Dutch author Willam de Lange has built a stand-out website with Sandvox. We are pleased to spotlight it here in the newsletter, and also as the Featured Site on the all-new gallery of Sandvox websites. In this article we’ll introduce you to williamdelange.com, share some things we love about William’s approach, and show you around the gallery.
We were recently introduced to William de Lange and his Sandvox-built website, and are excited to share it with you, our newsletter subscribers. So much so, we’ve decided to feature it here, and to make it the first featured site in the newly renovated SandvoxSites gallery.
William de Lange: a Dutch Sandvox master
There are Sandvox fans in fascinating places all across this planet, and in this spotlight, you’ll get a glimpse into the works of William de Lange. William is an author of books, ebooks and apps that focus on elements of Japan’s traditional culture.
Spotlight: willamdelange.com
William presents his work, and reviews of his work on his Sandvox-built website. We think that he’s built a really attractive, easy to explore and digest website that makes great use of interesting, high-quality images.
We think the clear focus and sense of purpose, are strengths, and we appreciate that he stays close to them. Each page that features one of his works includes an introduction to the piece, as well as publication information.
Which design does his site use? In his gallery entry you can see that he uses Hydrogen, which is one of the designs that shipped with Sandvox 2.8. Hydrogen and Kryptonite are among Karelia’s favorite designs, in part because they really showcase photographs well.
Before shifting from William’s site to the gallery, we’ll also mention his implementation of a contact form. Not because it is revolutionary, but simply because it is integrated nicely.
Touring the Gallery
If you didn’t already know about our favorite gallery—the gallery of Sandvox-built websites, we’re pleased to be able to introduce you to it. It is moderated by Karelia and new entries are welcome and encouraged.
You can explore the gallery in one of four ways—by browsing from the home page beginning with the Featured Site, from the Latest sites page, from the People page or using the Tag Cloud to explore groups of sites that the authors have tagged based on the subject matter of the website.
By clicking on words in the tag cloud, you can easily peruse the entries to browse the work of other Sandvoxers, for inspiration – or to see how they approached problems you might have in common.
Why are some of the words different sizes, and why are some bolder than others? That’s the way tag clouds represent the density of their members. Each time an entry in the gallery is added to a tag group, the representation of the tag in the cloud “goes up.” So, you can see that compared to others in the cloud, the tags for ‘photography’ and ‘education’ are quite prominent.
How can this help? Say, for example, you’re a professional in field of education and it happens to be the end of the school year. Amid the mayhem of examinations, celebrations, graduations the thought of planning for next year (e.g. “What should I use to build my website for my class?”) just might steal a second or two of your focus.
When it happens, zip over to SandvoxSites and hit ‘education’ in the tag cloud, to see how others have built materials online for their classes. Perhaps you are part of a charter school that is just getting started or doesn’t have a website at all, and you need to build a website quickly. The ‘education’ tag or the ‘business’ tag, or any number of others could be of assistance to you.
Getting into the Gallery
Interested in adding your Sandvox-built website to the gallery? Please do! It is easy to do, and the links to your website from SandvoxSites can benefit your site just like links from other websites do.
To add your site to the gallery, open Sandvox and go to the Publish menu. Then, select ‘Submit to Site Directory’ and follow the instructions. That’s all there is to it.
Enjoy your travels in the tag cloud, and we look forward to seeing your submissions!