• Creating a new guestbook ( i )
• Changing the guestbook layout ( i )
• Guestbook links ( i )
• Adding the guestbook links to homepage ( i )
• Multiple guestbooks with one account ( i )
• Q: Can I move messages from my old guestbook to Freebok? ( i )
• Adding the Freebok button to homepage ( i )

Creating a new guestbook

1. Create Freebok account ( i ) if you don't have one yet
2. Log in to Freebok (m)
3. Go to the Create Guestbook (m) page
4. Fill the name field and select the guestbook language
5. Submit form with the 'Create guestbook' button
   You'll need to change the guestbook name a bit and resubmit the form if the name you requested is already used by someone else
6. Your new guestbook has now been created. Next thing you'll need to do is to give some information about your homepages in the Page Information (m) screen
7. The guestbook is now ready for action. You can add the guestbook links ( i ) to your homepage (read how ( i ))

Changing the guestbook layout

All new guestbooks use Freeboks default layout. You are propably not satisfied with it and want to make changes.

• Go to the General Settings (m) page.
  If you haven't yet logged in you will be prompted for your User ID and password.

The following page contains general settings regarding the guestbook layout. The single most important of these is the 'Layout Type' setting. The method you will be using to change the guestbook layout depends of the Layout Type that you have selected. These are the options:

• Form layout ( i ). The guestbook layout is defined using web forms. This is the default layout type for new guestbooks. By using the Form layout it is easy to make changes and this method is good for those who want to get their guestbook working quickly. On the other hand possibilities affecting the guestbook layout using this method are quite limited.
• Template layout ( i ). With the Template layout you can edit the HTML code of your guestbook directly, so this allows you to make the guestbook to look excactly the way you want. The guestbook page is written the same way as a normal HTML page; you may use stylesheets, pictures, music, or any other element. The guestbook messages and other guestbook related information is defined by using simple programming commands. This is not difficult but requires a bit of learning.

It is possible to switch from From to Template layout or back at anyt time, but the changes made to one layout will not be visible in the other.

Guestbook links

Your visitors will be able to read your guestbook and sign it by using these links. The links to your guestbook can also be copied from the Page Information (m) management page.

Read the guestbook:

<a href="http://www.freebok.net/books/name/view.html">
Read the guestbook</a>

Sign the guestbook:

<a href="http://www.freebok.net/books/name/sign.html">
Sign the guestbook</a>

Addresses:

Reading: http://www.freebok.net/books/name/view.html
Writing: http://www.freebok.net/books/name/sign.html

Change the 'name' to your own guestbook name. Note that the guestbook name is case sensitive. Be careful to use the correct name, especially so if your guestbook name includes capital letters.

You can change the texts in the links or make an imagelink, whatever suits you the best. In any case make sure that the address to the guestbook is always the same as in the example.

Adding the guestbook links to homepage

After you have created ( i ) a new guestbook you'll need to add the guestbook links ( i ) to your homepage.

• If you have made your pages with Notepad or some other text editor you can add the guestbook links directly to the HTML code
• If you are using FrontPage or some other web page authoring application, add the guestbook link the same way as other links with that program. If you don't know how to do that then please consult the application's manual.
• If your homepages are located in a service that provides free space, then the linking method depends on the service. Usually these services have good help pages, so that should be the first place to search for help.

The Freebok guestbook forum ( f ) may already have topics that discusses your problem. If all else fails, then feel free to ask in the forum.

Multiple guestbooks with one account

You can create as many guestbooks as you need with single Freebok account. Additional guestbooks are created ( i ) in the same way as the first one.

When your account has more than one guestbook the guestbook management pages will contain a selection box that you can use to select the guestbook to be edited.

Q: Can I move messages from my old guestbook to Freebok?

If you want to import your old guestbook (created before 10-22-2002) to the new management pages, you should read the update instructions ( i ).

Importing the messages from your non-Freebok guestbook is not possible. If you want to keep your old messages readable to your visitors, you can create a link that points to your old guestbook ('Read my old guestbook' or something like that). Make sure that new messages are always written to the new guestbook by removing old links and / or instructing the visitors to use the new guestbook.

Adding the Freebok button to homepage

Follow these steps to add the Freebok button to your homepages:

1. Copy the image above to your hard drive by clicking right mouse button on top of it, and selecting 'Save Image As...' (or the equivalent of your browser)
2. Add the following code to your page where you want the button to appear

   <a href="http://www.freebok.net" target="_top">
   <img src="btnad.gif" alt="Freebok" border="0" width="88" height="31"></a>

3. Make sure that the path to the image (<img src="...>) points to the address you will move it in step 4
4. Move the image and changed HTML file to server

NOTE!

• Copy the image to your server. Don't link directly to the above image, its location may change.
• Don't use this button as link to your guestbook. This image should point to the Freebok front page.