Just a quick post to say thank you to all you came out for last Friday’s Open House, celebrating Element Fusion’s ten year anniversary. We had a great turnout and a great time visiting, eating and giving away prizes.

Congratulations to Skip Nolan, who won our grand prize drawing for an iPod touch, and to all of the others who won some great restaurant gift cards.

Events like this remind us of how fortunate we are to work with so many fantastic individuals and businesses. We cannot thank you enough for your support of our company and we truly look forward to continuing to work with you for the next ten years and beyond.

Though the party is over, we’re still celebrating all year long. Remember, we still have three more website giveaways coming up throughout 2010. Stay tuned for more information and for your chance to nominate and vote for your favorite non-profits.

Just a reminder about Element Fusion's Ten Year Anniversary Open House, coming up this Friday, March 5th, 2010. In case you missed our original post about it, here's a little recap.

When you show up, you can register to win an iPod touch and a number of other fantastic gift cards. In fact, we'll be giving away gift cards every twenty minutes to those in attendance and we'll hold a drawing at the very end of the day for the grand prize of an iPod touch.

But there's much more to enjoy as well. The entire EF team will be on hand and there will be food, soft drinks, complimentary chair massages, game room fun, EF trivia and much more.

And the first 40 people through the door will receive a limited-edition Element Fusion t-shirt!

Here's the details:

Friday, March 5th, 2010 from 1:30pm to 4:30pm (come and go as you please)
At the Element Fusion Offices
5400 N. Grand Blvd.
Suite 515
Oklahoma City, OK 73112

All are welcome. We hope to see you there!

Tomorrow morning, March 3rd, 2010, we'll be releasing some exciting improvements to the WYSIWYG editor inside our WaterCMS, SkyCMS and LightCMS systems. The WYSIWYG editor is the interface you see when you edit a text element, blog post, calendar event, or any other rich text area on a website in our CMS. We are constantly working on ways to improve this interface. We have received tons of feedback from many of you and that feedback has informed our own discussions as well. 

Simplified toolbars

The most noticeable improvement will be a simplification of the toolbars. We are rearranging some of the tools and creating a "simple" and "advanced" mode. When you first load up the new editor, you will see only a single row of the most simple tools. This view is pictured below. You will also see a new button on the right that says "show more." Click the "show more" button and the second row of tools will appear, containing the advanced editing features you currently see on the editor.

This is the new editor toolbar in "simple" mode

Adding a few new features

The new toolbar also contains some new functionality. First off, the "Page Links" drop down box (pictured above) allows you to easily create links to pages on your own website. Simply select the text you want to make into a link and then choose the page you wish to link to from the drop down. Nice!

The other new tool is our "insert video" tool which allows you to easily drop in embed code from video hosting services like YouTube and Blip.tv.

The final new feature of the editor isn’t actually a toolbar button, but a built-in behavior. The new editor will automatically treat all content that is pasted into the editing window as plain text. This not only solves the issue of bringing in unwanted formatting from outside sources, but also eliminates the need for the multiple format stripping tools that currently exist on the editor.

Removing a few buttons

As a part of this change, we're also removing a few of the toolbar buttons. Here is a list of the tools that currently exist but won't be a part of the new editor:

• Insert paragraph – this tool is fairly redundant since you can create a new paragraph in the editor by pressing the enter key or by choosing "paragraph" or "normal" from the style heading dropdown.
• Format strippers and “paste as” tools – as mentioned above, these tools will be replaced by default behavior that forces all pasted-in content to be pasted as plain text.
• Strike through, Justify and Remove Alignment – these lesser-used tools will be removed to reduce clutter on the simple editing toolbar.
• Media manager – this tool does not function effectively and so it is being replaced by two things. First, the new “insert video” tool mentioned above will provide a more effective and current way for users to include video content on their site. Second, if the user wishes to upload media files to their site, they can do so using the document manager tool.

Enjoy!

We are excited to bring you these improvements. We also have more in the works for the WYSIWYG editor. Tomorrow's release represents phase one in our plans for the WYSIWYG, so stay tuned because there is much more to come.

The update is scheduled for Wednesday morning, March 3rd 2010. We do not anticipate any downtime with this upgrade.

Today, we are pleased to announce the recipient of our first Website Giveaway for 2010:

The Swaziland Partnership

They will receive a donated custom website design as well as one year of free hosting on our content management software. We are looking forward to working with them to develop their new website in the days ahead. To read more about the Swaziland Partnership, see their finalist page.

Today, I contacted Bob Miller at The Swaziland Partnership to let him know that his organization had been selected as the winner, and he had this to say:

We are so honored to be selected to receive a website from Element Fusion—especially in the light of the other worthy organizations that were nominated. This gift will enable the Swaziland Partnership to better communicate, recruit and secure donations as we attempt to reduce the incidents of HIV/AIDS in the nation of Swaziland and to support the thousands of AIDS orphans and at-risk children living in the wake of this devastating disease. This website will be a valuable tool as we help Oklahomans and others from around the country to channel their talents, passions, and resources to change the destiny of this vulnerable nation. Element Fusion is well known for their outstanding web products and services. We are excited to now be partnering with them on this new website.

I want to thank each of our finalist organizations, including Marriage Network Oklahoma, The Oklahoma City Orchestra League, and our winner, The Swaziland Partnership. Each of these organizations provides an amazing service to our community and they are all well loved, as evidenced by the overwhelming support they each received through our finalist voting. We are pleased to have gotten to know them through this process. Even though two of them did not receive the prize this time, they will still be in the running as nominees for our remaining giveaways in 2010. There's much more to come.

Finally, thanks to all of you for your help and support through nominating and voting for these organizations. Without your input, we would not have been able to discover and consider so many diverse organizations for our giveaway. We look forward to our upcoming giveaways in the months ahead. Remember, we're giving away three more websites in 2010, so stay tuned for details. Nominations for the next giveaway are set to begin around the end of March.

Congratulations to The Swaziland Partnership. We'll be sharing more about our progress in developing their new website in the months to come.

Oklahoma City's NBC affiliate KFOR produced and aired a two minute feature on Element Fusion this week as a part of its "Is this a great State or what?" series. The segment highlights our company's history and gives a nice look inside the Element Fusion offices. We'd like to thank Galen Culver and the KFOR team for putting this together. You can check out the full feature below.

Last Friday, NewsOK.com published a video about Element Fusion's Website Giveaway. You can watch the video below. We'd like to say thanks to Angi Bruss and the NewsOK.com team for putting this together and helping us promote our Website Giveaway program. Remember to cast your vote for one of our finalists through this Thursday.

[The following content was provided by The Swaziland Partnership. Cast your vote for The Swaziland Partnership or check out our other finalists on our finalist page.]

The Swaziland Partnership is an Oklahoma-based organization that is taking on the challenge of reducing HIV/AIDS in the African nation of Swaziland. This small kingdom, nestled between South Africa and Mozambique has the infamous distinction of having the highest HIV/AIDS rate per capita of any nation on earth. The Swaziland Partnership, from their office in Bethany, Oklahoma, is partnering with Swazi health professionals, educators, care-givers, churches, government leaders, and international organizations to care for AIDS orphans, those suffering with the disease, and to reduce the incidents of this deadly disease which is threatening to destroy the entire nation.

The Swaziland Partnership serves as a catalyst for Oklahomans and others from around the country to channel their talents, passions, and resources to change the destiny of the nation of Swaziland.

Visit The Swaziland Partnership's current website

PLEASE NOTE: To vote for The Swaziland Partnership in Element Fusion’s Website Giveaway, you must visit the finalists page. You are free to leave your comments of support on this blog post, but these comments will not count as votes.

[The following content was provided by The Oklahoma City Orchestra League. Cast your vote for The Oklahoma City Orchestra League or check out our other finalists on our finalists page.]

The Oklahoma City Orchestra League recently celebrated 60 years of supporting orchestral music in Oklahoma City. Throughout those years, the 300+ members of the OCOL have provided award-winning music education programs for the schools of Central Oklahoma and provided key support for the success of the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. With a $0 based budget, the OCOL has directed every available "dime" to the fulfillment of their mission. The money they raise through their major projects, "Symphony Show House" and "Note-able Occasions," goes to support the 16 different educational programs they present for the benefit of the OKC community. 

Each year, 65 area schools participate in the "We've Got Rhythm" program that introduces children to musical instruments and classical music. The children in these schools plus thousands more attend the Philharmonic Youth Concerts each year -- all with the support of the OCOL. Over the last 60 years, the OCOL has endeavored to touch every child in OKC with at least one opportunity to learn about orchestral music.   People of all ages benefit from the programs of the OCOL. From suppers for the orchestra musicians to lessons for adult beginner violin students, the OCOL is bringing the joy of music to the people of Central Oklahoma through the dedication and hard work of their volunteer force.

The OCOL would benefit from an organizational website because it needs to improve communications among its members, improve its recruiting methods so it can get back on a path of growth, and develop online marketing to increase the success of its fundraising projects.

The Oklahoma City Orchestra League does not currently have a website.

PLEASE NOTE: To vote for the Oklahoma City Orchestra League in Element Fusion’s Website Giveaway, you must visit the finalists page. You are free to leave your comments of support on this blog post, but these comments will not count as votes.

[The following content was provided by Marriage Network Oklahoma. Cast your vote for Marriage Network Oklahoma or check out our other finalists on our finalists page.]

Marriage Network Oklahoma is a non-profit coalition of Christian organizations and churches. Through community collaboration, MNO serves hundreds of churches, organizations, and individuals with information and training on strengthening marriages. We let churches list their marriage events on our website at no charge. We offer all of our resources at no charge.

We have a great need to update our website into one that is more useful. MNO offers trainings to churches across the state, but many are not able to attend because of the distance. Our desire is to add a feature to our website that would make training available to churches, regardless of their location.

We also need a website that is more attractive and easier to use by limited personnel. The MNO coalition donates all of the time and financial resources to provide for the website and training. We have no revenue stream since the vast majority of what we do is without charge.

Our vision:

We exist to uphold and affirm Christian marriage and equip individuals and churches to strengthen marriages in Oklahoma.

Our mission:

We aspire to link arms with individuals and churches by:

• Inspiring a kingdom view of marriage to the Church,
• Networking resources, training and guidance for the development of multi-faceted church marriage ministries, and
• Providing information to the public about Christian marriage education classes, events, leadership training and other resources available to them.

Visit Marriage Network Oklahoma’s current website

PLEASE NOTE: To vote for Marriage Network Oklahoma in Element Fusion’s Website Giveaway, you must visit the finalists page. You are free to leave your comments of support on this blog post, but these comments will not count as votes.

Element Fusion is giving away four websites this year to four different non-profits. We’re right in the midst of our first website giveaway for 2010 and we need your help. Won’t you cast your vote for one of our finalists and help us choose our giveaway recipient?

Get to know our finalists

We received many great nominations for the giveaway this year, and we’re excited to announce our three finalists. One of the best things about our giveaway program is getting to know about so many fantastic organizations and the work they are doing. I hope you’ll take the time to read about our three finalists on our 2010 finalist page.

Cast your vote

Once you’ve read about them, help us choose a recipient by casting your vote. The voting form is also on our 2010 finalist page right under the finalist listing. Voting is now open and will be open through February 25th, 2010. Please cast your vote and also help us spread the word by inviting your friends and co-workers to do the same.