Dear HarmonySite administrator,
We are pleased to announce the general release of our new "theme" (visual style) for HarmonySite, our first new theme in four years(!). It's name is "Mercury". If you choose, in a few short steps you will be able to adopt it for your HarmonySite, giving your website a new "look". It would be a bit like having a new/redesigned website, but with all your existing content.
To see what it looks like, check out our "Demo" HarmonySite using this new theme: demo.harmonysite.com
You are welcome to log into the Members area (username: demo, password: demo) to see what that looks like with the new styling.
You are under NO OBLIGATION to switch your HarmonySite to the new theme. Our existing themes will remain active indefinitely. You can leave your existing theme in place, and make no changes to your HarmonySite. So feel free to ignore this email entirely.
Having said that, if your HarmonySite is still using one of our OLD themes (NextElement, Sparta or BHA), I recommend that you switch to one of the newer themes (Mercury or Stockholm) ASAP, as those old ones are not mobile-friendly.
Benefits of this new theme (compared to "Stockholm")
- It's more visually bold and impressive
- The photos in the Home page slideshow now don't need to be exact sizes. The size recommendations are more flexible and forgiving.
- When editing the Home page, the content in the page-editing window now looks almost exactly like the actual Home page. When editing the Home page in the Stockholm theme, the page-editing window didn't much resemble the actual Home page. This will make editing the Home page easier and less prone to causing errors.
- Your site will be a little faster to load.
- [Future] We have a plan to include a simple one-click "dark mode" - so each site visitor can choose whether they want to see the site in "dark mode" or the default "light mode" (only affecting them, not anyone else). We may also throw in a simple one-click "make the font-size bigger/smaller", so that each visitor can choose their own font size on the fly.
Drawbacks
- As with the existing Stockholm theme with the "full screen" slideshow layout, your slideshow photos that have been created by graphic designers (i.e. not plain photos) will seldom show in their entirety. The portion of the graphic that's show in the slideshow will vary based on the visitor's browser window size and aspect ratio. Bits of the graphic may be cropped out on the left/right sides.
To switch to this new theme, you will need...
- A version of your logo suitable for a DARK background. Look at the logo in the Demo site - it has white text. If it had black text, it would be almost invisible. You may need to ask your graphic designer to create you a version that is suitable for a dark background. It should typically be a PNG or GIF file, and have a transparent background. You MAY already have a logo for a dark background. If you're using our existing "Stockholm" theme, and are using the "full screen" layout for the Home page slideshow, then you likely already have a suitable logo. That logo WILL need to replace your existing logo for white backgrounds.
- New photos for your slideshow. MOST current HarmonySites require that the slideshow photos be exactly 1150 x 448 pixels. This new theme does not require exact sizes for slideshow photos - instead they should be approximately 1200 x 800 pixels. They will be shown "full screen" (as you see in the Demo site). Unless you're already using a full-screen slideshow, then your existing slideshow photos won't look great - the sides will be cropped off, and they may look pixelated.
- Some basic working knowledge of HTML, and about 30-60 minutes to make the change. If you don't have such knowledge, or don't have the inclination to do the change yourselves, we can do it for you, for a $50 one-time fee (plus GST for Australian customers).
Here's the help guide we've prepared to show you how to make the change: https://harmonysite.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/43000699274-how-to-change-your-site-s-theme-to-mercury-
Please keep in mind that this theme is brand new, and may have some minor teething issues. So if anything in your HarmonySite doesn't look right with the new theme, simply report this to support@harmonysite.com, and we'll fix it immediately.
Feel free to try out this new theme in your HarmonySite whenever you're ready.
In harmony,
Mark Virtue
HarmonySite
Australia
+61 2 8005 4277 (Australian number)
In North America, call: 1-415-651-7009 (San Francisco number)
Skype name: mvirtue
