Jimdo Website Builder Guide

Introduction

Jimdo is a wonderful website builder with a large, helpful community.  Its strength is in its e-commerce capabilities, but its website tools are also very helpful for building any type of website.  It also allows you to build your web page on any mobile device by using the Jimdo app, which is available on the Apple app store or Google play.  There are three different Jimdo plans you can use.

Figure 1:  Jimdo Plans

Figure 1:  Jimdo Plans

All plans provide templates, mobile view, at least 500MB of storage, file downloads, contact forms, and password-protected areas of your website.  JimdoFree will require you to have a jimdo.com subdomain (so your site will appear as MySiteName.jimdo.com).  Paid plans give you a free domain, an email account for the page, priority support, statistics, and are ad-free.  JimdoPro ($7.50 a month) ups your storage to 5GB, gives you up to 5 password protected areas instead of one, lets you have a custom footer, and gives you more freedom in running your online store.  JimdoBusiness ($20 a month) gives you the highest priority support, unlimited storage, as many password protected areas as you want, unlimited store items, and the full range of customization for your online store.  So, if you’re looking for a casual personal web-page, JimdoFree is probably sufficient.  For a more professional page, you can use JimdoPro.  And for your own online business, JimdoBusiness is recommended.  Note that you will be paying annually, even though the prices are listed as per month.  So JimdoPro will cost you $90, and JimdoBusiness will cost you $240.

Once you’ve decided which type of site is best for you, it’s time to get started on building your page!

Getting Started

When you had to jimdo.com, you can choose to start a website by clicking on “create a free website”.  This takes you to the template page.  You can choose from “All”, “Business”, “Store”, “Portfolio”, and “Personal”.  When you hover over a template, it tells you that you can select this template by clicking on it.  Then, you’ll be asked to sign up via email and provide a name for your website.  If the website name is taken, you will be prompted to enter a different website name.

Once you’ve signed up, it will take you to the Jimdo editor.

Editor

When you’ve headed to the editor, you’ll see a menu bar on the right side of the page.

Figure 2:  Editor Menu

Figure 2:  Editor Menu

View Mode (1)

This will take you to view your webpage full screen.  You can also change between device previews here (desktop, mobile vertical, or mobile horizontal).

Logout (2)

This logs you out of your Jimdo account.

Templates (3)

From here, a templates menu will appear at the top of your page.

Templates

From here, you can select a new template.  Your content on your page will stay the same, and will be rearranged to fit the new template.  For each template, if you hover over it you can choose to preview how the website will change, or view variations on the website theme.  Variations change subtle things about the theme, like the coloring and font.

Style

From here, you can choose to change the color scheme of your page.  You can click on the box shown to choose a different color.  When you click on it, it will change all elements associated with the color scheme to the color you’ve chosen.  You can also choose to change the color’s opacity.  Once you’ve made a selection that you like, you can select “choose” to permanently change it, or simply click out of the color selection box.  You can also change what the fonts are for the headings and body text.  You can filter the fonts to only show sans-serif, serif, and writing, or fancy, or you can filter them by character selection (for example, only fonts that allow you to use characters in Vietnamese, Greek, or Hebrew).  You can also turn on “Style by Element”, which will ask you to click on individual parts of the page in order to change the background color or font for that item only.

Background

From here, you can view your background images.  Clicking on the gear will let you see which pages currently have this background, and choosing the trash can will let you delete this background.  The big plus sign lets you add a new background.  Your options are:  “Photo”, “Slideshow”, “Video”, and “Color”.  “Photo” prompts you to upload a photo from your files.  You can then decide if you want to use this background for all pages.  “Slideshow” will prompt you to upload several images.  You can add more with the “+”, and remove them with the trashcan.  You can also choose the speed at which it switches between the different backgrounds.  And again, you can choose whether or not you change the background for all pages.  “Video” will ask you to add a YouTube or Vimeo link, which will then play in the background of your page.  Finally, ”Color” will simply let you choose a color to become your new background.

Custom Template

This will allow you to create your own custom template.  You can either paste HTML code, change the CSS, or upload a file with this information.  Unless you know HTML quite well, this option is not recommended.

Style (4)

Similar to what we did in “Templates”, this allows you to click on any element to change the style.  Typically this is font, font color, and sometimes background color.  Sometimes you can also change font size, line height, border color, border size, alignment, or text effects (bold, italicize).

Blog (5)

To use this feature, you must activate blogging for your site.  It then will prompt you to click a link in order to write your first post.

Figure 3:  New Blog Post

  1. Change title.
  2. Set visibility to “draft” (it will not be visible to the public).
  3. Set visibility to “public” (this will effectively publish the post.
  4. Allow comments.
  5. Select publication date and time.
  6. Add tags to your post.
  7. Save draft or post.
  8. Choose a suggested layout for your blog posts or create your own. You can choose from “Home”, “About”, “Services”, “Contact”, and “Photo”.  Once you’ve chosen a layout, you can choose to “Use it” or “Undo”.  Then, you can click on the individual elements you’ve just added in order to modify them.
  9. Add an element to your blog post. If you’ve already chosen a template, just hover over the area above comments in order to find the “Add Element” menu.  These are the same elements that you can add to your page.  We will discuss elements later on.
  10. View current comments. If you click on the comments area, it will let you choose the order; “Comments” puts most recent ones at bottom, and “Guestbook” puts most recent ones at top.  You can choose whether or not you must approve comments before they are displayed, if you are emailed when someone posts a new comment, if there is spam protection for commenting (requiring users to type in a CAPTCHA before publishing their comment), and if you are currently allowing comments on this post (some people like to turn off commenting for very old blog entries).

Once you’ve started blogging, the “Blog” menu changes.

Figure 4:  Updated blog menu

Figure 4:  Updated blog menu

  1. Posts Menu (shown below)
  2. Date display menu. From here, you choose what to show in your blog’s date stamp.  You can check or uncheck:  day of the week, day, month, and year.
  3. Show all posts.
  4. Only show drafts.
  5. Write a new post.
  6. Search through your previous posts for certain words.
  7. How drafts or previous posts will appear. Click on the title to go to the editing menu.
  8. View the date this was last saved, or the date it was published.
  9. Copy the post.
  10. Delete the post.

Settings (6)

From here, you can change various settings for your website.

Account

Change your password, email address, profile, language, or delete your account.  Your profile asks you to input your name, date of birth, country, city, and address.  All of these fields are optional.

Website

Site title is how your website appears at the top of a window or tab in a browser (typically this is in the format of Page Title – Site Title).  This also is how your site appears when someone bookmarks your page.

Footer appears at the bottom of your page.  You can change the footer text to display different links.  If you have a shop, you can also choose to turn on the options to display payment and delivery information.  If you have a paid plan, you can remove the “Sitemap” and “About” page links.

If you have a paid account, you can choose to hide the “Login to Jimdo” link with “Hide Login”.

Password protected areas lets you add new password protected areas.  You can change the name, password, and which pages are protected.  The number of password protected pages you can add depends on the Jimdo plan you have.

Storage lets you view how much storage you have used and how much maximum storage you have.

Privacy policy lets you set a custom privacy policy to your page.  If you activate statistics, a link to your policy will appear in the footer of your webpages.

The “Scroll to Top” button lets you jump back to the top of your site once you’ve scrolled down the page a bit.  You can choose to turn it on, and whether it’s on the left or right side of the page.

Favicons are little images that appear in windows or tabs next to your page and site title.  It is also the image that appears when someone bookmarks your page.  The default favicon is the Jimdo logo.  The logo must be 16×16 or 32×32 pixels, and must be in .png or .ico format.

Form archive shows all messages that have been submitted via forms on your site.  You can only view the archive with a paid plan.

Edit Head lets you use JavaScript, CSS, or HTML to modify the header section on your website.  You can do this for the entire website, or if you have a paid plan, you can do this for specific pages individually.

Deactivate blog lets you remove your blog from your website.

Email and Domain Management

If you have a paid plan, you can get an email address for your webpage.  For example, you can have info@mywebsitename.info.  Email accounts and forwarding let you manage this for your page.  Domains lets you link a custom domain to your webpage, so you don’t have to use the Jimdo subdomain.  You can only do this with a paid version of the site.

Store

Settings

Here, you can provide details about your store.  You can input the store’s name, address, phone, email, and fax.  You can modify the currency and what email address you use to get updates about your store.  You can set store location in order to automatically calculate tax and shipping.  You can choose to activate tax rate for in-state orders (this does not work for out of state orders).  You can choose to display tax footnote on the products in the catalog.  You can show what the available and sold out text looks like, as well as when to display “limited availability”.  For shipping, you can change what it says for immediate, a delay, or a long expected shipping time (as well as whether or not to display this in your footer).  You can activate item numbers, which are helpful for managing larger stores.  You can request if an email is sent when the customer’s item ships.  If there is a note page for the product, you can change how the headline and description appears.  You can choose the button text for product, shopping cart, and confirm order buttons.  Finally, you can choose a style for your store catalog.  Six variations are available.

Payment Options

This lets you change how customers pay for purchase on your web page.  For free plans, you can only use PayPal.  If you choose PayPal, it will ask for a username, password, and API signature.  A tutorial for how to set this up appears here.  You can also choose “test order”, which lets you view how a test order will work to make sure your store is up and running.  Additional options for paid users include credit card, invoice, local delivery, local pickup, and check by mail.

Shipping Costs

This lets you set the price for shipping to various destinations.  You can choose the maximum ship cost, and you can choose to include free shipping for large orders.  You can add a country for a different shipping amount with “Add shipping destination”.  You can also delete a location you have previously added with the trashcan.  Shipping is calculated per order, and country settings overrule a regional setting.

Terms and Return Policy

Here, you can choose for services to end the payment revocation early with a checkmark box for the user to accept.  Digital goods lets you do something similar (no cancellation after accessing the digital good).  These things are required for stores located in the EU.  You can modify the text on the return policy, which will be included with order confirmation.  You can also change your terms which will be linked to in the footer of your site when checking out.

Emails and Texts

This lets you change how emails automatically sent from your store will appear.  This is for order confirmation and shipping confirmation.  You can insert placeholders that are modified based on the individual user.  These include title, name, order, and order number.  You can also change international shipping information (for example, if this will incur additional costs).

Checkout Form

This lets you change which fields appear for checkout.  You can choose:  company, title, first name, last name, street address, city, postal code, state/province, phone, email, vat ID number, date of birth, and account number.   If checked, you can choose whether or not the field is required as well.

Confirmation Page

This page is only customisable with paid plans.  This changes how your site displays the confirmation that the order has been placed to your users.

SEO

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimisation”.  This lets you change how well people can find your webpage through search engines like Google.

Sitemap makes it easier for search engines to index your site.  This can only be modified with paid plans.

Google indexing lets you decide if Google can index your website.

URL redirects lets you automatically send visitors from one URL that you own to another.  This is only available for paid plans.

Apps

Dropbox lets you connect dropbox so you can add things from your account to your page.

Google analytics lets you paste your custom tracking code for Google analytics to be associated with your website, if you already have an account.

Twitter lets you connect your twitter account.

Jimdo

About box lets you change whether or not the about page shows that the website was made with Jimdo.  This can only be removed by paid plans.

SEO (7)

As stated previously, SEO helps you modify how your page is found by search engines.  Using this feature can help your site rank higher in search engine pages.  You can only modify this with paid plans.

Statistics (8)

This gives you detailed information about how many visitors your page has had and what day they visit.  It is even possible to view how they found your site (if they used a search engine).  You can only view this with paid plans.

Partner Services (9)

This lets you view sites that offer services that have partnered with Jimdo, and gives you a link to their page to see how they can help your website be successful.

Help (10)

From here, you can get help on any aspect of your website.  “Help” lets you search for anything you need help with.  There are also categories listed.  “News” has information about Jimdo blog, which gives you inside tips on how to use various parts of the website.  “Ask Us” lets you send support emails to the Jimdo Team.  This option is only available with paid plans.

Upgrade (11)

From here, you can upgrade to a paid plan at any time.

Modifying Your Web Page

If you want to modify any of your web pages, just click on the link you have to that page on your main site through the navigation bar.  Then, you can click on the individual items to change how they appear.  You can use the arrows to swap elements, trashcan to delete element, and windows to copy the element.  To view the options for any element, click on it and the editor will pop up.  Some elements, if they are not locked in to a specific location on your layout, will permit you to drag them around the page as well.  To add a new element, hover over an area above or below an element box, and the “add an element” option should pop up.  Then, it will add the element to this location.

Heading

This element lets you choose from having large, medium, or small text size.

Text

This lets you add a box of text to your webpage.

Figure 5:  Text Element Menu

Figure 5:  Text Element Menu

  1. Swap this element with the element above it.
  2. Swap this element with the element below it.
  3. Delete this element.
  4. Copy this element.
  5. Bold the text.
  6. Italicise the text.
  7. Create a numbered list.
  8. Create a bulleted list.
  9. Turn the highlighted text into a link. You can link to a page with “internal link”, a blog post with “blog post”, or another website or email address with “external link”.
  10. Remove the highlighted link.
  11. Undo last change.
  12. Redo last change.
  13. Align left.
  14. Align centre.
  15. Align right.
  16. Justify text.
  17. Change font size.
  18. Indent
  19. Un-indent.
  20. Get help for managing the text element.
  21. Change text colour.
  22. Remove formatting from selected text.
  23. Edit HTML of the element.
  24. Close editing menu.
  25. Discard this element.
  26. Save changes you’ve made to this element.
  27. This is where you type in your text.

Photo

This lets you add a photo to your webpage.  You can either upload a photo, or (if you’ve linked your dropbox account) choose an image from dropbox.  Once you’ve uploaded a photo, you can modify it via the image element editing menu.

Figure 6:  Image Element Editor Menu

Figure 6:  Image Element Editor Menu

  1. Change this photo to a different one from your files.
  2. Change this photo to one of your Dropbox images.
  3. Brings up the photo editor menu. You can add different filter effects, grouped under signature and classic.  You can enhance the photo, and choose the enhancement for hi-def, scenery, food, portrait, or night.  You can choose a type of frame, grouped under original and bohemia.  You can put an overlay over your image (which can be moved around, enlarged, or shrunk), grouped under original and “boom”.  You can change the orientation by rotation or mirroring.  You can crop your image, and either choose your own width and height dimensions, drag to create your own, or choose an image ratio as an automatic border size.  You can change the colouring (with options of saturation, warmth, tint, and fade).  You can choose the sharpness.  You can choose a focus point, and enlarge or shrink that point, as well as change its shape.  You can create a vignette.  Finally, you can add text, which you can choose the font and colour.  For any of these effects, once you’ve modified them you can either “apply” or “cancel” that change.
  4. Make element larger.
  5. Make element smaller.
  6. Make element the full size of the picture.
  7. Align photo to the left of the element.
  8. Align photo to the centre of the element.
  9. Align photo to the right of the element.
  10. Allow the user to be able to click on the photo to enlarge it.
  11. Make the image into a link.
  12. Stop the image from being a link.
  13. Add a caption and alt text to the photo.
  14. Enable sharing of the photo on Pinterest.
  15. Close the image editing menu.
  16. Save the changes you’ve made to the image’s properties.

Text with Photo

This element lets you insert a photo and text.  Aligning the photo determines which side the text is on (a left aligned photo has text on the right, and vice versa).  There is a “Photo” tab and a “Text” tab, which gives you the same menus as you see for text and image elements.

Photo Gallery

This element allows you to present several images at once.

Figure 7:  Photo gallery editor.

Figure 7:  Photo gallery editor.

  1. Drag and drop your images here.  Or, you can click to upload, or click to use Dropbox to select your photos.  You can hover over this area at any time to add more images.  Once you’ve added photos, they’ll appear at the bottom of the element as well.  From here, you can choose to edit the image in the image editor or delete the image.  You can also rearrange the order in which the images are shown.  If you turn on “list view”, you can also enter a caption, and turn any of the images into a link.
  2. This sets the images to display horizontally. From here, you can choose the image size, spacing between images, if Pinterest sharing is enabled, and if lightbox is enabled.
  3. This sets the images to display vertically. From here, you can choose the number of columns (which automatically determines the image size).  You can also choose the spacing between columns, if Pinterest sharing is enabled, and if lightbox is enabled.
  4. This sets the images to display as a grid. From here, you can choose if the image thumbnails are displayed as original proportions, or as squares.  You can also increase or decrease the thumbnail size for all of the images.  You can decide if the grid style is “cozy”, “compact”, or “comfortable”.  Finally, you can decide if Pinterest sharing or lightbox is enabled.
  5. This sets the images to display horizontally as a slideshow. You can decide how fast the cycling between images is.  You can deice if thumbnails are displayed beneath the main image.  You can decide if autoplay is on.  You can choose if the slideshow settings are “dark” or “light”, and whether or not Pinterest sharing or lightbox is enabled.
  6. Close out of the gallery editor.
  7. Save changes you’ve made to your gallery.

Horizontal Line

This inserts a horizontal line between elements.  To change how the line appears, click on it when “Style” is activated (as discussed previously).

Spacing

This inserts space between elements.  You can choose how many pixels the spacing is.

Columns

This creates columns on your web page, essentially splitting up the space.  If you choose “edit columns”, you can delete any of the established columns with the trash can, add a column between existing ones with the + button, drag the boundary between columns to change column size, or choose “make columns equal width” to make all columns have the same width.

Video

This allows you to insert a video from YouTube or Vimeo to your webpage.

Figure 8:  Video editor.

Figure 8:  Video editor.

  1. Drag these to change the size of the video.
  2. Insert the URL link to your video here. Choose “OK” to enter it.
  3. Increase the video size.
  4. Decrease the video size.
  5. Make the video its full size.
  6. Align the video to the left of the element box.
  7. Align the video to the middle of the element box.
  8. Align the video to the right of the element box.
  9. Change the ratio of the video.
  10. Close out of element options.
  11. Discard changes you’ve made to video element.
  12. Save changes you’ve made to video element.

Button

This lets you insert a button element to your page.  You can choose where the element links to (a page in your site, a blog post on your site, or an external link/email address), choose between various button styles dictated by your template, and choose where in the element box the button is aligned to.

Store Item

This allows you to add a store item to your web page.

Figure 9:  Store item menu.

Figure 9:  Store item menu.

  1. This displays how the store item element will appear to users on your page.
  2. Hover over the image(s) to delete or edit with image editor.
  3. Increase or decrease the size/enable or disable detailed view.
  4. Add a new image. You can have multiple images per product, so if you want to replace one, you’ll need to delete the old one manually.  You can also drag them to rearrange them if you’ve uploaded more than one image to choose the order in which they’re displayed.
  5. Name your item.
  6. Choose the item’s price.
  7. Give your product a description. From here, you’ll get the text editing menu as well.
  8. You can add variants to choose different names, prices, stock quantities, and shipping time for different types of the same product (for example, black and brown boots that are the same in all other aspects). You can also delete variations, or rearrange them.
  9. Change the weight in lbs. of your product that is listed.
  10. Change the quantity of your item that is available. Choose the infinity sign next to the arrows to set it to an infinite amount of the item.
  11. Short description (shown in order overview).
  12. Tags for your item (to place them into certain categories).
  13. Enable/disable availability.
  14. Enable/disable if the item can be shipped.
  15. Change the estimated shipping time (short, medium, or long).
  16. Calculate the shipping cost per order, or per product.

Share Buttons

This allows you to add share buttons to various social media websites through your webpage.  When the user clicks on an icon, they can share this webpage to their own social media site if they are a member of one of those webpages.

Figure 10:  Share Buttons menu

Figure 10:  Share Buttons menu

  1. This shows how the icons appear.
  2. Choose how the websites are aligned in your social buttons element (left, centre, or right).
  3. Choose the size of the buttons.
  4. Choose the shape of the buttons (square, circle, or hexagonal).
  5. Choose the colouring of the icons (original pages associated with that website, black icons, or white icons).
  6. Check off which of the icons you want to be displayed in (1). They will appear in the order that you click them.
  7. Save changes you’ve made to this element.

GoogleMaps

This allows you to insert a map view of any location you want.

Figure 11:  Google Maps editor.

Figure 11:  Google Maps editor.

  1. Choose between map view and satellite view.
  2. Your map is displayed here. You can drag around within it to reposition the map.  You can also use the +/- in the top right corner to zoom in and out.
  3. Choose whether or not the zoom buttons are displayed.
  4. Choose whether or not the map type options are displayed.
  5. Choose whether or not the scale is displayed.
  6. Choose whether or not street view is displayed.
  7. Type in your address here to have the map focus in on that location.
  8. Choose if you want to add a placemark on the map at your current searched for location. If you add one, you can choose whether or not the map functions as a link and if you want to delete the placemark.
  9. Add driving directions to your placemark. This allows the user to input a starting address in order to get driving directions from there to one of your placemakers.
  10. Save the changes you’ve made to your map element.

File Download

This allows you to insert a file download to your webpage.  You can drag the file you wish to upload to the file download element, or click on the element to upload your file.  You can then give it a title and description.  Free users can only upload up to 10MB, in formats PDF, GIF, JPEG, PNG, SVG, CSS, JS, EOT, TIF, or WOFF.  Paid users can upload up to 100MB, and are given the freedom of other file formats.

Guestbook

This allows you to add a comment section to your page.  You can choose if most recent appear at the bottom (comments) or top (guestbook).  You can choose if entries must be approved before adding.  You can choose if you are emailed when a new comment is added.  You can choose if you want to add CAPTCHA protection.  And you can choose if comments for this location are currently enabled.  Then, comments are able to be displayed at this location on your page.

Store Catalog

This allows you to display items from your store on your webpage.  There are settings and style tabs.  Settings let you choose if you only show products with a specific tag (or tags), the number of items shown, and how they’re sorted (by name, recently added, price, or popularity).  For style, you can choose display (grid, list, or slider), the style (1-6), the image spacing, if the image is shown as square or original proportions, the image size, and whether or not title and price are displayed.

Widget/HTML

This allows you to insert HTML code to your page.  Sometimes, designers create widgets (small applications), and then provide other website users with the coding for their widget.  This lets you add their HTML design to your webpage.

Form

This lets you add a contact form to your page.  The overall options are to display the labels above or on the left, what (if any) confirmation gets sent, whether or not there is CAPTCHA verification, and the email address where the submitted forms get sent.  Additionally, you can add or modify elements within the form.  Hovering over any element will let you delete, copy, or rearrange the form elements.  Clicking on one of them lets you edit them.  Clicking between two elements of your form lets you add a new one.  You can add:

Single-Line Text

For this element, you click on the label (single-line text) to modify it.  You can choose below whether or not that element is required (with the checkbox), and the width of the element.

Email Address

This works the same as above, but reject the form if the email address is not entered properly (“@” and “.” symbols).

Date

This works the same as above, but instead of having the user enter text, it will have the user select a date from a calendar that pops up.

Multiple-Line Text

This works like a single line, but you are instructed to enter the number of text lines that are present for this item of the form.

Number

For this item, the user can use a counter (up and down arrows) to select a number.  You can also set a minimum and maximum value for this element.

List

This will create a drop down box where the user can choose one of several options.  You can type in the below area under “Options” what you want them to be, each on its own line.  If you want the user to be able to select multiple options, check the “multiple choice” box, and all lines will be shown for selection simultaneously.

Radio Button

This functions the same as above, but instead of creating a drop-down list, it displays all of the options with buttons next to them.  The user can only pick one of these options.  Again, type the options you want to display under “Options”.  You can also choose whether the buttons are displayed horizontally or vertically on the form.

Checkbox

This puts one checkbox for the user to select (this is essentially for yes or no options).

Multiple Checkboxes

This lets you enter several checkboxes so that the user can choose to check one or more of several options.  You can choose to display them horizontally or vertically.  You can type the different choices under “Options”.

Heading

This lets you type a heading for the form, or for subareas of the form.

Table

This allows you to create a table in your page.

Figure 12:  Table editor.

Figure 12:  Table editor.

  1. Insert the text to different parts of your table here.
  2. Add a row above the row your cursor is currently in.
  3. Add a row below.
  4. Delete the row your cursor is currently in.
  5. Add a column to the left.
  6. Add a column to the right.
  7. Delete the column you are currently in.
  8. Change exterior border.
  9. Change the interior borders.
  10. Table options. Determine the margins, spacing, border size, border colour, and background colour.
  11. Cell options. The same as above, but only for individual cells.
  12. Bold the text.
  13. Italicise the text.
  14. Create a link.
  15. Remove a link.
  16. Align left.
  17. Align centre.
  18. Align right.
  19. Justify text.
  20. Create a numbered list.
  21. Create a bulleted list.
  22. De-indent.
  23. Change text colour.
  24. Edit the HTML formatting.
  25. Save changes.

Blog Display

If you have a blog, choosing this will let you display that blog at the location of your choosing on one of your pages.

Figure 13:  Blog display menu.

Figure 13:  Blog display menu.

  1. The blog information gets displayed here.
  2. Choose to display a teaser, or the entire post.
  3. Choose how many blog posts are displayed at a time.
  4. Choose the spacing between the blog posts.
  5. Choose to sort newest or oldest first.
  6. Choose the number of elements that appear in the teaser (this option does not appear if you choose to show the entire posts).
  7. Choose which tags are displayed.
  8. Save your changes to this element.

Facebook

From here, you can choose to either add a Facebook like button, or a Facebook box.  “Like” simply displays the like button.  You can decide if you like the entire website, or just this page on the website with the right-hand checkbox.  “Description” will tell you the names (and, if you choose “faces”, the profile pictures) of other Facebook users who have liked this website or page.  “Counter” will show the number of people who have liked it, either on top or to the right, depending on which option you choose.

For “Facebook Box”, it will show you the profile of whatever Facebook page URL you enter into the box.  Then, you can choose whether or not to display its cover photo, whether or not to display a stream of its recent posts, and whether or not to show the faces of people who have liked this page.  For this option, people are liking a Facebook profile of your choosing instead of liking your website itself.

Twitter

You can choose to display the tweets from a specific Twitter user, or display a follow button.  On the “Tweets” tab, it will ask you to choose a Twitter username to display, and the number of tweets you wish to show.  On the “Follow Button” tab, it will ask for your username, but this time it will ask you if you want to display the follow as a button, or as a number (for how many others are following this user).

Google+

This allows you to connect your Google + page.  “+1 Button” tab will display G+1.  You can choose the size, whether or not it shows the number of recommenders, if there is a description displayed (“Recommend this on Google”), or just the logo is displayed.  “Share” lets you also choose the size.  You can choose if a counter is displayed (at right or above), if a description is displayed (“Share this on Google”), or if only the logo is displayed.  “Box” lets you display a box for any google plus account you want.  You can choose if the entire box is displayed, or just a logo that links you to the page.  You can also choose between light or dark themes for your box.  Logo will let you choose the logo’s size.

RSS Feed

From here, you can insert an RSS feed link.  You can then choose to show all posts, the last x number of posts (however many you choose), and whether or not you display the article’s title, content, and date.  Each article will have a “Read More” button beneath it, linking the user to the original article.

Jimdo

This lets you create a Jimdo signup page directly on your website. e.

Add-on Elements

With these elements, Jimdo will direct you to different webpages to get an embeddable HTML code.  You then paste this code into the area below those instructions (similar to the HTML code element discussed earlier).

Newsletter Signups

Jimdo directs you to use Mailchimp (http://www.mailchimp.com/) to power your newsletter.  First, you sign up or log in on the Mailchimp page.  Then, you choose to create a list, then a signup form, then an embedded form.  Next, choose a form type and modify anything you want.  Finally, copy and paste the code Mailchimp provides you with in order to create your signup form.  You will also need to edit the header under Settings on your page (as discussed earlier) by pasting in the same code.

Search Box

This lets users search your page for content.  Jimdo recommends doing this via Google Custom Search Engine.  It will direct you to go to:  https://cse.google.com/cse/create/new .  You will enter your website address.  You can then customize its layout on Google.  Once done, it will provide you with a code to enter into your Search bar element.

Calendar

This lets you add a calendar onto your webpage.  Jimdo recommends doing this via Google Calendar at http://www.google.com/calendar.  You can either create a new calendar, or embed one you’ve already created.  Next to your calendar, there should be a triangle that you can choose “Share this calendar”.  You must then select to make it “public”.  There is a helper that will let you customize the calendar at https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embedhelper.  Finally, copy and paste the form into the area below.

Instagram Feed

This allows you to display photos from your Instagram page on your Jimdo page.  You are provided with a link to get your Instagram Feed code based on the account you have linked to your Jimdo page.  You then paste the code below.  You can edit the feed once it’s saved, but only if you create a POWr account (at http://www.powr.io/).

Music Player

This allows you to play music on your Jimdo page.  Jimdo recommends that you embed the SoundCloud player from https://soundcloud.com/.  You will have to sign up for an account or log in.  You add songs or audio files to your account, then open the track you want to add to your page.  There will be a share icon, and it will prompt you to embed your player.  You can then paste it into the field on your site.

Appointment Booking

This lets you add the ability for people to book appointments with you.  Jimdo recommends using Setmore, located here: https://www.setmore.com/.  You will need to login or create an account.  The website then lets you list your hours, different staff, and different services.  You can change settings on the “configure” section of your profile.  You can then select options for embedding in profile>integrate>website.  You then paste this information onto your page.

Live Chat

This lets you add live customer service to your site.  Jimdo recommends using Tidio at https://www.tidiochat.com/.  To create the account, you choose “try it” on the main page.  Then, you enter your name and web address.  You can select the photo, color, and language.  Then, you copy the code from “do it yourself”.

POWr Plugins

POWr lets you add a variety of different tools to your website.  You can view the different plugins here:  https://www.powr.io/embed/all/jimdo.  Paste in the code for that plugin.  You can edit it with the POWr editor if you are logged in to your POWr account.

Navigation Bar

You can also modify the navigation bar that lets you move between areas of your site.  To do this, hover over the bar (the location depends on your theme).  From here, you can choose to “Edit Navigation”.

Figure 14:  Edit navigation menu.

Figure 14:  Edit navigation menu.

  1. Your pages appear here, in the order that they are on the navigation bar.
  2. Edit your page name by clicking next to the text.
  3. Move the page up one on the navigation bar.
  4. Move the page down one on the navigation bar.
  5. Move the page up one level (if it’s a subpage).
  6. Move the page down one level (make it a subpage of another page).
  7. Add a new page.
  8. Delete this page.
  9. Hide this page from the navigation bar.

When you’re happy with your changes, hit “Save”.

Conclusions

Jimdo is a great site, with a lot of customisation possibilities.  If it’s something Jimdo doesn’t provide, it gives you full instructions on how to implement different widgets onto your page.  It’s easy to use and intuitive.  The only downside is the limited customisation capabilities.  Overall, it’s a great site with a lot of versatility.