As we enter a new year and decade in 2020, we also approach the the 2-year Anniversary of Adobe’s end of life announcement for Adobe Muse. In this article we'll discuss the future of Adobe Muse, our plans for supporting MuseThemes products, and a great alternative web design platform.
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As we enter a new year in 2020, we also approach the 2-year Anniversary of Adobe’s end of life announcement for Muse. Adobe pushed its final product update on March 26, 2018 and will end its technical support for Muse on March 26, 2020.
This doesn’t mean that Muse will suddenly stop working in March 2020, however Adobe will no longer offer any technical support or critical operating system updates to the application after this date. This means that users who intend on using Muse for a long time should be cautious about installing major operating system updates (Windows and macOS) without testing Muse’s compatibility.
After a bit of initial panic following the announcement, many users have settled into the fact that Muse continues to function as it always has, and sites built in Muse are working just fine. Designers can continue to maintain existing sites with published updates, and even publish new site if they choose.
Most Muse users have taken the end of life news as a motivator to explore new design platforms, and we’re thrilled that many in the MT community have embraced our new no-code platform – Without Code. We now have over 10,000 designers using the builder, with more than 31,000 sites in design or published. New Without Code users are always amazed at how quickly they learn the builder, and even better – how quickly they can build sites.
Unlike all the other Muse theme and widget vendors, you've probably noticed that we have not stopped creating new Adobe Muse products. We heard loud and clear from our users that they intended to slowly transition sites to other platforms over several years, and that they still needed ongoing Muse support (and new products) during this time.
For those that chose to become MuseThemes members many years ago – and those that are brand new members – we wanted you to know that we are here for you! We will continue to support our entire catalog of Muse products as long as our members have a need for them.
One final note - we realize there are a lot of website builders out there, and designers should pick the right platform for their specific needs. Without Code offers many improvements that Muse users will appreciate, such as reduced build times, lightning fast page speed rankings and high-ranking websites due to built-in SEO.
And since Without Code is brought to you by the team behind MuseThemes, a Without Code Pro membership includes full access to MuseThemes. If you would like to transfer your MuseThemes website to Without Code and access both sites for one price, please send us an email here.
We thank you for being part of our MuseThemes community, and we look forward to working with you in the years ahead.
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We're excited to unveil our new initiative, ThemePhotos. This is not just another stock photo site – our photos are shot and packaged as beautifully-consistent sets, each containing 20+ high resolution photos. More than enough to build a complete, cohesive website!
]]>Many years in the making, ThemePhotos isn't your ordinary stock photography site. As web designers we spend a ton of time looking for stock, but always struggle to find a high volume of consistent photos for our sites. Finding one photo is easy, but finding 20 or more – enough for a complete website – is very difficult!
ThemePhotos.com provides designers and business owners with uniform sets of 20+ high resolution photos, all targeted at a specific business type or industry. Our photo license is flexible and friendly, making it easy to use these photos in both personal or client projects.
Our initial launch includes 12 photo packs, each available for $59.99. If you'd rather download them all, check out our all-access annual membership, offered at an introductory price of $149 for a limited time only.
Members get full access to our entire library and upcoming releases for one year, as well as our "off-cut" library, which includes any additional photos that did not make the final package (but are still highly usable!).
If you've been part of our community at MuseThemes or Without Code for a while, you're probably aware our team is quite adept at producing a very high volume of content. This business is no different – we have big plans to grow our photo library and will invest heavily to do so.
Know a talented photographer who might be interested in contributing photo sets to our library? We’re open to submissions and will pay flat rates to buy sets of photos. Our quality standards are very high though, and we’ll only purchase photos that meet our guidelines.
Check out the ThemePhotos site today and download a free photo set to see what we're all about! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter so we can give you a heads up on our new releases.
Thanks again for being a member of our community!
Cheers,
Steve Harris
]]>As the one-year anniversary of Adobe Muse’s end of life announcement approaches, we thought this would be a great time to publish a member update taking a look back over the past year of releases and sharing our plans for the year ahead.
]]>As the one-year anniversary of Adobe Muse’s end of life announcement approaches, we thought this would be a great time to publish a member update taking a look back over the past year of releases and sharing our plans for the year ahead.
While business at MuseThemes has certainly declined since the announcement, it still remains strong enough for us to continue investing in building new products, improving on our existing library, and delivering the same level of customer support we’ve always been known for.
As we look forward to a new year at MuseThemes, we plan to shift our development focus slightly in favor of updating existing products with new or improved functionality. We’ll base these product updates fully on requests from our community, so if you’re currently using a MuseThemes widget (or need one in particular) please send us a note here with more details:
With that said we do have several new products planned for the upcoming year, and we’re eager to hear what designers still working with Muse need in their arsenal.
By now most of our members know about our new website design platform – Without Code – and many have already transitioned to it as their design platform of choice. I’m happy to say the new business is thriving, with thousands of designers currently working on the platform and over 14,000 sites designed and published.
After transferring their sites from Muse to Without Code, we are frequently told by designers that they are seeing the following results:
We know that Without Code isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok – we’d just like you to know that if you’re interested in trying it, it’s free to do so. And if you decide to sign up we will happily extend you a discount code for being a current or former MuseThemes member (all paid Without Code memberships include full MuseThemes access).
For designers who want to transition their Muse sites to another platform, we're offering a significant first year hosting discount for moving your site to Without Code. Simply contact our sales team here, and provide them with a link to your current Muse site. Once we validate the old Muse site, we'll provide you with a discount code to get that site published live on our new service.
In the entire history of our MuseThemes business, we never sold a single widget on its own. They were always part of our membership, adding value to the subscription on an ongoing basis.
We’ve recently changed this policy and I’m happy to announce we are now selling single widgets on the MuseThemes site. It felt appropriate to offer our widgets by either subscription or on an individual basis, and not force users into an ongoing subscription given that Muse is no longer being developed.
As a reminder, paid Pro or Enterprise members of Without Code receive full access to MuseThemes so if you’re considering purchasing a MuseThemes subscription to download all of our products, it’s best to do so by joining Without Code (you get both sites for the price of one!).
You can now choose between purchasing a single widget or a full subscription to MuseThemes.com
Just a quick reminder that Adobe has committed to delivering technical support and compatibility updates to Muse until March of 2020. After that point, their end of life message states Adobe Muse will continue to open on your computer and you can still edit / update existing sites in Muse.
All sites hosted on the Business Catalyst system need to be moved to a new platform (*cough* Without Code) prior to March 2021. You can review Adobe's official end of life notice here.
We are not aware of any upcoming browser changes that could cause compatibility issues with Muse sites, or reduce the lifespan of Adobe Muse. Of course, nobody knows what will change in major browsers in the next few years, however websites we built in the 2011 version of Muse still function completely fine – so it’s quite likely you won’t experience any browser related issues in Muse sites for many, many years.
New Widgets:
New Themes:
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Thanks for continuing to support our initiatives: MuseThemes and Without Code. Stay tuned for news about exciting new projects and business ventures built by our team.
Cheers,
Steve Harris
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While Adobe Muse can currently be updated via Creative Cloud, new installations of the application are not as straight forward. Use the download link in this article to install Adobe Muse.
]]>While Adobe Muse can currently be updated via Creative Cloud, new installations of the application are not as straight forward. The following link should be used for installations of Adobe Muse:
https://creative.adobe.com/products/download/muse
Adobe will keep this download link active indefinitely, so we suggest saving the link location.
To keep Muse in your list of current Adobe apps in Creative Cloud, follow these instructions:
To update existing versions of Muse already on your machine, you may still use Creative Cloud to update Muse through March 26, 2020. If you are working with Muse version 2018.1, you are up to date, and won’t need to update again, as this is the final version Adobe will release.
]]>As of June 11th 2018, Google will require that any usage of its Google Maps platform must utilize an API key. Any widget or embed on a site without the required API will fail to function properly. We've got you covered with a new FREE widget and tutorial.
]]>As of June 11th 2018, Google will require that any usage of its Google Maps platform must utilize an API key. Any widget or embed on a site without the required API will fail to function properly, and will display a low resolution image, error message, or similar. We suggest taking immediate action on any affected site.
To help ease the process, we've created a FREE new widget that incorporates the required API key. This simple widget is a great replacement for any Google Maps widget that does not incorporate an API key.
DOWNLOAD FREE GOOGLE MAPS WIDGET
I already have an old API key from Google, can I use that?
If you have an older existing API from Google, ensure that it is a valid API key. Google had many different API categories for Google Maps and these categories were consolidated down to just three; API keys sourced from the older categories will fail to function. If you are unsure the best thing to do is simply acquire a new one.
Why is the location set with longitude/latitude? What happened to the address field?
Unfortunately, this is a requirement from Google, as part of the June 11th, 2018 changes. We agree – it's annoying. We're currently exploring options that could still allow for an address entry.
How do I find the latitude and longitude of my address?
We've placed a link in the widget option panel to simplify this process. Just enter your address, and copy the provided latitude and longitude. Note that the address "Place Name" field on the site accepts most addresses, as well as attractions, places of business, and more.
I want more features! Like map styling!
You're in luck. The premium version of our Google Maps widget includes custom style themes from Snazzy Maps. Choose from thousands of themes, or create your own. View the widget here.
Hopefully this article provides clarification of the changes coming from Google on June 11th, 2018. For more information, visit Google's guide. Or, as always, feel free to send a note to our support team!
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You may have noticed an outage of our Facebook Photo Albums recently. The outage is due to a bug on Facebook's developer platform, introduced in late May. Several app creators around the world have filed complaints with Facebook, and we've been told they are investigating and looking for a solution. Here is a link to the official bug report on Facebook: https://developers.facebook.com/support/bugs/169774397034403/
Ultimately, it is crucial that Facebook addresses this issue, as it is affecting a vast number of users around the world. Once addressed, functionality of our widget will likely be restored with no needed action on your end. However, in the meantime, we have developed a new widget that can be used as a fix. Please note that this widget requires a few setup steps at Facebook.com.
Step #2 is the one that might feel a little daunting. Acquiring an App ID and token requires signing up as a Facebook developer, and registering an app.
This is a process that widget builders (such as MuseThemes) goes through routinely in the progression of building a new widget, app or plugin. Generally, the App ID or token provided is placed in the widget code once, and is shared for all users of the app. In this case, the shared App ID is the point of error in the bug that Facebook is looking to resolve. Using your own App ID and token will reset the rate usage, and should restore service to your photo album.
While the signup process for a Facebook developer will be foreign to most, it is actually easy, and can be completed in less than 5 minutes. If you choose to get your own App ID and token, rather than wait for Facebook's fix (no ETA), then read on!
This process, along with the new Facebook Photo Albums widget should get your photo album up and running. Once you've replaced the old widget, you should be able to use this one, with your own App ID and token, indefinitely.
We will update this article with any news. Thanks for reading!
]]>If you use the Mumblr widget, and are based in the EU (or have site visitors from the EU), you may need to take action on your site. Tumblr has updated it’s cookie policies according to GDPR law changes, and now requires acceptance of it’s terms prior to viewing any Tumblr feed.
]]>If you use the Mumblr widget, and are based in the EU (or have website visitors from the EU), you may need to take action on your site.
As part of the GDPR law changes that went into effect Friday, May 25th, 2018, Tumblr.com updated it’s cookie policy, and now requires acceptance of it’s terms prior to viewing any Tumblr feed. Since the Mumblr widget utilizes Tumblr as the source of it's feeds, it is also impacted.
At this time, any feed from Mumblr will show up blank to visitors on an EU-based web browser, assuming that this visitor has not otherwise accepted the new terms at Tumblr.com. In order for the feed to be displayed, the visitor must visit Tumblr.com and agree to Tumblr’s terms. This can be done by logging in, or clicking on an existing Tumblr feed; either option will present the user with terms. Once Tumblr.com terms are agreed upon, Mumblr feeds will now be displayed as normal on that browser, on that particular machine. Update: Mumblr v1.6 now utilizes an automatic notification, with a link to Tumblr's terms.
What do I need to do to make my Mumblr feed compliant with GDPR law changes?
Simply update your widget to Mumblr v1.6. Mumblr itself requires no acceptance of terms, though since Mumblr uses Tumblr as the source of it's feed, acceptance of terms with Tumblr is required.
Does the notification display on page load, no matter what?
No. The authentication check that triggers the notification will determine whether Tumblr terms have been accepted on that browser. The notification will not appear unless Tumblr terms have not been accepted. Once accepted, the notification will not re-appear.
Can site visitors just accept Tumblr terms on my page – without leaving?
Unfortunately not. GDPR law is very clear, and acceptance of Tumblr terms must take place at Tumblr.com. We've integrated the notification in the most seamless way possible. If the user follows the link to the Tumblr terms page, this takes place in a new tab or window, avoiding the need to use the browser back button. Refreshing the page restores the Mumblr feed after acceptance of terms. If the notification is closed without acceptance of terms, Mumblr will not display a feed. The rest of the page content will load as expected.
Is this a temporary fix?
No. While this might not seem like the most elegant solution, it is the only option available. The GDPR laws are clear, and shortcuts cannot be made. Acceptance of terms have to take place at Tumblr.com, since that’s where Mumblr feeds originate. so there is no possible way for us to make this happen on the same page as the Mumblr widget.
I'm not in the EU. Will my site show the notification?
Your site will only show the notification for users visiting your site on a web browser based in the EU, who have not previously accepted terms at Tumblr. So if you're in the USA, for example, USA-based visitors will not see the notification.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. It is an unfortunate and unavoidable result of the GDPR law changes. If you have any additional questions, please reach out to our support team.]]>
Following the announcement of our new business, Without Code, we received a hugely positive response, along with many great questions. In this article, we’ll answer your most commonly asked questions regarding Without Code, the recent Muse End of Life announcement from Adobe, and the future of MuseThemes.
]]>We’ve received a hugely positive response to our new business direction announcement – thank you for all your support!
Rather than replying to each email and post individually, we thought it made more sense to collect all of your questions and post the answers here for all to see.
We’ve split the questions up into two categories – those relating to Muse end of life and those to Without Code. I’m sure everyone is exhausted from all of the chaos in our world right now, so I’ll write these responses in a fast and transparent way.
Please note also there is quite a bit of incorrect information and several assumptions floating around in the community. Many users who do not work for our company and have no inside knowledge of our plans are spreading news and responding to questions with the wrong answers. We would just like to point out that unless information about our business and future plans comes directly from a MuseThemes team member, it’s best not to take it as the truth.
We also need to let you know that some of the information is subject to change. We’re still finalizing various aspects of our new platform, and we can only share this information with the understanding that there are many decisions to be made and aspects to finalize.
Let’s do this!
MuseThemes will continue to build new products for Muse as long as it’s viable. Our existing products will receive the same level of support as we’ve always given them.
Muse is not going away tomorrow, and users shouldn’t rush into another platform without proper time and consideration. We are not shutting down, and we are not going to stop selling memberships.
Our core business is based on Adobe Muse – we employ a full-time staff of 12 people supporting over 100,000 customers. We’re going to support our Muse users as long as we possibly can, in addition to building a new path forward for both us and them. One day we know we’ll look back fondly at Muse as the catalyst that started it all.
There’s nothing wrong with finishing your site build in Muse, or maintaining existing sites in Muse. If it was good enough for your website build two days ago, it’s still good enough today. It will likely be many years before Muse websites don’t work properly in modern browsers.
The only time sensitive element of the Muse end of life is if you’ve hosted a website on Business Catalyst’s servers. If that’s the case, you’ll need to move it to another hosting platform within the next two years (prior to May 2020).
While maintaining sites in Muse, you can also begin to explore web builder options. Without Code is free to try so you can begin learning the new platform to see if it will be a good replacement for you down the road.
We have internal sites hosted with various companies, including HostGator, GoDaddy, Media Temple, and Amazon Web Services. The truth is they all load quickly and our sites perform in a very comparable way. Unless you’re doing millions of visits, I would base my hosting decision off stability of the host, features of the hosting platform, and price.
If you have had a chance to check out the Without Code website builder, you might have noticed the built-in Worry Free Hosting service. Read more about what you should look for in a hosting solution, as well as the Worry Free Hosting details here.
Dreamweaver is primarily used as a code editing tool for websites. So technically a conversion would be to simply export your Muse websites as HTML, and open those files in Dreamweaver.
We do not recommend Dreamweaver as a replacement for Muse. It’s built for developers and doesn’t seem to get much love and attention from Adobe from what we’ve seen at conferences.
None of these products offer the functionality of Muse, and they are not suitable replacements for Muse in their current states. This may change down the road depending on Adobe’s development plans for these applications.
XD is a prototyping tool that would show major promise if designs could be exported as complete websites (HTML / CSS). Working in XD is a very enjoyable and streamlined design experience, but the final design would need to be passed on to a developer for coding.
Portfolio and Spark are cloud apps that are easy to use, however, they build websites that are very static and basic compared to Muse.
In-Browser Editing (IBE) on Business Catalyst hosted sites will go away when that hosting service is de-commissioned on March 26, 2020.
Any Muse-generated site on third party hosting platforms will remain editable with IBE as long as there are no browser incompatibilities (which could be several years).
While we’re flattered you think this highly of us, unfortunately this isn’t possible. Adobe would likely never sell an app they built using their own proprietary code and technology, and we wouldn’t have a software team large enough to continue development. If they were willing to sell, the cost would likely be extremely high.
At this time, we’re not issuing partial refunds for memberships that are beyond our 14-day satisfaction guarantee. We will fulfill our commitment to you to produce and support Adobe Muse products for the foreseeable future. If you have a question about your account or a cancellation, please send us a note to accounts@musethemes.com.
I suspect only the executives at Adobe know the real answer. Adobe is a big, publicly traded company, with lots of very popular products like Photoshop and InDesign. Muse, in comparison to those products, is very small and if the ongoing costs to support the app were exceeding the volume of users it brought into the Creative Cloud offering, it might have just been a numbers decision.
Users are obviously very upset (as are we), however, this decision was probably made long ago after much thought. The damage is already done, and reversing their decision isn’t going to help their Creative Cloud signups, or their reputation, no matter what. Anything can happen, but I wouldn’t hold your breath for a change of heart.
The Without Code builder is live! Check out our new site creation tools today at www.wocode.com.
Applications of any kind are a very big undertaking from both a cost and time perspective. It took Muse nearly 10 years to get to this point, and that’s built by a billion-dollar software corporation. Most software start-ups take on venture funding to support their growth prior to being profitable. Squarespace, for example, has raised nearly 300 million dollars in funding (https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/squarespace#section-overview).
For us to build a feature-rich website creation app on the side (while still supporting MuseThemes) was just not feasible. That would require a large engineering team, along with dedication and years of focus – not to mention higher prices to recoup venture funding.
By partnering with an existing platform that we’ve vetted and formed a great relationship with, we can leave the heavy lifting to them and build our community’s most-requested features on top. This platform has a very large engineering team (bigger than Muse had at its end of life) and millions of dollars in funding. It’s also been used to build millions of websites.
This is an area we are still working on. The Without Code builder does support site export, but in a feature limited way. What this means is that you could export out static / simple sites for hosting elsewhere, however, for advanced functionality such as CMS editing, blogging or ecommerce, you will need to host with us.
This is standard across any online website creation tool. Blogs and ecommerce systems are usually uniquely integrated with their hosting service, and are not inherently portable, as static content is. Think of the hosting behind a site as the foundation and land that your home is built on. If you want the ability to move your home around frequently and quickly, you’re going to be very limited in what kind of features you can have in that home – and it’s probably going to have wheels.
Hosting is also a major profit center for any website creation system. There’s a reason that there are very few desktop / standalone website builders on the market (and likely part of the reason why Muse is going away) – it’s tough to be financially viable by charging a one-time fee for software that’s potentially used to make 1000’s of websites.
Export in Without Code is also a relatively new feature, and we still need to evaluate the flexibility of exported sites and the cost to export them. We know this is a very important feature for you, so we’ll ensure we give it the appropriate priority (it’s top of the list currently).
As a large membership site with a huge volume of customers, we can negotiate rates and features that most other companies can’t.
If you recognize our core platform and go directly to them, that’s completely fine. However, you’re probably going to pay more than you would through Without Code, and you won’t have access to any of our custom integrations, widgets, themes, and training. If your account isn’t setup through Without Code, there is currently no way to transfer those products to you. Widgets are not portable like Muse for download and install.
Essentially you will pay more, to get a lot less.
We’re not hiding the fact that our platform exists outside of Without Code, however, we’re not advertising it either. Partnering with a big, reputable company is a very positive aspect of our new business, and we’re proud of it. However, we do need to ensure users signup through our channels, or else we have no way to help those users succeed with the platform.
There are lots of great products on the web, and we encourage you to explore them all and determine what’s best for your clients and business.
When we started looking at other solutions outside of Muse, we paid close attention to two important aspects: the learning curve to transition to another app, and the speed of website creation. Without Code is a wonderful balance of site flexibility and features, paired with quick build times and easy adoption. We were able to rebuild several of our Muse templates in about 1/10th of the time, with minimal up-front training. Since many users are planning to rebuild their Muse sites in another app, it's important that sites can be created very quickly.
Our experience with Webflow is that it is very powerful, and full of great features; several of our core team members use it often. However, we also felt that it took a long time to learn and feel comfortable in. Many of these apps fall a little closer to the developer end of the spectrum, using terms like box model, floats, and divs in their marketing materials. Most advertise they are ways to “code visually.” That’s fine for designers who have some understanding of code, but it’s a foreign language to designers who just need visual layout and site generation.
No, it can’t. However, it can do several things that Muse can’t do. Once users get started with Without Code and identify any gaps in functionality, we’ll work to fill those gaps as quickly as we can.
Just like Muse, there will be things we need to add and improve over time to add functionality. Nothing will fit your needs perfectly right out of the gate, but our entire business revolves around making sure we add the features you need. It’s our number one priority.
There is no automatic migration from Muse, and no platform will be able to offer that. The site structure that Muse generated was very complex, and no platform will be able to pull it in and build a full site.
With that said, Without Code does have “content collection” tools available to help streamline the transition. In our experience, recreating Muse sites in Without Code has been a very quick and enjoyable process.
We’re also exploring the idea of creating a directory of migration partners who could help you move your site over. This could be a great opportunity for designers to master our platform, and take on projects rebuilding Muse sites in Without Code. If this is of interest to you, please send us a note to info@wocode.com mentioning our partner program.
Without Code is structured with a few pricing plans for various levels of features.
While we’re still finalizing our plans and pricing, the cost will most likely be billed annually in a similar fashion to MuseThemes. Prices will be comparable to what you paid for your MuseThemes membership.
If you are paying for a Without Code membership, you will not need to pay for a MuseThemes membership as well. Without Code VIP’s get access to both sites under one membership.
Absolutely. We want to reward users who have supported us over the years, and always have by grandfathering in our pricing. Our ideal scenario is we transition you into Without Code, with very little interruption in our billing cycles. This is not an opportunity for us to charge you more or try to make more money, it’s about avoiding interruption in your business and smoothly transitioning ours to a new direction.
Discount levels are still being finalized, however, we would like to avoid having every individual customer at a unique pricing level. We will likely establish a few pricing tiers, and the length and price of your MuseThemes membership will establish which tier you fall into.
We also encourage you to maintain your existing MT membership. Active members will qualify for different pricing than former / cancelled members, so try not to jump ship until you have enough information to make an informed decision.
Well it’s certainly going to help us drive business to Without Code and get users on our platform. We would have liked a little more notice though, perhaps just a few months to get prepared.
Over the years we often received questions about our connection to Adobe. Users assumed we were affiliated with Adobe because of our name.
Without Code is in no way affiliated with Adobe, and we’re not part of the Creative Cloud.
No. We have to manually rebuild all of our products in Without Code, which is a good opportunity for us to be selective and prioritize your needs. We will work quickly to add widgets that are highly popular on MuseThemes, and we’ll give you a channel to voice your needs directly to our team.
Existing MuseThemes widgets will not work in Without Code since the development format is completely different.
Yes! Content management was a major priority for us, and we’re happy to say your clients can have either full or limited editing access to make site updates, depending on your needs. Our final release of Without Code will be unbranded, so that your clients won’t be able to trace the CMS back to our company.
Engineer is also a tool that can be utilized to give clients access to specific components in a website, no matter what platform that site is built on.
Yes! We’ve already started creating themes for Without Code, along with a big library that comes default with the product. Without Code also uses “sections,” which are similar to MuseThemes’ Stacks in Adobe Muse. Pre-built content blocks that can be dropped into place and quickly customized for fast site creation.
Without Code also has plans to provide themes and training for other web design platforms. The Without Code builder is our core focus initially, however, in the spirit of sharing the best tools available for code-free design, we do want to expose our members to alternative systems that may work better for their client needs.
The code behind the Without Code builder is much better than Muse, however, it’s not as clean as a developer would write by hand. Code clarity should only matter to you in two situations: you’re experiencing slow websites due to code bloat, or you plan to edit the code manually later on.
In our speed test comparisons of Without Code vs. other platforms, it was the top performer in every test we ran. By default, Without Code sites are optimized to pass Google page speed requirements. Images are automatically optimized and reduced for optimum load time.
The code behind Without Code sites is available for editing directly in the editor interface. It might not look as pretty as the code behind other developer focused website builders, however, it loads faster and ranks the same or better from an SEO perspective.
Yes. Without Code sites are a responsive / adaptive hybrid model, and are beautifully optimized for all devices.
Without Code uses a different (and superior) responsive system than Muse did. By using device detection on the server side, Without Code sites can display the same site to a mobile user with highly optimized assets. Think of this as a blend between alternate layout and responsive in Muse. You have the power to tweak various site elements for mobile / tablet layouts, however, you don’t have to maintain completely different websites.
Blogging – yes, default feature.
CSS Animations – yes, default feature. Includes parallax scrolling for images.
Ecommerce – yes, default feature with a huge list of payment providers. Requires an upgraded pricing plan for larger stores.
Embedded HTML – yes, default feature. Insert anything you did in Muse using embed code.
Forms – yes, default feature. Includes dropdowns, radio buttons, and entry fields. Your form submissions will actually arrive in your email too (sorry Muse forms, but it’s true).
iFrames – yes, through a Without Code widget or embedded code.
Image upload / editing – yes, site assets can be bulk uploaded, managed within the editor, and even modified within the app. The asset management system is far superior to Muse.
Language Support – yes, default feature.
Login pages / database features / membership sites – not available out of the box. Possibility for later addition through Without Code widgets, or using our Engineer CMS.
Overlapping elements – yes, but there are limitations. You need to respect the grid (row and column) structure to ensure beautiful responsiveness.
Webfonts – yes, default feature. Additional fonts could be added through a Without Code integration widget (Typekit, Google Fonts, etc.)
YouTube, Facebook and social widgets – yes, default feature. Also available through embedded code or custom widgets.
Here are my favorite aspects of the Without Code builder, and what I think makes it stand above the rest:
Phew! Thanks for reading. If you have any other questions, please drop us a line or comment below and we will add them to the list.
Cheers,
Steve
It’s a sad day for the Muse community. Adobe has officially announced that the March 26, 2018 release of Adobe Muse will be the final version. Ongoing development of the software has ended, and there will be no new feature additions beyond critical OS level updates.
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It’s a sad day for the Muse community. Adobe has officially announced that the March 26, 2018 release of Adobe Muse will be the final version. Ongoing development of the software has ended, and there will be no new feature additions beyond critical OS level updates.
Business Catalyst as a whole is also being shut down, which will have an impact on temporary Muse sites and published sites hosted on BC.
Despite this news, we will continue to build and support products for Muse, and we are excited about the future of our business.
There are some important steps that you should consider taking in the coming months, which are outlined below.
Don’t panic – Muse isn’t going anywhere, we just won’t see any further feature updates. Check out the official Adobe announcement here: muse.adobe.com/product-announcement-intl.html
We’ve confirmed with Adobe that the application will still function as normal, and you can continue to use it for your website creation needs. Considering we’ve seen very little in terms of updates over the last 18 months anyways, it’s pretty much business as usual. We know many designers who still work with Adobe Fireworks successfully, which ended development almost five years ago.
The official demise of Adobe Muse will likely come when browsers advance beyond the code Muse generates, which could be several years from now.
Adobe will remove Muse from the Creative Cloud installer, and do away with the ability to publish up temporary Business Catalyst sites. You will still be able to republish over existing BC temp sites, so we recommend you go ahead and publish up some extras prior to the BC / Muse shutdown. You can use those temp sites as previews for client sites, and republish over them as needed.
Once Muse is removed from the Creative Cloud application, the installer will only be available directly on the Adobe website. We also recommend you download the final release installer, and back it up somewhere just in case you need to reinstall Muse. The installer download will likely be available once Adobe removes Muse from the CC installer.
Adobe will stop critical fixes and product support for Muse completely in March 2020. All sites hosted on BC will need to move to another hosting server in order by March 26, 2021 in order to remain live. In preparation for the official termination of BC, you should begin exploring your hosting alternatives. Read more about what you should look for in a hosting solution, as well as the Without Code Worry Free Hosting details here.
MuseThemes is not going anywhere. Our team has an extensive Muse release calendar planned, and we intend to deliver on it. Considering the lack of other visual no-code website builders on the market, Muse will continue to be a useful tool for many web designers and business owners. MuseThemes will also continue to improve and grow our Muse product library as we always have.
Looking on the bright side, at least future updates of Muse won’t break our widgets any further. This gives us the freedom to potentially explore some experimental techniques knowing that the application isn’t changing.
We’ve also announced our new offering – Without Code (WOCode.com) – where we are going to provide an alternative to Adobe Muse that you can explore, in addition to other content management tools and training for different web design platforms. Click here to watch a sneak peek video of our new Without Code web design tools.
Your active subscription to MuseThemes can be transferred to Without Code, and you’ll have access to both Without Code and new / existing MuseThemes resources under one membership umbrella. Former and cancelled members of MuseThemes will also receive an incentive to explore Without Code at a discount.
All of Adobe’s major vendors were only notified shortly before it was made public, but we were all under a legally binding Non-Disclosure Agreement restricting us from saying anything. However, our planning and development for Without Code started years ago, both in response to customer demands and as a natural progression of our business.
We’ve been seeing weakness in the Muse space for some time. Our member cancellation survey asks departing members why they were leaving MuseThemes, and the number one response was “no longer using Muse / switching to another product.”
There was a clear lack of support for Adobe Muse on the official Adobe pre-release forum, and we’ve seen very few feature updates since the responsive release. It was becoming obvious that Muse was no longer a priority for Adobe, and while the timing of this announcement was a shock, it wasn’t a complete surprise.
As of this writing, there is no Adobe product that offers a direct replacement for the functionality Muse offers.
I have mixed feelings about this news. While I’m extremely sad that Muse never reached its full potential, I will admit it’s been a challenging product for us to support for the last few years.
Responsive Muse introduced a level of complexity into the app that caused major headaches and long site build times. For widget makers like us, the lack of ongoing development in the Mucow widget creation system really tied our hands and limited us from pushing development into new areas. Major updates to Muse would frequently break third party widgets, and we’ve been investing too much time and resources into fixing Muse bugs and issues rather than building new products for our members.
With that said, I’m excited about the road ahead. When one door closes, another always opens.
Prior to creating MuseThemes, I worked as a freelance web designer creating client websites. I was always nervous when a client asked for functionality that I didn’t know how to deliver, especially before I knew any developers who could help me out (I was always a non-coder).
Our vision for Without Code is to build a community of users – designers, developers and business owners of all skill levels – who can support one another in their web design efforts and remove those limitations. We want to expose you to a variety of awesome platforms and creation tools, rather than restricting ourselves to a single product like Muse. Our diverse team of web pros has built almost every kind of website imaginable, and we can’t wait to share that experience with our members.
I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of the 110,000+ members and customers that have supported us going back all the way to 2011. It’s been an amazing ride, and we sincerely look forward to continuing on our web design journey together.
Thank you also to Adobe for building an awesome application that enabled us to build the websites we always wanted. You engineered a fantastic product, and my whole team and I will never forget how Muse changed our business and life in just a few short years. We look forward to watching and exploring the next generation of your web design tools.
We’ve learned many important lessons over the last seven years that we will carry forward into our next business. Adding value for our members is always our number one priority, and we hope that you’ll stick with us to see the exciting things we have in store for you in the future.
Thanks everyone!
~Steve Harris
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Take a look into the importance of navigation design, as well as the essential guidelines you should consider. We also provide a few examples of different styles of navigation design that might inspire you.
]]>Navigation design is a critical component of your website. The way that you present your menu, as well as organize and link categories, defines how users experience your site and understand your company. This is their first impression of your site and will follow them throughout their journey as they learn more about you. Good navigation design makes finding content easy, while bad navigation can confuse and irritate users, possibly encouraging them to look to another website for answers to their problem.
Your website navigation design should hit on three major areas: visibility, orientation, and function.
Visibility:
the navigation should be simple and unobtrusive, while being obvious to the first time visitor where they can look to guide their trip around your website. This visibility should remain consistent throughout every page on your website so that visitors don’t have to worry about figuring out a new system – they can focus on why your company is so awesome.
Orientation:
you need to provide the visitor’s location at all times – where they in relation to the rest of the website. Using breadcrumbs and visual cues you can help them decide where they want to go next and how they can return to a previous page.
Function:
the function of the navigation system should be obvious and the categories should link to obvious visitor tasks or questions (e.g. About Us). By using clear and simple labels, visitors can easily scan the menu items and decide where they need to go.
The type of navigation you use depends on a variety of things, including the content, images, and design of both the page and the menu. The key is striking the balance between conventional and creative; give your existing and potential customers an easy-to-use system, but make sure you aren’t so run of the mill that you blend in. Impressive out-of-the-box navigation design will speak to fellow designers and hopefully entice visitors, but make sure your users can still get around your site easily.
Horizontal navigation is a very conventional approach and while it may not be groundbreaking, it is a popular choice for a reason. Using a horizontal navigation bar gives you a lot of freedom in your design of the rest of the page and as anyone has used the Internet is used to this style, every visitor will pick up on it immediately.
But before you plunk a menu at the top of your page, consider these creative options:
Vertical: this style is simple and just as effective as it’s perpendicular neighbor. The vertical menu is most commonly placed on the left, but shifting it to the right offers a great opportunity to make your site stand out. There are critics of this style, suggesting that this goes against how we actually read in real life (left to right) and will have a negative effect on usability.
Scroll Down: the one page scrolling option, defined by a prompt – e.g. an arrow – is a great option for visual websites. You can provide a fluid visual narrative of your company, your projects, and anything else you want to showcase. It does, however, limit visitor freedom, as the navigation is strictly defined by you and doesn’t offer the flexibility for users to jump around.
Single Option: as an initial point of entry into your website, this navigation style lets you control your visitor’s first move (because they only have one choice). Acting essentially as a cover page for the rest of your site, this option lets you define your visitor’s first impression. Once they enter you can use secondary navigation system for the bulk of your content.
Mega Menu: if you have a lot of information to share, this one may be for you. With a large expandable menu you can showcase more categories and subcategories, which can make it easier for visitors to find their specific page quicker.
Image Based: this visual navigation system uses images and minimal text to guide visitors. Although this may not work for a website with a lot of pages or detail – visitors may get confused – it is a perfect option for image-heavy sites. You can draw attention to the visual component of your company: photos, products, etc.
Whatever navigation style you choose, remember the navigation is meant to make your website easy to navigate. A creative, but hard-to-understand system might confuse visitors so make sure you address visibility, orientation, and function first.
]]>Our entire team is excited to introduce a new project that our team has been planning and building behind the scenes at MuseThemes. We’ve created a brand-new web design tool and training site focused on one goal: building websites without writing code, and without limitations.
]]>We're very excited to introduce a new project that our team has been planning and building behind the scenes at MuseThemes. We’ve created a new web design tool and training site focused on one goal: building websites without writing code, and without limitations.
Without Code gives us the ability to share all of the knowledge and experience we have in no-code web design platforms outside of Muse. These include Shopify, WordPress, as well as an exciting customized website builder and content management system, which will be available exclusively to our members.
Over a year ago we began to see a trend – many of our customers were forced to use website creation tools other than Muse to take advantage of more powerful functionality, such as blogging, ecommerce, and password protection. We believe in using the correct tool for the job, and since no single website builder can do everything, our journey into platform independence began.
After conducting focus groups with customers in December 2017, we realized that our customers were struggling to use these alternative platforms. They needed a resource site like MuseThemes to lean on – there’s nothing quite like having a trusted developer or designer in your back pocket to help when you need it!
We realized we could be adding a lot more value to your membership.
Our extensive experience with alternative website builders like Shopify – the MuseThemes core website is built on Shopify – could be easily captured and offered to our members. We are dying to show you how to build a powerful site like MuseThemes, complete with professional blogs, forums, and recurring billing ecommerce – all without writing any code (we’ll handle that part for you).
Muse will always be our first true love, and business at MuseThemes will carry on as always. Without Code is a new addition to our company, not a replacement, and a single membership will give you access to all of our MuseThemes resources and Without Code website creation tools.
Muse is an amazing tool for creating sites visually, but we all know it’s lacking in functionality and flexibility. The “Mucow” system in Muse (what we use to build widgets) hasn’t been updated in several years, and we’re butting up against the limits of how far we can push the platform while maintaining stability.
With our in-house development and design teams, combined with a new platform to help share our knowledge, we can help guide you down the best path for your personal or client sites. And you can rely on us to remove many of the obstacles you may encounter as a non-coder.
Membership pricing and billing details will be available as soon as we finish development and launch the complete site. MuseThemes memberships can be quickly transferred to Without Code, so that you can access both content libraries along with our new tools. Previous MuseThemes members will also be able to use our new resources and website creation tools at a significant VIP discount.
We sincerely appreciate your many years of loyalty and support, and we intend to reward you for it!
Us too! Over the next few weeks and months we’ll begin rolling out our new Without Code product lines and demonstrating the power of our new tools and resources. As always, thanks for being an awesome MuseThemes member and for helping us grow this new area of our business.
Cheers,
Steve Harris
]]>Now that 2018 is here, we've got several big projects and new ideas underway - we're striving to make this our biggest year yet. Here's a look at the products and training we've added to your membership over the last few months, and some insight into our priorities for the new year.
]]>Welcome back, everyone! Now that 2018 is here I hope you're all feeling well rested and motivated to build amazing websites in the year ahead. We've got several big projects and new ideas underway – we're striving to make this our best year yet!
Here's a look at the products and training we've added to your membership over the last few months, and some insight into our priorities for 2018.
At MuseThemes we always establish a release calendar for 3-6 months ahead, ensuring we have plenty of time for testing and user feedback. Based on the responses from our December member survey, we've decided to plan our release calendar around bi-weekly releases in 2018.
Previously we released new products every week; however, as our library gets bigger and products increase in scale we require more time for development and testing. Users also reported they had difficulty keeping up with each new release, and often fell behind due to our aggressive cycle.
In 2018 we're going to aim for bigger, better products instead of a high volume of smaller releases. On weeks where we don't offer a new widget or theme, we'll still provide something that adds value to your membership, such as a quick tip training video, blog post, or widget update.
In early December we implemented a brand new search system into the MuseThemes website. With several hundred products on our site, search is the easiest way to find what you need.
Our new system adds predictive search with suggestions, an improved results page with filtering, and advanced analytics. By reviewing and interpreting data about your searches, we can ensure we are offering the products you're searching for, as well as tweaking our search results to guide you to the appropriate place on our site.
The new search is live on the MuseThemes site so you can check it out anytime. Please note that we're still working on optimizing results, and if you encounter anything odd we would love to hear about it (support@musethemes.com).
Thanks very much to all of our members (and former members) who completed the 2017 survey. We use your feedback and responses to plan our release calendar and priority list for the upcoming year. Stay tuned for a blog post summarizing the results in the next few weeks.
(please note priorities and projects are subject to change)
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Thanks for being a member of MuseThemes.com!
Cheers,
Steve Harris
Adobe Muse is the perfect web design tool for print designers to transition into web design. If you're new to web design from the print world, this guide will give you a quick rundown of the key differences between setting up files for print and web.
]]>Adobe Muse is the perfect web design tool for print designers to transition into web design. In fact, it’s so seamless that we’ve even covered the similarities between InDesign and Muse before here.
Despite the ease of use and similarities, there are a few notable technical differences that knowing in advance will help to ensure your final design looks best for users. If you're new to web design from the print world, this article will give you a quick rundown of key differences between setting up files for print and web.
As a print designer, you may be used to the four-color subtractive color mode CMYK. All colors created in this mode use a combination of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. In web design, the three-color additive color mode RGB is used. All colors on a digital screen or monitor are created with dots of red, green and blue light.
RGB colors are typically presented in two ways. The first is using three sets of values ranging between 0 to 255; these refer to the value of red, green and blue light that renders on the screen. The second is with a six-digit code known as hexadecimal values, aka hex codes. Within Adobe Muse, you can use either.
While both DPI and PPI refer to resolution, DPI (dots per inch) is used for print and PPI (pixels per inch) is used for digital. Although many people mistakingly use DPI as a term for resolution in any design context – DPI is irrelevant for web.
While 72 PPI is the recommended minimum resolution, to achieve the highest quality looking images you may want to consider using a higher PPI. Windows default is 96 and Mac is 72, but some devices go up to 120. Keep your images between 72 and 120 to ensure that your images are the same ratio device-wide. One more thing to note, having a higher PPI will impact your overall file size, which will affect the image's loading time for users.
*Depending on the printer, a lower DPI may be acceptable.
The size of your images should be based on the content area’s width. Most websites have a content area that is somewhere between 500 and 1024 pixels, so resize your images to a standard size (x2 if you want to consider retina display).
Remember when saving your final files that file size matters. There is no reason to have print-ready photos online (unless someone is downloading them directly from your website), because it only leads to slower load times and frustration for the user.
Common Document Sizes – Inches to Pixels
Letter: 8.5 x 11 = 2550 x 3300
Legal: 8.5 x 14 = 2550 x 4200
Ledger: 11 x 17 = 3300 x 5100
Some print file types may also be used on the web, but it is important to know which file type is best for your image. Below is a list of the most common file types used on the web and what types of projects you can use them for.
JPG (or JPEG) is a lossy graphic (if compressed) that is best for still photography or images with a lot of color and shading.
PNG offers two different options. PNG-8 works well for small icons and simple digital art. PNG-24 is best for graphics that have transparency or fading, as well as imagery like icons and illustrations. PNG-24 has lossless compression, which means that sometimes these files can be larger than a JPG – so try to be conscious of your final file size when saving for the web.
PDF preserves a file's original content. Regardless of how the file is viewed, a PDF will keep the look of your design intact – making it the perfect option for documents that need to be viewed or printed.
SVG preserves a vector graphic's scalability, which makes it perfect for graphics like icons and logos.
GIF is ideal for animations, as well as transparent images and simple small graphics with a limited color palette. One thing to note is that a GIF's color capabilities are limited in comparison to PNG or JPG, but the file size is usually very small – making it a great option for web.
]]>We’ve put together one big time-saving infographic for you to download – the 2017 Adobe Muse Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet for Mac and PC. Enjoy!
]]>WisePops is an excellent service for delivering pop-ups to your site visitors, and we’ve been using them exclusively on the MuseThemes website since 2015. Integrating their service into Adobe Muse is very simple with our free widget; if you’re looking for pop-up functionality and targeting that goes beyond what simple Muse widgets can do, then WisePops may be right for you.
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WisePops.com is an excellent service for delivering pop-ups to your site visitors, and we’ve been using them exclusively on the MuseThemes website to capture leads and promote products since 2015.
A few weeks ago, the team at WisePops asked if we would share our experience working with their platform. Integrating their service into Adobe Muse is very simple with our free widget; if you’re looking for pop-up functionality and targeting that goes beyond what simple Muse widgets can do, then WisePops may be right for you.
Here’s a breakdown of the WisePops platform, and integration instructions for Adobe Muse.
WisePops offers 60 default templates. These templates cover all kinds of design and use cases from exit pop-ups, to lightbox pop-ups, email pop-ups, survey pop-ups or merchandising pop-ups. All these templates can be edited as desired.
You can also start from scratch and build a 100% custom pop-up. This is especially handy when you have a strong visual identity and want to make sure that your pop-up will match it.
To design your pop-up (or edit it) you can drag and drop blocks, which means it requires no designer skills. But if you want to take things further you can use custom HTML and CSS.
The last option worth mentioning relates to what WisePops calls a “Tab.” This option allows you to display a teaser before displaying the pop-up. It’s especially useful on mobile devices where space is scarce and Google doesn’t appreciate full-size pop-ups.
WisePops comes with a lot of options to select who should see your pop-up and when.
They provide seven default triggers, including landing, exit (displayed when the user is about to leave your website), scroll, or after x-number of pages.
These triggers are complemented by various refinement options:
They also just released a new “contextual targeting” feature, which enables you to build your own triggers and targeting conditions using scripts or Google Tag Manager variables.
WisePops reporting page allows you to monitor displays, clicks, and the number of emails collected. You can also AB-test your campaigns in one click.
If you want to get a better picture of your pop-up performance, you can also activate Google Analytics integration. This integration will help you evaluate how your pop-ups impact your average session duration, conversion rate, and other areas.
While pop-ups can be achieved in Muse using the stock composition or our Pop-Ups Pro Widget, utilizing a service like WisePops will give you significantly more functionality and targeting options. You can easily target a specific user coming from unique URL and show them a tailored message, which isn’t possible with a simple pop-up widget, as you would need to show the same message to all site visitors.
To integrate WisePops into your Adobe Muse site, you’ll need to use our widget.
Step 1: Log in to your WisePops account and create a new site. Note the URL of your account, as it contains your account ID. The bolded letters are your account ID:
https://app.wisepops.com/site/tXxge14430/dashboard
Step 2: Download the WisePops widget. Double click the widget to load it into Muse.
Step 3: Drag / drop the widget onto the canvas from your widget library panel. The widget should be placed on the Master Page.
Step 4: Open the widget flyout panel. Copy and paste your WisePops account ID into the field.
Step 5: Publish your Muse site to its final URL. Now you’re ready to design and control pop-ups through the WisePops dashboard.
As long time users, we’re big fans of the WisePops platform. Our account has displayed over 1.3 million pop-ups!
At MuseThemes our main use for pop-ups is informing visitors of ongoing sales or promotions. By taking advantage of WisePops targeting, we can ensure our pop-ups are primarily seen by new visitors (and not bothering our existing members).
Here’s a quick breakdown of the pros / cons of using WisePops in Muse:
WisePops is a great option for you to collect leads or promote new products, and we hope you enjoyed this overview of the WisePops platform. Good luck with your pop-ups!
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We've gathered some of the latest and greatest typefaces that are available for free on the web. In the collection below, you'll find fonts that are certain to add a range of styles to your library.
]]>We've gathered some of the latest and greatest typefaces that are available for free on the web. In the collection below you'll find fonts that are certain to add a range of styles to your library. We would love to see what you create; share the projects you create using these fonts in the comments below. Enjoy!
Free for personal and commercial use
DOWNLOAD HERE
HK Grotesk is a premium quality sans-serif typeface with 10 styles that is inspired by the classic grotesques. This font was designed by Hanken Design to be suitable for even the smallest of text. It has recently expanded language support with the addition of Cyrillic characters.
Free for personal and commercial use
DOWNLOAD HERE
Aleo is a contemporary font featuring six styles with a lot of personality. With semi-rounded details and a sleek structure, this free typeface was designed by Alessio Laiso to be a legible slab serif companion to Lato.
Free for personal and commercial use
DOWNLOAD HERE
Butler is a modern serif typeface designed by Fabian De Smet. The font family contains 14 weights in two different styles – serif and stencil – with text figures, ligatures and fractions. And with so many glyphs, it’s very well suited for many different languages.
Free for personal and commercial use
DOWNLOAD HERE
Cheque is a multilingual display typeface with two weights, designed by Mirela Belova. Based on geometric shapes, this font is great when used in headlines or compositions where its classic vintage look can truly shine.
Free for personal and commercial use
DOWNLOAD HERE
Playlist is a perfectly imperfect hand-lettered font with dry brush styles. Playlist font contains three styles – script, caps, and ornament – which can be combined to create beautiful designs.
Free for personal and commercial use
DOWNLOAD HERE
Wayward is a vintage-inspired font that will give your next project a handcrafted feel. This hand-lettered font would pair very well with script lettering.
Free for personal and commercial use
DOWNLOAD HERE
Aileron is a free sans-serif font with 16 styles, from ultralight to black. This typeface offers designers a high level of visual comfort and versatility.
Free for personal and commercial use
DOWNLOAD HERE
Cornerstone is utilitarian modular typeface inspired by ghost signs. The classic looking typeface, designed by Zac Freehand, works great for display type.
Free for personal and commercial use
DOWNLOAD HERE
Born is a free humanistic serif typeface that is based on traditional calligraphic forms, but with some new features in it's endings, strokes and drops that provide a more open and fresh look. It also has a big X height, so it offers high legibility even at small sizes.
Free for personal and commercial use
DOWNLOAD HERE
Buffalo is a monoline script font designed by Hustle Supply Co. This gorgeous typeface has a vintage flare and may even pair well with the font Wayward above.
If you’re seeing widgets hide or get stuck loading when you scale your browser across various breakpoints, you likely have encountered the breakpoint bug. Download this free helper file to fix the issue.
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Shortly after the 2018 release of Adobe Muse, several of our customers started reporting strange behavior with widgets. These widgets would appear and disappear on sites that used a combination of both fixed and fluid width breakpoints. Media widgets (audio and video) also reported playback issues when crossing breakpoints, regardless of breakpoint setup.
If you’re seeing widgets hide or they are getting stuck loading when you scale your browser across various breakpoints, you likely have encountered the breakpoint bug.
Our team began testing various widgets in Muse and discovered a bug in the Muse output that was creating this issue. This will impact any widget built using Javascript, which means it is not vendor specific – most of the bigger widgets built for Muse use Javascript for functionality. We reported the bug to Adobe, and they validated it is real and noted it will be fixed in the next version of Muse (likely coming early next year).
In the meantime, the team at Adobe has provided us with a small .mulib widget file that you can drop in your site to fix the breakpoint issue. This helper widget can be placed on the master page, or the page specifically impacted by this issue. No further setup is required, and the code this helper widget places on your site should fix the breakpoint issue. When the next version of Muse drops in 2018, you can remove this helper widget.
Give this a shot if you’re seeing strange widget behavior in Muse 2018! A big thanks to the team at Adobe for addressing this issue so quickly and providing a fix.
Thanks
Steve
Enjoy this pack of 48 vector monochromatic geometric seamless patterns for tiling. These endless textures can be used for wallpapers, pattern fills, web page backgrounds, surface textures, as well as image overlays.
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Adobe Photoshop Actions save you time in the photo-editing process and give your images a fresh new look and feel without all the heavy-lifting. Check out some of our personal favorites that are free for you to download.
]]>Imagine being able to both save time in the photo-editing process and give your images a fresh new look and feel, without all the heavy-lifting. Well, your wish is Adobe Photoshop's command. Within Photoshop, you can apply filters and change the style of any image instantly utilizing actions, which are just a set of prerecorded Photoshop commands. Photoshop Actions are so easy to use that they are practically magic.
The best part about Photoshop Actions is that you not only have the ability to record your own to reuse over and over again on any image, but you can also download dozens of actions that are pre-made to import. This opens up a wide range of imaginative effects and time-saving opportunities.
Some of our personal favorite Photoshop Actions are listed below for you to download for free.
Double Exposure is a photographic technique that combines two different images into a single image. You can create the same effect digitally by using this free Double Exposure Photoshop Action. Simply prepare the two images you want to combine and play the action. The final result is editable, allowing you to adjust the effect however you like. This action comes with an additional four different filters to choose from.
Duotone images are making a comeback. However, creating the perfect duotone image can be a complex process with a lot of steps to adjust colors, brightness, contrast, opacity, and create gradient maps. With 50 effects, this free Duotone Action pack makes creating the perfect duotone image as easy as pressing play.
If you want to combine the two looks above, give this Double Color Exposure Action pack a shot.
Anaglyph images have seen a recent resurgence and with this set of experimental Anaglyph Actions, you can apply the professional visual effect to your photos in just a few clicks.
This free collection of Tone Actions will take your portrait and lifestyle photos to the next level.
A simple black and white conversion is a pretty simple task, but there's a range of additional adjustments that can generate beautiful tones and enhance the overall mood of the shot. This Black & White Action pack comes with 20 presets that mimic analog photography aesthetics from different print techniques and toning methods, along with some creative monochrome effects with various color casts.
Elevate your food photos with this free action pack designed specifically for food photography. This pack of free Food Photography Actions includes four styles that are natural and not overly-processed – enhancing curves, color and contrast. These come in handy when you are trying to bring out the detail and color in your food photography.
Not all actions are for photos. This free Long Shadow Action will give your text, icon, or graphic a long shadow effect that is completely customizable.
Installing new Photoshop Actions is an incredibly simple process.
First, download the Action's ZIP archive and unpack the files to your preferred location. Then, open Adobe Photoshop and select 'Window > Actions' from the top bar. This will open the Actions palette.
Within the Actions palette, select the Menu button. Select 'Load Actions' and import one of the downloaded .ATN files. Your new Action will now be installed and available for use in the palette.
To use the Action, open a flattened image. Select the Action you want to use on the image. Then, simply press the Play button and voilà – your image will be transformed almost magically.
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If you just started freelancing, you might be realizing that you have so much more to consider than just good design. We laid out a few areas to keep in mind that will help your projects run smoothly and efficiently.
]]>If you just started freelancing, you know that although it is critical component – and undoubtedly your favorite part of the process – you have so much more to consider than just good design. There are a few areas to keep in mind before you get started as a freelancer and they will help your projects run smoothly and efficiently.
Research |
So you’ve received an inquiry and are interested in taking on the project – first step: research. Find out what your potential client’s mission, goals, and values are, and take a look at competing brands to define the intended audience. Your research will help you develop possible solutions to known issues and may even unearth other unknown problems that you can help solve. A good thing to keep in the back of your mind is that you are entering into this potential relationship with the client as a partner, as opposed to a supplier. This will encourage your brainstorming to tend towards real solutions and set you up to work as a teammate instead of a one-trick contractor.
Design Brief |
Provided by the client, this document should contain their project goals and act as the blueprint for the entire project, informing your overall strategy. A good brief has agreed upon outcomes from the start; this is your opportunity to identify the client’s issues and establish a plan to solve them.
Using this brief, you can create a scope of work. In addition to your project plan and concrete deliverables, the scope can also help gauge the client’s creative appetite, and gives you a forum to address any lack of information. If you have been awarded the project, opt to focus on process, instead of excitement and inspiration. This will help you complete the project efficiently, as well as give the opportunity to fill in any blanks with your client. You should use the format that you feel comfortable with and may find that you have a structure that you use for each project as you move forward.
Pricing and Invoicing |
Pricing can be a difficult area: What do you charge? How do you track your time? How do you invoice?
The first step is a quote; you may have already established your price per hour or according to service, but if you haven’t creating a standard overview for pricing is a great jumping off point. This will help establish a base and make creating a detailed quote much more efficient, saving you time that you aren’t getting paid for. The more info you have from the client going into the quote the better; otherwise you run the risk of losing a job with an overestimation or shorting yourself with an underestimation.
A few good rules of thumb for defining your pricing:
Once the job is yours, you should get your client to sign a contract and/or charge a deposit ahead of time for good faith. This might not be necessary, but use your best judgment on a per client basis – do you want a commitment from them before you put hours of work in or do you trust them? Regardless, once you get started on the project remember to track your hours, which will act as a record for you and your client, and can be included on your final invoice if needed.
When creating invoices, remember to include the details for your benefit, as well as your client’s. A big mistake that many designers make is putting too much effort into making their invoices beautiful; don’t invest your time here and instead focus on tracking data and making it easy for your clients to pay you. Using a standard template for your invoices (there are some great examples here) will help you efficiently fill them out each month or each project, and you may also consider using an app to track your time, as opposed to a spreadsheet or word doc. FreshBooks, QuickBooks, and Zoho are some examples of apps that may speed up your invoicing and help you track trends.
Presenting and Feedback |
Once you have developed a few concepts that reflect the objectives set out in the brief, it’s time to share with your client. Filter out your strongest concepts and present only these – three is a good number; ensure that you share your concepts in person and use the medium that they appreciate. Your primary objective in presenting your concepts is making the client understand why you did what you did. Ideally, your client will sit through your presentation without any questions; if they have a lot of follow up it may be that they don’t agree with the choices you made. So make sure that you are aligning creative reasoning with a goal pulled from the design brief. These ties give you ammo to back up your ideas and ensure your design is purposeful and effective.
Although you might feel like your concepts are spot on, be prepared to take some criticism. Perhaps there has been a change of heart on your client’s end, your design misses the mark on one particular facet, or maybe there is just a small style change that they would appreciate. No matter what the reason, remember that your client is always right (even when they’re wrong) and as their partner on this project, it is your job to make them happy. This feedback is ultimately all positive because it will help you refine your design, and deliver the perfect solution in the end.
These concepts are simple, but are so important for every project you enter into as a freelancer. Being on your own can be slightly overwhelming, but getting a standard research procedure, pricing plan, and an invoice template in place will ramp up the efficiency so you can focus on the task at hand: design solutions.
]]>This article will show you how to create an animated sliding effect for buttons in Adobe Muse using a very simple technique.
]]>This article will show you how to create an animated sliding effect for buttons in Adobe Muse using a very simple technique.
DEMO: http://demo.muse-themes.com/design-widget-sliding-buttons/index.html
1. To begin, drag a button widget from the Widgets Library panel onto the canvas
2. Make the dimensions of your button 410px (w) x 50px (h)
3. With the button selected, right click and select "Resize" - “None” from the responsive options in the drop down
4. With the button selected, right click again and select “Clear All Styling" from the drop down
5. Click inside the button twice over the text box, so that the text of your button is selected
6. Right click the text and select "Resize" - “None" from the responsive options in the drop down
7. With the button text selected, go to the top Tool Bar and select Pin to Page: “Left”
8. With the overall button selected, give the button a white 1px stroke under the Stroke options panel in the top tool bar
9. With the overall button selected, give the button an image fill under the Fill options panel in the top tool bar - Add Image "btn-sprite.png" in the Starter File Assets folder
10. In the same Fill options panel in the top tool bar, set the image position to “Top-Left"
11. With the button selected, open the States panel
12. With the “Normal" state selected, turn on “Transition: Fade" – set Duration to 0.3s
13. Select the “Rollover" state in the States panel and change the position of the background image fill to “Top-Right" in the Fill options panel
14. Click inside the button twice over the text box so that your button text is selected
15. Change the color of the text in the button to something that will show up on a white background (I chose gray)
16. Preview in browser – your screen should look something like the image below and you should see the background animate to the left when hovering
17. Right click your button and select "Lock" (we will be putting another button on top and don’t want this button pulling our second button inside of it)
18. Drag another button widget from the Widgets Library panel onto your canvas
19. Make the dimensions of your button 205px (w) x 50px (h)
20. With the button you’ve created selected, right click and under Resize, select “None” from the responsive options in the drop down
21. With the button selected, right click again and select “Clear All Styling" from the drop down
22. Change the text color in the second button to a color you will be able to see on light and dark backgrounds (I chose gray)
23. Position your second button over the right half of your first button
24. Preview in browser – that should do it, your screen should look like the image below. Play with colors, radius, and transparencies to achieve different effects.
I created a starter file for you, complete with a working demo on the "Complete" page. Check it out and download the package below.
]]>There has been a lot of action in the Muse space! It's time to take a look ahead and give you some insight into our business and priorities. Here's a quick recap of benefits added to your membership over the last few months, and an outline of our upcoming plans.
]]>(Formerly closing thoughts...)
The 2017.1 release of Muse was buggy, and many users rolled back to the old version immediately. Adobe has released a new beta on their pre-release site (www.museprerelease.com), and we encourage everyone to give it a try and log any bugs they encounter. We suspect this version will ship for the Adobe MAX conference in mid-October.
The pre-release version of Muse will not install over your old version, so it's a great way for you to test new features without getting "stuck" on the new version.
Due to major changes in the code output in Muse 2017.1, many of our widgets need to be modified for compatibility with the new version. Fortunately with our large development team, we've already started the process and our updates will be available soon.
In the last few weeks we released smaller scale widgets until we had some clarity on the bugs in the new version. With the beta available (and looking very stable) we'll proceed full steam ahead with our updates.
We received a HUGE response to our job posting for a technical support / QA lead. Thanks so much to everyone that applied. We're still in the process of reviewing applications. Sincere apologies for the delay, however the Muse 2017.1 release (chaos) required our immediate attention and focus.
A common bottleneck in our workflow is the time required to fully test a new or updated widget. We often have a big list of widgets that have been updated by our developers, however, we're slow to fully test, package and re-release the widget out to our members.
I'm looking to build a team of 5-10 casual, part time testers who can help overcome this barrier. If you're an advanced Muse user, and have an hour or two each week to review our new products and updates please send me a note at contact@musethemes.com. We'll pay you an hourly (or flat monthly) rate, and it definitely could lead to more work down the road.
We're throwing around ideas for a "Power User" tier of membership on MuseThemes.com. Similar to a Developer or Advanced plan on other theme sites, our power user tier would have access to our Mucow files instantly as they are updated by our developers. This is a huge benefit, meaning you'll get much faster code updates and improvements to widgets.
Replacing widgets on your canvas is also much easier with a Mucow file – all of your panel settings are copied over when you use the "right click > replace Mucow" method in Muse. Right click / replace is not available for .Mulib files.
There is some risk to our business if we distribute our Mucow files (such as, easier code theft and piracy) however we're willing to take that risk if it greatly improves your experience with our products.
Combined with other benefits like a Power User Lounge, a redesigned product download system and a Slack channel for direct communication with our team, this new tier would better support the businesses using Muse and MuseThemes products every single day. Pricing may start around $299 / year, and we would explore bringing on additional staff to focus on this important segment of our customer base.
Your feedback on this idea is appreciated! Please feel free to post in the comments below, or send me a note to contact@musethemes.com.
(please note priorities and projects are subject to change)
***
Thanks for being a member of MuseThemes.com!
Cheers,
Steve Harris
Whether we're searching for a tool to make a task a little bit easier, to learn a new skill, or to find inspiration – we have to admit, as designers in this day and age, we are incredibly lucky to have access to so many resources right at our fingertips.
]]>Searching for a tool to make a task a little bit easier, to learn a new skill, or to find inspiration? Whatever the reason, as designers in this day and age, we have to admit that we are incredibly lucky to have access to so many resources right at our fingertips. This list of the top 100 web design tools may not literally be the best ever, but it is a great starting point and gives you some new ones to bookmark.
A few of my personal favorites from this list are:
What are some of your favorites design resources? Share yours in the comments below.
Source: illustrio.com
]]>
Many users have reported issues and bugs with the new 2017.1 release of Adobe Muse that has made working with their existing projects extremely challenging. Several of these bugs also impact the functionality of MuseThemes widgets.
]]>Many users have reported issues and bugs with the new 2017.1 release of Adobe Muse that has made working with their existing projects extremely challenging. Several of these bugs also impact the functionality of MuseThemes widgets.
Adobe is aware of these issues, and they have provided some workaround suggestions and a small widget fix in the meantime. While we wait for them to issue an official update to the application, we recommend you roll back to the previous release of Muse if you wish to take advantage of our widgets (or are having issues working in the 2017.1 build).
Here are some important tips, links and information you may find helpful if you're struggling with the new release:
If you've updated to 2017.1 and opened an existing client site, we don't recommend saving over the site. Save the file as a new version, or copy / paste the Muse file as a backup periodically. Muse is notorious for not allowing you to open a newer file in an older version, and if you need to roll back to the previous Muse your files need to be compatible.
If you've downloaded the new version and found it negatively impacted your existing projects, you can easily rollback to the last version of Muse. Within the creative cloud desktop application, you'll see "previous versions" listed under the "find additional apps" menu, and you can select how far back you would like to go.
For detailed instructions on reinstalling the old Muse, check out this post from Adobe:
The most prominent bug in the new release causes elements that are pinned to shift on export, typically 50px vertically. Adobe has released a small Mulib (widget) file that you can drop on your canvas to help fix this issue.
Here is a download link to the Vertical Shift Fix mulib created by Adobe:
https://forums.adobe.com/message/9786549#9786549
In addition to the bug above, users have reported that the new version is not "pushing" their content down appropriately. This will impact widgets such as Media Pro Gallery which need to dynamically resize. If you have run into this issue, check out the link below for some workaround suggestions from Adobe. Keep in mind these are workarounds, so if it looks like a lot of work to implement them you're better off rolling back to the last version of Muse.
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2374713
Before our team can start to investigate any reported incompatibilities between the 2017.1 release and our widgets, we need to wait and see what Adobe does about the issues reported above. To workaround these Muse bugs, several of our widgets may need a complete overhaul – which may be unnecessary if Adobe issues a quick update to the application addressing them.
While we wait for an update, we'll continue to release new products and content that is fully compatible with the prior Muse release, 2017.0. Our files will be outputted on the old version, so there will be no need for you to upgrade to use our latest offerings.
We will continue to send you updates with new information and suggestions as Adobe makes them known to us.
Thanks!
~Steve
After a long wait I'm excited to share that you can now download a new major release of Adobe Muse with some great features. Here's the MuseThemes roundup of what's new, along with a video overview sharing some tips and suggestions for working with the new release.
]]>After a long wait I'm excited to share that you can now download a new major release of Adobe Muse with some great features. Here's the MuseThemes roundup of what's new, along with a video overview sharing some tips and suggestions for working with the new release.
Note, August 24, 2017 – some users have reported issues with the new version, and recommended staying on the old version of Muse until updates are available. If you wish to rollback your Adobe Muse app to an old version, you can use the following method:
Responsive Native Widgets – Compositions, Slideshows and Forms |
A native widget in Muse is one that is built by Adobe and included with the application; these received a big upgrade in the new version. All of the major native widgets are now fully responsive, including the Composition, Slideshow, and Contact Forms.
To take advantage of the responsive capabilities, simply apply responsive sizing / pinning controls to elements and watch them scale with the browser. All of your existing native widgets will continue to work as before, so you can decide when exactly you'd like to revise them to take advantage of responsive.
We're very excited about responsive native widgets in Muse. MuseThemes has a massive library of native widgets that we've pre-styled (we call it our "design series"), however without responsive behavior they were not very useful for our users. And since only Adobe can modify the behavior of a native widget, we had no ability to improve them.
With this update, all of our previously built native widgets can be easily used in a fully responsive site – hooray! We will have more beautifully styled native widgets coming your way soon, so stay tuned.
Check out our design series widgets here:
https://www.muse-themes.com/collections/adobe-muse-widgets/design-series
Note – we've been told that converting the native widgets in Muse to responsive was a HUGE undertaking for Adobe, so we're grateful to see this completed. Thank you.
Double Clicking "Nested" Elements |
When working with native widgets or state buttons in Muse, you often need to click multiple times to dig down and select the correct element. This gets old really fast, and I always hoped there would be a better way to quickly select the element you need.
In this new version you can simply double click on any sub-element, and it's instantly selected. Much easier!
Speed / Reliability Enhancements |
As a pre-release user I've been working with the new version of Muse for a while, and I've noticed a major improvement in the speed of the app. Large files open faster, file manipulation feels leaner and more streamlined, and Export HTML / publishing seems quicker.
This may not be a flashy new feature, however when you use a tool every single day and it gains even a small increase in speed, the time savings really begin to add up.
This is a great Muse release for a variety of reasons. First, the lack of responsive native widgets felt like a huge barrier to building a completely responsive site. Now that this is checked off the list and nearly all of the tools and features are fully responsive (...scroll effects) I'm hopeful we'll begin to see new features added to the application.
Second, this release opens up our entire library to responsive use. As I mentioned above our selection of pre-built forms, sliders, and compositions is quite extensive, and many of them require very little adjustment to use in a fully responsive site. Native widgets have some handy features like dragging / dropping photos and selecting an entire folder of images – this isn't possible in custom coded third party widgets.
Finally, it's been quiet in the Muse space. This year has been slow for new releases, and I've heard some users questioning Adobe's investment and commitment to the app. This major release shows us that Muse is still going strong, and now that the native widgets received some love hopefully we'll see upgrades to the third party widget system us developers use... ;)
Thanks and enjoy the new release!
~Steve
View the official Adobe release notes: https://helpx.adobe.com/muse/release-note/adobe-muse-release-notes.html
]]>For this design feature, we decided to push the boundaries of one of our latest fully-responsive releases: Reviews Connect. By taking advantage of the multiple layout options built into the widget – including List, Carousel and Grid views – the options for alternate use are very diverse and almost endless.
]]>Here at MuseThemes, we try to build widgets that can work for a wide variety of projects. For this design feature, we decided to push the boundaries of one of our latest fully-responsive releases – Reviews Connect.
Reviews Connect is a powerful reviews widget that can be updated remotely with Google Sheets (by you or your client). Because it's packed with features and offers so much functionality – we wanted to demonstrate how to further stylize this widget for more than it's original, intended use.
By taking advantage of the multiple layout options built into the widget – including List, Carousel and Grid views – the options for alternate use are very diverse and almost endless. We narrowed it down to a few styles that are quite common: Services, Team, Client Testimonials, and Sponsors. Check out the demo link below:
DEMO: http://demo.muse-themes.com/widget-reviews-connect-alt-use/index.html
Hopefully, these new styles inspire you to utilize Reviews Connect for your next project.
]]>Customer Support has always been an important area of focus and investment within MuseThemes – over half our team members work in support. In the last couple of weeks I've become very focused on refining our support processes, and a major component of this plan involves hiring a new role within the company: a Technical Support & Quality Assurance Lead.
]]>Customer Support has always been an important area of focus and investment within MuseThemes – over half our team members work in support. As a membership website, it's essential that our members feel they have a team behind them who can help guide them through technical or business problems. Businesses that prioritize finding new customers over supporting existing ones are destined for mediocrity, and that's never been the type of business I want to run.
In the last couple of weeks I've become very focused on refining our support processes, improving response times, boosting customer satisfaction, and ensuring our products are meticulously tested. I believe we can do better when it comes to support, and we've been working on a new plan for restructuring our support team and implementing new tools to improve efficiency.
A major component of this plan involves hiring a new role within the company – a Technical Support & Quality Assurance Lead. In a nutshell, this new role would oversee our support team members, thoroughly test our products prior to release, and ensure the highest level of customer happiness and satisfaction.
Considering that prior experience with Adobe Muse and MuseThemes products is a major asset for this position, I thought it made sense to send this posting to our community first. You know best how our themes and widgets work, along with the areas where we excel and potentially fall short. The complete job posting is listed below, but I thought I'd quickly summarize my goals and hopes for this new team member:
*Why is this a bonus? I believe the soft skills and "foundation" required to work in support is more essential than Muse knowledge. Software can be learned, but a passion for helping people is something you develop and we can't teach that...
Shoot us a note and resume referencing this job to contact@musethemes.com. Include a quick paragraph about why this role is a fit for you (brevity is appreciated!). Unfortunately we can't respond to every submission, however I'll be in touch if it feels right. A big thanks to everyone that applies. The official job posting is included below.
Note – this is a remote position, and your location does not matter.
Technical Support & Quality Assurance Lead
Location: Remote
Type: Full-time Contract
As the Technical Support and QA lead, you’ll be responsible for ensuring MuseThemes products are carefully tested and meticulously supported. Overseeing a small team of remote support agents, your goal is to manage, inspire, and optimize our customer support team and processes.
A passion for customer service is essential for success in this role, along with a genuine desire to help our users accomplish their goals and grow their businesses. This is a remote position – you'll be required to join group calls and stay in the loop on Slack, however the work can be completed from any location. This is an ongoing contract position with full time hours.
I wanted to take a moment to pull back the curtain a little bit and share some of what goes on behind the scenes during MuseThemes widget development. MuseThemes widgets encompass a very broad range of features and functionality and some are so powerful that they are full fledged applications in their own right.
]]>
I wanted to take a moment to pull back the curtain a little bit and share some of what goes on behind the scenes during MuseThemes widget development. MuseThemes widgets encompass a very broad range of features and functionality and some are so powerful that they are full fledged applications in their own right.
In this post, I wanted to to briefly explain some of the tools and workflow that we use in our product development to bring advanced features into Muse while also keeping development times shorter and the bugs at bay.
Adobe Muse widgets are primarily a front end web product, so these widgets make use of the typical HTML, CSS, and Javascript assets. Most features that are added to Muse via a widget must be done with Javascript, as this is what allows us to control the elements on the page after Muse has rendered them. This makes Javascript the most important piece of the puzzle.
We have chosen to take advantage of modern frameworks, as well as the latest techniques in the Javascript world to bring the best features we possibly can to our widgets. These techniques also allow us to build our widgets more efficiently and with more stability.
Our latest development projects have made use of the VueJS framework, a powerful but lightweight framework that helps us manage states, build reactive components, and develop with more consistency. VueJS focuses primarily on the front end view layer, making it a great choice for Adobe Muse widgets.
An Adobe Muse widget ends up as a single file, but in reality each widget project actually consists of hundreds of files. We make use of modern tools in our development environment to handle bundling, linking, and error checking of all the pieces of the project during development and final release.
As we are writing code and working on a project, automated tasks for error checking and tests are constantly running to inform us of any problems with the code so that typos and bugs can’t easily slip by us into the final product.
Throughout the development process we also make use of version control to track all of our changes, as well as collaborate on projects together. Our code is checked into a repository and any changes our developers make are synced up across everyone’s local copy, which makes working together a breeze. Version control also allows us to go back in time and see what changes were made and when, which can be very helpful when tracking down a problem.
The life of a widget begins as a customer request, concept, or idea that we feel will help our customers create more powerful Muse sites. Once the concept is specced out, and we have decided on all the features and capabilities we feel it needs, development begins.
A project scaffold is created with all the necessary core code and files that will be needed to make the widget a reality. Next, we build out each of the components that will make up the primary features of the widget. In the case of large widgets, such as Media Gallery Pro 2, multiple developers will collaborate on the dozens of components being built.
After primary development is completed, we do a code review of the widget to ensure that nothing was missed and that we have optimized it for the best possible performance and compatibility with other widgets.
The widget then goes into quality assurance testing, where it is put through the paces to ensure that it performs the way it should. This is also where we try to catch any bugs or compatibility problems that may exist when it is used with other widgets or in large complex Muse sites.
Several rounds of testing are followed by development updates to fix any issues that were discovered, and we also continue to refine the widget so that it is easy for customers to set up and use. Once everyone is confident that the widget is ready for prime time, it is scheduled for release.
As developers, we take pride and ownership in the products we build and we are always looking for ways to improve the widgets, as well as fine tune our process. From the simplest of widgets, to our fully featured suites, we are always working hard to bring the best possible products to life.
]]>Our Pop-Ups Pro widget is a powerful and fully customizable solution for creating pop-up modals on your Muse site. But the fun doesn't end there! This article explains the step-by-step process of integrating Pop-Ups Pro with the top third party email marketing platforms and form providers.
]]>
Our Pop-Ups Pro widget is a powerful and fully customizable solution for creating pop-up modals on your Muse site. While it’s a fantastic gadget for engaging your site’s visitors, promoting products and sales, and housing a Muse contact form, the options don’t stop there. Pop-Ups Pro is also a great way to gain visibility for third party email marketing platforms and form services.
A question we've seen a lot in support since the release of Pop-Ups Pro is "How do I put [my favorite email subscribe service] into a pop-up? Where's the dropdown that lets me pick which service I want to use?" The good news is that you're free to use any service you like, so long as they provide an embed code.
As you may know from previous tutorials, there are tons of third party services that can be used with Muse, such as maps, calendars, and ecommerce solutions. Offering embed code is the simplest way for these services to get their products on your sites; it's literally a matter of copying and pasting. The following three examples of third party integrations use embed code to add email marketing services and form providers to pop-ups with our Pop-Ups Pro widget and the same process described below can be used to integrate dozens of other services. The key is ensuring that the service you're interested in provides embed code – a few don't, but the vast majority do.
Before we dive in, it’s important to keep in mind that there are dozens of email subscribe services on the market today. They all range in price based on email list size, styling options, advanced features, and other factors. Most of these platforms, however, include a free version to get you started. Now, let’s begin with Constant Contact, one of the more prominent and industry-leading email marketing platforms available today. Simply visit the Constant Contact website, and create a free account.
You’ll be required to enter some basic information regarding your contact information and your type of organization. However, once completed, you’ll be taken to your dashboard. From there, direct your attention to the header bar, and select the option for "List Growth Tools."
Inside, you’ll see a small handful of pre-made sign-up forms that you can take advantage of, or simply click the yellow prompt for "Create a Sign-Up Form" towards the top-right. From there, you can follow the three-step process of creating, customizing, and styling your form.
This can consist of just a simple email acquisition, or can involve multiple fields including the user’s name, address, etc. After the third and final phase, you have the option to preview your form, make any last changes if desired, and then lastly, click “Finish.” This will bring you back to your “List Growth Tools” dashboard, where you will now see your new form added under the “Additional Web Sign-Up Forms” list. On the far right column, direct your attention to the “Actions” drop down button, and select the option for “Embed Code.” This will bring up a lightbox pop-up displaying a (likely rather long) embed code; all you need to do is select this, hit Command-C (on Mac) or Control-C (on PC) to copy, and then dive back into Muse!
Now we need to paste our code onto our page. This can be done by either going to “Object” on your top-most menu, and selecting "Insert HTML," or by simply pressing Command-V or Control-V on your keyboard with your Muse page open. Either option will create a new HTML object on your page ready for placement. Assuming you’ve created your pop-up already (using a state button with an assigned graphic style), you’re just moments away from completion.
Our next step is to place our HTML object *inside* our state button, and we do this by clicking and dragging our HTML object, and placing it right over top of the state button. Once you do this, you may notice a slight shift in the state button’s sizing, which is normal. If your state button was sized too small for the placed object, the button will adjust itself automatically.
Now for our final steps, you want to make sure that your HTML object is set to a responsive setting of “None.” As explained in further detail in the Pop-Ups Pro tutorial video, it’s important to keep every aspect of your pop-up a fixed-width. Because of the nature of modals, and how they’re typically only shown temporarily, you don’t need them fluidly adjusting, and they will function much more consistently without this. You can, of course, resize them appropriately for each breakpoint, which will give you all the responsive behavior you should ever need for this type of item.
Finally, size up and customize your state button to house the HTML object in an aesthetically pleasing manner, and you, my friend, are ready for a browser preview.
Now let’s take a closer look at another industry leader in email marketing tools. Even with a similar functionality and end result, you’ll find all of these platforms to be quite unique in their setup process, contact form styling options, and as mentioned before, pricing. But as with Constant Contact, MailChimp has a free and easily accessible account that you can begin with just a few bits of information. Once inside, you’ll again be taken to a dashboard, however this time, direct your attention to your header menu, and select the option for “Lists.” From there, you’ll likely see a default "list" already generated inside your account, but as you explore the features and grow your contact database, it’s recommended that you explore all the organizational features and widespread communication that MailChimp, along with every provider, offers you.
On the far-right side of your desired list, click the drop down arrow next to the “Stats” button, and select the option for “Signup Forms.” On the following screen, select the second option for “Embedded Forms.” Next, you’ll land on a page with a variety of forms to choose from, such as “Classic,” “Super Slim,” and even an “Advanced” area for those of you that are CSS-savvy.
A simple selection and some basic customization will automatically generate your much desired HTML embed code right there on the screen. Simply copy and paste, and implement into your pop-up just like before.
Now let’s explore an option that’s less intended for network engagement, and more for information acquisition. Wufoo forms allow you to create forms from scratch, field-by-field, and can serve as a simple contact message sender, all the way to fully fleshed-out job application forms. Once you create your account and login to your dashboard, click on the green “New Form” prompt to get started.
You’ll land on a pretty in-depth (but equally awesome) building portal where you can add fields one-by-one, assign themes, custom text, and much more.
Once ready, you can click the “Save Form” prompt at the bottom of your screen, and then select “Share This Form” on the resulting lightbox popup. You’ll then be taken to your embed code front and center; you can copy and implement this into your pop-up as done before.
Thanks again as always, and we definitely encourage you to explore and experiment with the variety of platforms that are out there, and hopefully you’ll discover new possibilities with Pop-Ups Pro along the way. For any questions, comments, or super cool discoveries, hit us up at support@musethemes.com. Thanks!
Jeremy Lasky started learning Muse last year and joined MuseThemes shortly after when designing a new website for his company, Perception. Self-taught through tutorials and research, Jeremy has some fantastic advice for new and current users.
]]>Perception is a design studio in NYC that is dually focused on both feature film technology visualization and next generation user experience for the world's most innovative companies. We function as strategic design advisors, visionary ideation consultants and architects of the future. Last summer I began mapping out a new website for the company and discovered Adobe Muse as part of the Creative Cloud package. It seemed to be a perfect solution for me to design and build the site without any outside developers or programmer help. This was a project I could fully control and own, and so I committed myself to learning the program and building the entire site from scratch.
I started experimenting with Adobe Muse, doing many tutorials and watching countless YouTube videos (and videos available to MuseThemes members) on different methods of accomplishing specific user experiences I was aiming to create. Each navigational element and every single page of the site posed unique challenges and issues I was forced to solve and learn.
Adobe Muse has a wealth of capabilities right ‘out of the box,’ but I soon discovered the world of 3rd party widgets. I explored every page on the Adobe site’s marketplace that contained widgets and I previewed every single one of them. In many instances, just previewing these widgets would give me ideas on pages that I could use them to create a more compelling user experience on certain sections of the website. I used widgets for many navigational elements, all the galleries in each case study, the entire blog section, all the videos throughout the site, the Perception Channel, and all the SEO that I built in.
My top recommendations are:
Gallery Connect is essential—we use this to mirror our YouTube channel directly on our site called The Perception Channel. As we build out our social channels, its important to keep people on our site, but to allow them to see the same content available elsewhere. This way the website is a one stop shop. As a company we add new youtube videos to our channel at least once a week and now with Gallery Connect we can also automatically add it to the site, without having to open Muse or re-upload anything—its all done through the Google sheets.
The widgets have been a huge time saver and I really enjoyed several of the tutorial videos—specifically the SEO tips.
- Jeremy Lasky
Perception