Today marks the launch of the WC2k7 website.  The new site is just packed with new stuff as well as improvements to older features.  To make sure everyone gets the most out of the new tools we've included, this article is a brief tutorial familiarizing you with some of the more useful bits.

1.  Breadcrumbs

WinCustomize is big.  I mean really big.  It's kind of mind-boggling when you come to realize just how big it is.  I mean you may think it's a long way down to the corner drugstore, but that's nothing compared to WinCustomize.  The size and complexity can make it daunting to navigate, and under the old system a lot of good content was very hard to find due to how we had areas laid out.  To remedy that we've introduced a "Breadcrumb" navigation feature to all the pages on WinCustomize.  Breadcrumbs are a trail through the site to show you where you are, and the path back "home".  The major benefit here is that sub-categories in galleries, something that was difficult to browse under the old site, is easily accessed now.

For the purpose of demonstration, we're going to use the Icon Packager library:
https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=2

At the top of the page, beneath the main section buttons, you will see the breadcrumbs shown above.  This shows the path from where you are currently, the IconPackager Gallery showing all categories and sorted by last updated date.  This was the same default view you reached when browsing to the IP gallery under the old site.  It also shows you the direct path back to the front page of the site.  Between each section link, there is an arrow.  Each arrow can be clicked on to display a drop-down box showing navigation links relevant to the section name they proceed.

For example, the arrow before "Gallery" has links for "About", "Articles", "Community", "Gallery", "Forums", "Help", "Shop" and "Personal Site".  Essentially, all the other top-level site areas along with Gallery, which you are currently browsing.  If you were to click the arrow directly preceding "Icons" you would see a list of other high-level customization categories such as Cursors, Gadgets & Widgets, Wallpapers, Visual Styles etc.  Always be sure to check the breadcrumbs when you first browse through a gallery, you never know what you might find.

The last two breadcrumbs in the list though are probably some of the most useful improvements to the old system.  They let you quickly drill-down into sub-categories in each library, and also sort the current view by:

Downloads Overall, Downloads Today, Featured Skin, Name, Newest, Ratings, Last Updated

Breadcrumbs are also integrated into the Articles, Help and Shop sections like they are in Gallery.  Any arrow you see between sections can be expanded to show more navigation options than are immediately apparent.  Now you only have information to what you're currently browsing taking up space on your screen, leaving more room for articles, skins and other interesting content.

2.  Search

Search has received a pretty significant change in WC2k7.  Gone is the bulky box on the gallery views with a bunch of check boxes and drop-downs.  It has been replaced with a streamlined, pretty little search field tucked away at the top right corner of the website.  The tricky thing about this new search tool is that it is context-based.  What that means is it will search galleries depending on where on the site you currently are.  Here's an example:

You're at the main page of WinCustomize.com, browsing the news and you decide you want a really well-done Vista Aero look-alike skin for XP.  In the search box you type in "Vista" and hit enter (if you are a Firefox user, at the moment you will have to click on the magnifying glass icon to initiate the search).  The results you receive are ALL items in ALL libraries that match the terms "Vista" in some way.  You'll get WindowBlinds skins, IconPackager packs, wallpapers, cursors, gadgets etc.  The reason for this is because you're searching from a top-level page.

Ok, so that wasn't specific enough for you, but you did get a great set of Vista icons out of the search.  You still want that Aero skin, so you go through the gallery link and work your way quickly to the WindowBlinds gallery.  While you're in the main gallery, you again search for "Vista" and this time you get only WindowBlinds back as results.

So by drilling down into the site, the search bar becomes more and more specific as to what it searches.

(Note: the search bar only searches galleries.  It does not search articles, or forums as they have their own search facilities.)

3.  Personal Sites

Previously a section of the site available only to subscribers, the Personal Sites have been opened to all users with accounts in good-standing (Citizen or higher).  This replaces a number of pages such as MySkins.aspx where skinners could quickly keep track of their submissions to the site without having to have a personal page setup.  Having a personal page gives you your own WC subdomain (yourhandle.wincustomize.com), a guestbook, a favorites and watch-list, a place to showcase what you consider to be the best work on WinCustomize, and a place to put up digital photos and track your stats.

To activate/configure your Personal Page, go the the Settings link below the search bar, and click on the "Personal Site" tab.  On this tab you'll be able to set your site name, any description you want, and build links and link headers.  Items such as your desktop screenshot and personal photo are uploaded through the "Update Images" tab.  All other personal information is updated on the Personal Information tab.

For an example of a configured personal site, see the following user pages:

ZubaZ
Dark-Star

Your personal sites contain a lot of information users might not have been previously aware of.  One of my favorite bits is the Personal Statistics page.  For example, my stats page shows that I am the #2 skin rater on the site, probably due to my moderating submission queues, and that I am the #5 article writer and #3 forum poster.  For skinners, the stats page will also display statistics on your submissions such as number of downloads, rank by library etc.

So that does it for this whirlwind tour of three of the newest additions to WinCustomize 2007.  Is there a new part of the site you're confused about how to use?  Ask away!  I'll write more of these guided tour articles as additional areas requiring explanation are identified.