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The Editors Mailbox

FineWoodworking.com Gets a Makeover

Ed Pirnik, Senior Web Producer

9 users recommend

A new look for your favorite woodworking website.

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If you're reading this blog post then you've already noticed the changes to FineWoodworking.com. Fine Woodworking had the oldest website of all the Taunton franchises and we've been working on this facelift for well over a year now. To say that things around the office have been a bit frantic lately would be a massive understatement. Our humble site has thousands-upon-thousands of pieces of content (videos, articles, slideshows, blogs, and more), and taking it into the 21st century was no small feat. Special thanks are in order for our dedicated team of developers in the Taunton Interactive Department.

New Features

You'll notice that the site is wider, video players are larger, and search has been greatly improved. What's more, we decided to create a little real estate for woodturners, in the form of a new Woodturning section that will aggregate our array of articles, videos, blogs, and gallery items. Be sure to look for new content in this section over the course of the coming months. All-too-often, conventional woodworkers are treated as a separate breed from woodturners and we felt a distinct need to offer up more content for this dedicated group of "wood-mongers."

Of course it goes without saying, there will be a group of folks who will miss the old site (whatever its shortcomings). It's natural to gravitate towards the familiar, but over time, folks will readjust to the new format and hopefully, forget that our old, very narrow, site ever even existed.

That's it for now. Today is "launch day" so I've got content to review, and need to keep a sharp eye out for any potential issues with the new site. I'll be hunched over my computer till the bitter end today. Cheers everyone!

-Ed Pirnik

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Comments (20)

jcwnr writes: Hi, Ed. Thanks for the change. I will not miss the narrow format. The new layout is much more inviting. Joe
Posted: 9:46 am on January 5th

esunstru writes: The site looks great! I would love to be able to stream the videos from my Ipad through my Apple TV, is that possible?
Posted: 1:58 pm on December 21st

Pete_CreekView writes: Using Chrome I found that the Update Profile button does not work and the Favorites Link works sporadically.
Posted: 10:06 am on December 14th

DLWoodworker writes: I am not seeing much new. It takes 15 secs for FWW to load in FireFox 15. Way too slow. I am also seeing an annoying box at the bottom of the page.
Posted: 2:46 pm on December 10th

NikonD80 writes: I've been using the new site for a few days now and I love the new cleaner look. A big thanks and well done to all those involved. I have noticed that the site behaves a bit strangely when I browse on an iPad though: the drop downs on the menu bar don't seem to work. The drop down contents are visible for a moment than I'm taken to the default page for each category. For example, holding my finger on the 'Video' button briefly shows the drop down menu but before I can move my finger to the Workshop Video I want to view, I get sent to this page http://www.finewoodworking.com/woodworking-videos/
I can't even see the Video Workshops on this page but on the plus side, I have found some other interesting content that I was not aware of.
Posted: 8:22 am on December 10th

Redstickslim writes: Really like the face lift, much easier to use. The first time I looked at it though, I found a page to search only the back issues of the magazine. I can’t find that anymore. Is it still available?
Posted: 7:03 am on December 10th

mnik writes: Nice job. Worth the wait.
Posted: 9:24 pm on December 8th

Artex writes: Notice a big improvement, love the new features, Congratulations on a job well done
Posted: 11:01 am on December 7th

Pete_CreekView writes: Search: In what order are the results returned and is there any way to control that?
Posted: 11:00 am on December 7th

AJV writes: Ed,

Really like the new look and feel. One issue - cant seem to find a way to save items to "my favorites".

Thanks
Posted: 10:56 pm on December 6th

vanpieters writes: Looks great. So far it is much easier to use.
Posted: 9:52 pm on December 6th

Joe__G writes: Ed and team, awesome upgrade!! I like the new look, changes, and addition of the wood turning section. As a woodworker in the world of both flat and round, the addition is very welcome.

Thanks!

Joe
Posted: 8:14 pm on December 6th

jasonhass writes: looks great, love the new video format. I'm finding a few broken links here and there, but I'm sure you're discovering those and fixing them quickly. One thing: for some reason the text on the scrolling pictures on the home page is in dark purple sometimes, other times in bright white. When the pic underneath is dark and the text is purple, one cannot read the text at all. I'm using firefox on Mac OS. Again congrats on the new site, much improved. -Jason
Posted: 1:19 pm on December 6th

epirnik writes: Hi Chris:
That slowness you describe is pretty normal. Since the site is brand new in every sense of the word, it's going to take some time for your machine to cache everything. I believe there is also some back-end caching that goes on - on our end as well (servers and such). The site should become faster and faster over the course of the next week - I am told.
Best,
Ed

Posted: 6:45 am on December 6th

cahudson42 writes: Ed: Looks Great.. Finally. the annoying 'bar' at the bottom is gone!

Question: Is hosting service/facilities the same? I 'may' be seeing very slow page loads during the day - here at 3 AM no problem..
Posted: 3:35 am on December 6th

mrossk writes: FWIW, The old problem still exists of being signed out of my account everytime I close the FWW website. Somewhat annoying to have to log back in everytime I open the site. btw, I'm using AOL on Windows 7
Posted: 11:47 pm on December 5th

davidaj writes: Crisp and clean,a great redesign.
Posted: 9:13 pm on December 5th

Pete_CreekView writes: First thing I noticed were the banner ads. The colors are vivid, text is easy to read and the animation gets your attention fast.
Posted: 4:38 pm on December 5th

beem writes: Wow! Very nice, Ed and team. I haven't had a chance to fully drive it around the block, but my initial impression is that the new format is a marked improvement - less clutter, more inviting, and I can still find all my usual haunts as quickly (or quicker) as ever.
Posted: 3:45 pm on December 5th

William_Lohr writes: Congratulations on a job well done! Looks terrific!

Merry Christmas.
Posted: 10:10 am on December 5th

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