There is a new Icon in the Text Editor, it looks like  a little “Broom”  This will “Clean” the code that is pasted into the editor.  You will first HIGHLIGHT ALL THE TEXT in the editor and then click the “Broom Icon” or “Clean HTML” Icon. The next screen will look like this below and give you several options (you can just leave the default check boxes as they are).  Just click OK and you are done.  This will clean up the text/html and you will see perfect results in both Internet Explorer and FireFox. Enjoy!

The time is at hand when Press Publisher goes from being a simple magazine publishing system to a unique and powerful tool that will allow magazine publishers to truly create a community and profit from their online publication.

We are only days away from the release of an integrated paid subscriber feature that works with PayPal.  This will allow any of our users to allow for people to subscribe, for a fee, to their magazine.  You can still keep the subscription free and still choose which articles will be public or subscriber only.

In addition, we have completed the article comments and will be inserting them in very soon.  But with this addition, we will be adding multi-user blogs.  What does this mean?  It means you, the magazine publisher, can create unique users/bloggers who will each have and publish their own blog on your website.  Each of your writers/bloggers will be able to log in, post to their blog, moderate their comments, and NOT have access to the rest of your magazine.

A note about comments.  Visitors to your website will be able to see/read the comments on your website, but they will have to subscribe to add a new comment.  There will always be a basic (free) subscription available so visitors can post comments.  But there will also be an additional subscription (free or paid with a paypal subscription), if you choose for subscribers to have unique access to your subscriber ONLY content.

To further amplify these new additions, there will be additional blocks for recent comments and recent blog posts highlighted in the sidebar . . . a common feature seen on the largest mainstream online publications.

Next Up!  Directories . . .  Stay tuned for more details.

It has been a dream for longer than any of us can remember; integrated “paid” subscriptions.  With the help of a new Press Publisher Partner, integrated paid membership management is only a couple of weeks away.

Yes, we have an optional upgrade for the “advanced subscriber system” available, but this is not a fully integrated component, but is instead, a third party add-on to the press publisher system.  Let there be no doubt, the “advanced subscriber system” is a far more robust membership management system than what we are incorporating with this new add-on, with a slew of features that will only be available with this optional upgrade.  However, it is a far more expensive and time consuming solution to implement.

Our new integrated subscriber/membership management system will integrate with PayPal to allow the magazine publishers on our shared network the option of offering paid subscriptions to their magazine.  It will automate the process of setting your PayPal account info (your PayPal email address) and the subscription price of your online magazine.  Our system will monitor whether the subscriber is active or not and allow access accordingly.

Each user will still have the option of individually defining Articles as Public or “subscriber only”, or not requiring payments for subscribing at all.   This exciting add-on is just one of several that are coming your way.  It is an exciting time for us, and we hope, for online publishers everywhere.

Like the shoemaker’s children, we’ve been doing our best to complete the redesign of our own, Press Publisher website, there never seems to be enough time.  We have gone back and forth with designs and finally, at long last, we have released the new site.  The original has served us well, but was not a feasible solution as our service and needs grow.

Next stop, tutorials.  We’ve heard your cry and we are now working on detailed video tutorials of every aspect of the system.  Between new template designs for the system and the tutorials, we have our hands full.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the new design. Please drop us a note with any comments on the new design Hello@PressPublisher.com.

One of the main reasons for us to release the integrated user templates, was to standardize the templates and provide users with greater flexibility over their design; for both free and paid versions of Press Publisher.  Once that was complete, we have started down the road of developing free templates to our users.  We still over customized options for a design, but we are working hard to offer a variety of free templates.

At the present time, there are 10 and that number will grow by at least one per week.  To see the templates in action, go to www.presspublisher.us (our demonstration site) and select the “Styles” drop-down menu to select and see the alternate styles. By default you will get the “Default” template. If you want another one, just email us after you sign up.

The latest edition to the Press Publisher system is the ability to include banner ads (and Google Ad Manager integration) on your site so you can start monetizing your online magazine.  Built into the templates are specific blocks for including the JavaScript code from any number of ad management software applications.

Some of the most notable advertising solutions are:

• Google Adsense, which are basically Google ads that allow you to show text and image based ads that are “contextual” to the page you are on.  This means, the ads should be reflective of the content on your page.  This is a good thing.
• Google Ad Manager.  This is a banner management system recently introduced by Google.  It allows you to control the ads that show on your site.  You can create ad blocks and include banners from your clients.  If you don’t have any client ads, you ad blocks can default to show Google ads.  A nice feature to make sure there is always and ad up and showing.  It is robust and comprehensive solution.  At the present time there is no fee, but their service states they have the right to change that.
• Open Ads.  This is a long standing, open-source banner management system (that’s been around for a while).  Just like Google Ad Manager, it provide complex control over the presentation of ads on your website.  Down side?  It is simply too confusing for some users and can be over the top in terms of features for the basic publisher.

With all of these solutions, you are provided with a small JavaScipt to include in your site.  We now have a section on the site that provides you with the blocks to copy and paste this code into.  Now it’s time to start getting some people to your site and make some money!

It has been an ongoing request from a variety of users to have access to the templates of their online magazine.  To date, this feature has only been available to custom installations of Press Publisher.  With a custom installation, come a price.  As such, the free versions would not have access.

This has changed!  Now all users of the system have access to the templates and CSS style sheet that make up their system.  This is not a trivial feature though and can’t really be modified by a novice user.  A user who wishes to modify their system will be required to have an excellent understanding of HTML and CSS.

The template system we use is Smarty.  Smarty is a template engine that uses a propriety coding language, similar to PHP to generate the content on the page.  The Smarty code is intermixed with HTML to generate the pages.  What a user will have access to is each of the individual pages that comprise their magazine.

To start, there is a Header, Sidebar, Footer and Stylesheet.  For most users this will make up the vast majority of adjustments and provides the “outer shell” of the website.  However, if you want to go further, you can modify each of the templates individually as well.

In the ends, this allows any user to allow their in-house or personal web designer to make adjustments to their site, instead of us :-)  Just keep in mind, we know the system as well as anyone and can most likely make the change faster and more reliably.  None-the-less, the ball is now in your court.

The Press Publisher Online Magazine Publishing System has taken a major step forward in its evolution. With the users on the system giving us ongoing feedback, we have taken these recommendations and incorporated many of these new features to make a more robust and versatile magazine publishing system.

A few of the latest additions to the system truly make the system a one-of-a-kind publishing system to meet the needs of more than just magazine publishers. Here are the significant upgrades:

1. RSS & Atom - RSS and Atom feeds are provided by the current issue, past issues, departments, and even articles. This feature provides the user the ability to hone in on the specific topics that interest them.
2. Podcasts - A fully integrated podcast system has been added to the Article Level with a podcast RSS Feed for the overall site. A podcast associated with an article can be listed to via a flash integrated panel for listening right within the site. A secondary program is not needed.
3. Archives by article type - Complete archives that are not issue dependent are now available for Cover Stories, Featured Articles, Departments and Podcasts.
4. Department Adjustments - A nice featured for department pages is when a single article is placed in a department, the full article shows, rather than a list of a single article.
5. A newly designed, more user friendly CMS - The new CMS (Content Management System) for managing your magazine has been added. The system is easier than ever for a novice user.
6. A new WYSIWYG editor - A greatly enhanced editor for customizing your copy has been added. This incorporated a Media Upload Manager for uploading Flash, PDF, Word, Video and Audio files.

These new features truly make it a versatile and powerful system for any magazine or podcasting website.

It is, to say the least, a fantastic day at Press Publisher. We have been working on this system for longer than any of us can really remember, but we have finally made it a reality. Formerly known as Periodical Publisher, the new system is called Press Publisher - Online Publishing System.

We came upon the realization that there was no truly affordable software that specifically catered to an online publication or periodical. Small magazines and independent publications had no system designed exclusively for them. Blogs, while highly effective were being forced to serve a purpose they really weren’t designed to do. So the idea was born and finally, well over a year later, the system is now live.

Our main concern is with the templates. As a fast integration, we registered with Monster Templates and linked to a company that offers free templates to download. This would allow users to have a great selection to choose from, but this will not stay. We are currently considering a variety of companies to partner with to offer a series of pre-designed, free templates to choose from. This is almost complete and we will be including those in the coming weeks.

Overall, the system has been well tested with a variety of clients and organizations with excellent reception. We have produced a series of unique content management systems over the years, but this is by far, the most well designed and functional system we have built or seen for that matter. That is not to say that it is complete. Is a software package ever really complete? We look forward to a larger audience seeing and providing us with their feedback so that the system functionality will grow based on user comments and recommendations.

All in all, we are proud to have made the system/website live and will continue to improve both the website and system. In addition, we have been collecting publishing resources that we will be including on the site and will cover those here on our blog.

A great day indeed.