NOTE: Site Designer->Custom Forms can now only be used to manage Website Custom Forms. Member data forms are now managed via Tools->Secretary->Members or Tools->Accounting->Members.
Within the accounting module:
The new FreemasonsWeb Secretary Module is now available under the Tools menu.
Full help is available on the Help->Tutorials page, or via this link.
A warning message is now displayed at the bottom of the Site Designer->Menu Edit page if any of your pages contain links to files that no longer exist. This commonly happens when you've deleted a file and uploaded a replacement without updating the link on your page.
When the number of menu items grew more than the size of an empty page, the menu items would overlap the base of the page. This has now been fixed.
Within Member Options->Member List, there is now a free-text search filter on name/email address.
Within Tools->Accounting->Members, there is now a free-text search filter on name/email address.
A download file button has been added files items to the Site Designer->Files list.
Within the Accounts Module:
The following features have been added within Site Designer->Website Preferences->Skin Preferences:
The accounting module has been updated to support accrual based accounting.
Please refer to the accounting help for further details.
You can now give images a list of tag words in order to categorise them.
These tag words can be used within the filter search, both on the Site Designer->Images page and on the Image Gallery Page editor to help navigate through your list of images.
The twitter feed page type has now been fixed use the new Twitter API, as their old API had been deprecated.
Twitter feeds now appear as an embedded feed, which now also allow you to retweet and reply to posts if you are logged into Twitter at the time.
If your browser supports HTML 5, you can now edit your images via the Site Designer->Images page using the Aviary image editor.
This has been tested and found to work on the following browsers:
You can now download your member list as a CSV file (for loading into Excel) from within Member Options->Member List, and using the download button: at the bottom of the list.
The number of email accounts has now been increased from three to seven.
The seven email accounts default to:
Existing Site Adminstrators can enable these additional email accounts by going to Site Designer->Website Preferences->Email Accounts.
For now on, any pages that you delete can be recovered from within the Page Editor and Easy Editor pages, by selecting the page from the "Deleted Pages" dropdown and clicking the "Recover" button.
Facebook "Like" buttons are now available on news items and events.
These can be enabled within Site Designer->Website Preferences->News and Events
The CAPTCHA code in all form entry pages can now be specified as a mathematical question, rather than the rotated random characters.
The question is no more complicated than the "9 times table".
This may be useful if your members have trouble reading the random characters in the existing CAPTCHA codes.
You can now customise the headers and data rows within Member List pages, such as combining custom fields into a single row.
Full details can be found on the Page Editor help page.
The guestbook entry screen has the option of having email addresses validated before allowing entries.
This can be enabled by going to Site Designer->Website Preferences->Guestbook Settings.
Member Role Groups
You can now define custom permissions for Site Managers, by creating a Member Role Group and assigning them to it. This allows you to limit them access to managing only the parts of your website that are applicable to them on the FreemasonsWeb CMS, for example:
Member Role groups can be defined within Member Options->Member List within the Role Group tab.
Help with Member Role Groups can be found here.
Updates to Accounting Module
A group email address is now created for all Website Member Groups (Member Options->Member List page), allowing you to use this as a forwarding address when you wish emails, contact-us or custom forms to be forwarded to several people.
Accounting Module: Payments are now "Banked" separately rather than being transferred to bank accounts automatically.
This allows your statements to show a single banked payment that may contain many different payments (as it's likely multiple payments would be banked as one amount). It also caters for an unpresented cheque scenario.
You can now define "Website Member Groups", which you can use to email a group of members rather than having to send them messages one at a time.
"Website Member Groups" can be found on the Member Options->Member List page.
Our new look homepage!
We've compiled some of your home pages to a slideshow on our homepage.
The Page Editor / Easy Editor has been upgraded to the latest version of TinyMCE (3.5.2).
This will now be the default version. To set your preferred version (i.e. for support/compatibility of background music) go to your My Account page.
We've now added support for The Commemorative Order of St Thomas of Acon.
Include your Twitter feeds on your website!
We've added a new "Twitter Feed" page type. Similar to the RSS feed page type, this allows you to publish twitter feeds on your website.
EU Cookie Regulations Conformity
An update has been applied to all sites created using FreemasonsWeb which means:
Note: If you are using additional scripts such as Google Analytics, then you should alter your cookie statement accordingly to ensure visitors are aware of any cookies any additional scripts may use.
Easier Image and File uploads.
You can now upload images and files directly from the Easy Edit page, so you now no longer need to interrupt your page edits in order to upload images and files.
Introducing the FreemasonsWeb Accounting Module
FreemasonsWeb is pleased to announce the release of our new Accounting Module, a tool for treasurers to keep on top of your Lodge or Chapter finances.
Until now most Lodges and Chapters were faced with the choice of a complicated commercial accounting package with it's steep learning curve, or a manual or spreadsheet based system prone to human error.
The FreemasonsWeb Accounting Module bridges the gap between these two systems allowing you to manage your Lodge or Chapter finances simply and effectively... and of course, it's specifically tailored for masonic organisations.
But the best news is that there is no extra charge for using the Accounting Module - any member with a level of Site Manager or Site Administrator can access the Accounting Module on the new Tools menu as long as their site has a valid trial or paid-up subscription.
Full information and help can be found here: https://www.freemasons-web.org/help_accounting.phpChoose your editor version.
You can now choose which version of TinyMCE (the WYSIWYG editor used within the Page Editor and Easy Editor) you wish to use.
The support for media types (for example when using background music on your page), has changed between versions to try to keep up with the varying support of media types within browsers.
If you're having trouble with media support, try changing the version of TinyMCE until you find one that best suits your members.
Your preferred version of TinyMCE can be set within your My Account page.
You can now see both current and past events from the Site Designer->Events page.
News and Events now have members specific text, so you can vary your news and event text depending on the level of the member logged in.
The text works in two modes:
Better support for timezones within calendars.
"Custom Form" page type has been added, allowing you to create your own custom input forms.
This can be used for a variety of purposes such as a request to join, hall bookings or dining preferences.
Full help can be found here: https://www.freemasons-web.org/help_customforms.php
"Image Gallery" page type added, allowing you to publish slide-shows of your images on a page.
Full help can be found here: https://www.freemasons-web.org/help_imagegallery.php
Page Templates
A number of pre-defined page templates are now available on your Easy Edit and Page Editor, making the creation of pages even easier!
To select a template, use the "Insert Predefined Content" button on the TinyMCE editor toolbar.
Page History
The last five versions of your pages are now stored, allowing you to go back to a previous version should you make any mistakes.
Visit Counters
A visit counter can now be shown on your website.
To enable and set the position of your counter, go to Site Designer->Website Preferences->Skin Preferences
There's been quite a few updates over the past six weeks, but we've been so busy we've not had time to update the site!
In addition, we've added a range of new skin styles:
![]() Big Space |
![]() Simple Blue 1 |
![]() Simple Blue 2 |
![]() Old Manuscript 1 |
![]() Blue Boxed Keystone |
![]() Red Boxed KT Cross |
![]() Simple Red 1 |
![]() Simple Red 2 |
![]() Clean Blue |
To change your skin style, go to Site Designer->Advanced Styling and use the drop-down list at the top.
Remember to click Save to apply your new style.
You can now alter what is shown in the Member Landing Page when a user logs in to your website.
This can be used for special member-only announcements.
This is specified within Site Designer -> Website Preferences -> Member Landing Page (Basic Members) and Site Designer -> Website Preferences -> Member Landing Page (Full Members).
For more details, refer to the help on the Site Designer -> Website Preferences page, or from Home -> Help & Tutorials within the Changing the Style of your Website section.
Sub-Menu's are now supported on all Freemasons-Web websites.
For more details, refer to the help on the Site Designer -> Menu Bar page, or from Home -> Help & Tutorials within the Managing your Website's Menus section.
A new Help & Tutorials page is now available: Home -> Help & Tutorials
This page contains all the online help in textual form, and some video tutorials.
More video tutorials will be added over the next 2-3 weeks.
The following new features have now been added to Freemasons-Web:
You can now keep a track of all the events you're interested in from member sites.
When logged into a lodge/chapter web-site, you can now add an event from their event page into your own personal list of favourites.
This list can be viewed by logging on to www.freemasons-web.org and selecting Member Options -> My Favourite Events.
The following new features have now been added to Freemasons-Web:
You can now see a list of all the members of the sites you're a member of (but only the sites you're a member of). This is available on the Member Options -> Member List page.
There's also the option to send a member an email by clicking the button next to their entry on the list.
As part of the messaging functionality mentioned above, you can decide whether your email address should be visible to Basic Members, Full Members, Site Managers or Site Administrators. This option is available on the My Account page.
By default, your email address will only be visible to Full Members of sites you are a member of. Your email address is never visible to the general public within Freemasons-Web.
You can now apply membership security to News Items, as is currently available with events.
This may be useful should, for example, a brother pass away and you wish to let your members know.
When signing up for a new website, you can now enter any number of date combinations for your regular meetings.
This is to cater for lodges/chapters that have a number of irregular dates, or exceptions in their schedule.
We would like to thank all the members who have given feedback on Freemasons-Web, and especially for the suggestions of future enhancements.
Should any of you wish to suggest a new feature for consideration, please contact us.