Making Democracy Work

Hot Topics

Find out about changes to LEW and other current issues

June 2016

April 2016

February 2016

August 2015

January 2015

October 2013 - LEW for Mobile Devices!!!

August 2013 Functional Updates

March 2013 Functional Updates

2012 LEW Design Update

Other Hot Topics!

June 2016

Email Server Problem Fixed

We had hardware problems with our email server and our programmer, Carl Hage, fixed them about 5pm PDT on June 1. While the email server was down for a day or so, these things happened (or not):
1) All email sent to an address using your web site name like league@lwvxxxx.org did not get to you. These emails are now being delivered to you.
2) Email sent to support@lwvnet.org was not delivered. We are now getting them again.
3) Also changes to your League registration data are saved when you clicked on "Update" or "Update and Rebuild...", but there was a 5 min. delay before you got the error message "server error". This should no longer happen.
We are very sorry for this inconvenience. Always let us know when something does not work as you would expect.

April 2016

For California Users Only: new Voter's Edge California logos available.

Please look at editing your Education Fund and/or Election pages to change from Smart Voter to Voters Edge. The new logos and instructions for using them are found at Logos and Other League Graphics on the LWVC.org members site. Help your users promote Voter's Edge coverage of upcoming elections!

February 2016

Are LEW users outside of California being converted to new LEW?

See an answer to this question here. (2/23/2016)

How and when will LEW users in California be converted to new LEW?

See an answer to this question here. (2/12/2016)

August 2015

Are there free general communications training programs recommended for me, my board, my communications committee, our membership, and our community?

Yes! Please read this page.

January 2015

Good news for Leagues in California: we are experimenting with a new League Easy Web (LEW) calendar event feature!

For Leagues in other states: you will not see any changes, but what we learn may be offered to other states later.

California LEWmasters: After you enter and publish a local League event in the League Easy Web (LEW) system, the event may later automatically appear on the LWV California site at http://lwvc.org/calendar. Because this is an experiment, we do not guarantee all your events will be posted or when they'll be posted; we certainly will change and possibly discontinue the sharing of events. But we wanted you to know that we're running this experiment, so that you're not caught off guard. Note: we only import to the LWVC web site what you've already made public on your own web site.

Why Are We Experimenting?

As discussed in 2014 at LWVC Council and LWVUS Convention, this is a test to see how information might be shared easily between neighboring Leagues and between different levels of League. Members were very enthusiastic about this, so we're working on it.

Testing is the main purpose: so that we can try one small aspect of data sharing and learn from the experiment. The goal is to not have it perfect and complete, exactly the way we want it the first time. Instead, we're doing a very small experiment, studying the results, and asking for your feedback.

Secondary benefits are that any of your shared events will reach a wider audience and you can see easily some of what other Leagues are doing across the state.

How Can You Help?

Please give your feedback about event sharing to Jenny Waggoner at jwaggoner@lwvc.org.

Please save the data for LWVC Convention in San Diego May 15-17, 2015. We love hearing about your success, learning what improvements you'd like, and having LEW users get to know one another and share ideas.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How often are events shared? Roughly once a month LWVC staff or volunteers will run the process to imports local League LEW calendar entries from your approved LEW calendar page(s). Because this is an experiment and not a finished product, we are not promising to keep to a particular schedule. If LEW users say they like event sharing, we'll improve the service and set a regular schedule, based on your feedback.

2. Are all Leagues included? At this time, we're not sharing events posted by Inter-League Organizations (ILOs) but often ILO events end up on the LWVC site because many local Leagues add ILO regional events to their calendars. We're only testing this feature with California Leagues at this time. Sometimes we've had trouble with particular Leagues' calendar entries; in general, if anything looks incomplete or wrong, we don't import the entry.

3. Are all events included? We are not sharing 100% of the calendar entries, but are sharing most of them, so it is likely you'd see your League's entries at http://lwvc.org/calendar. We try to remove duplicates, but this must be done manually so please let us know if something is missing! We might update the calendar many times in a day, or go for several weeks without updating it: we can't promise a regular schedule at this time. If you don't see your event there, or you have concerns about how it is posted, please email communications@lwvc.org, but understand that this is just a test and we do not promise to share all events.

October 2013 - LEW for Mobile Devices!!!

What does my web site look like on a smartphone?

League Easy Web made an automatic change on Oct. 19 so that all of your web sites work beautifully on a smartphone or other mobile device.

There is nothing you need to do. Another "automagic" delivery!

Look at your web site, grab a vertical edge of your browser window and slowly squeeze it down to a small size. Or look at your site on your own smartphone.

What kind of changes did you make so that our pages look good on mobile devices?

With small screens, people want to see the most important content up front.

As the width of any browser window is narrowed, you will notice:

  • The size of some of the text will get smaller.
  • The Making Democracy Work image will disappear.
  • The size of graphical images will shrink.
  • On the home page, the grey horizontal banner with the names of the communities served will disappear.
  • The contents of the left column (table of contents, search box, and any content you add in the space below them) will be moved to below the main body content.
  • Two new icons "Menu" and "Search" will appear at the top. When you click on Menu, it will jump to the menu at the bottom of the page. When you click on Search, you will be taken to the search box.

When people use their computers to look at our site, will they see any change?

No matter the width of their browser window, your web page content should now fit (no need to scroll right, for example). Unless they have a rather narrow browser window, they should not see anything different with some minor improvements:

  • On a calendar page, the calendar display is now formatted into 3 columns instead of 4 as the Date and Time columns are combined into one.
  • The color of Section Headings has changed to red making them stand out more on a page. Also on a home page, they will be the same color as featured sections.
  • The color of the text inside the white page table of contents box is blue unless you hover with your mouse pointer which changes the color of the short section name to red. FAQ page questions are changed in the same way.

Do I need to make any changes?

No, you should not need to. We have noticed that HTML coding errors made on a page by a LEWmaster could cause bad formatting. Look at your pages now -- do you see any pages with these problems:
  • empty space where the table of contents in the left column should be?
  • the blue area at the bottom of any page does not extend across the entire width of the page?
  • way too much blue background colors

If so, you have an HTML coding error. Look at the HTML entered in an edit box and double check the coding. Is there a <table> or <div> that does not have an </table> or </div>? If you can change to use LEW commands, you should have fewer problems and the next person should find it easier to take over!

This is another reason not to use HTML unless you have no other choice.

And read the next item.

Are there recommendations for making our site even better on the small screen of a smartphone?

See hints for displaying your web site on a mobile device.

August 2013 Functional Updates

Several new functions are available! These were released in August 2013.

Delete multiple files or images with one click!

You could always delete a single PDF or other file from your "files" directory. Now when you click on the "Upload or Delete File" button near the bottom of your site generation home page, you may see some new functions on the next page:

  • Select Files to Delete: See a list of all files. Check which files you want to remove, then click!

  • Select Images to Delete: See a list of files with their name and a small thumbnail image. Check which ones you want to remove, then click! You can also use this to see a display of all of your images on one page.

For more information, see how do I delete an old file or how do I delete an old image.

You can change the "alt text" associated with one of your uploaded images.

When you upload an image, you have the opportunity to define what is called "alternate text" (or "alt text"). This data helps those who cannot see the image with their eyes understand something about the image because their reading assistance program "reads" the alternate text to them when their mouse hovers over the image.

For more information, see Change alternate text

I don't see all of the buttons you mentioned? What is wrong?

If you don't see "Select Files to Delete", you have not uploaded any files. You should see the button after you upload one.

If you don't see "Select Images to Delete" or "Edit Image Alt Text", you have not uploaded any images. After you upload your first image, you will see the buttons.

Almost deleted something by mistake? Now the system will ask you to confirm removal actions.

When you delete a calendar event without saving it in another calendar page, the system will first ask you to confirm that you would like to remove this event forever.

While editing a page, if you click the button to say you want to "Erase this Section", a window will popup to ask if you really want to do that. If you say "OK", the section will be removed from the editing form. You must still page down to the bottom of the page and click on "Preview" to complete the deletion. Or you could click on "Cancel" and the removal of the section (and any other changes you made will be reversed.

Remember, if you delete something you did not intend, be sure to contact us quickly. We can probably recover it for you.

New "Billing" email address.

To allow you to tell us exactly where you want annual invoices to be sent, we have added a new field to the Registration data form. It is currently filled in with the same email address(es) you have for your primary email contact ("league@xxxx.org"). You may change it at any time to the email address(es) of the person you want to receive annual billing notices -- perhaps your treasurer.

Help has been improved to assist you in linking and embedding images.

When you edit a page and want to link to another page or file or want to embed an image, look in the right-hand column where the files and images are listed.

Near the bottom of the column, find complete examples for linking to a page on your site, a page on another web site, or a PDF file. Also find the full format of the <image-here...> command.

The look of your pages has changed very slightly.

Some changes have been made to the look of your pages:

  • A little more space has been made available for your user text on the left and the right in the main body of a page.
  • The color of the background of all pages has been lightened somewhat.

March 2013 Functional Updates

These enhancements were released on or before March 27, 2013.

New area below table of contents on every page now available for social media icons!

Now you may use the blank space below the table of contents in the left sidebar for your content. This is the perfect place to put social media icons with links to your League's Facebook page or Twitter feed, for example. For more information see:

New "important message" area is available on your home page to get the attention of your visitors.

Sometimes your League may have some very important message perhaps with a graphical icon that you would like every visitor to your site to see. Read more about this optional important message.

Help search engines describe your content to encourage more people to visit your web site.

These optional behind-the-scenes methods offer a way for you to describe the overall content of your site and the content of an individual page. See search engine information for instructions.

Hide a page so that it is not listed in the Table of Contents in the left sidebar.

Sometimes you have a page that is not appropriate to be listed in the complete table of contents. For example, there is no need to include a "Thank you for using PayPal" page in the table of contents. See hide page for more info.

Delete all contents of one section with a single click.

Sometimes you want to remove an entire section on one of your web pages. Instead of erasing the contents of each box in the section one by one, you may now erase all of them with a single click. See delete section for details.

Embed <iframe...> code from sites like YouTube.

Sometimes sites suggest you can copy code to place objects on your web page. YouTube, for example, currently offers code to place a video on your page using HTML that starts with <iframe>. Just copy it from YouTube, then edit your LEW page and paste the code at the point you want the video to appear. Voila!!

Paste "any" HMTL onto your LEW page.

Other sites offer "widgets" you may want to embed on your web page. This is often done with sophisticated HTML code which you copy and paste onto your web page. We have a way for you to enable this code. For example, you can use this option to embed an RSS feed or forms on one of your pages. Please see the Q&A to paste any code.

2012 LEW Design Update

What are people saying about the new look?

We converted all current sites at about 7pm on Sunday, October 28. Here are some of the comments sent to us (as we have not asked for permission to publish, we are not giving attributions):
  • Beautiful!
  • It's beautiful. I love it!
  • Excellent job!! The pages look wonderful and are far more readable than they were. We can all be proud of the work you have done.
  • Works like a charm! Great Work!
  • The new look is great. Thanks for all your hard work there.
  • I really like the new look....it"s a lot cleaner looking and offers some possibilities to retool some of our pages
  • In general, I think that the left links are too wide. They cut down on the content on the right, which is the most important part to the reader, and thus require more scrolling, which the reader does not want to do.
  • Looks wonderful!!!
  • it looks great! Thanks so much. Now I have to go in and clean up our calendar. Absolutely, wonderful job.
  • The new site is beautiful!

What changes have been made?

Here is a list:
  • The general look: the background is grayish, the type fonts are all the same as LWV.org, the "Making Democracy Work" graphic has replaced the photo with people. The bottom footer of the page has new colors and formats.
  • The pages are now centered and fixed in width.
  • On the home page, the phrase listing the geographical places served is now in the rounded area separating the top from the main page area and the "slogan" is highlighted in deep blue. On every other page, the slogan now appears in the rounded separator bar (new!).
  • The style of the "Featured Section" area has changed from using the flag-backed images to a red title with the "More" icon.
  • A Disclaimer about linking to other web sites has been added to the bottom of the home page.
  • The colors in the calendar and the contact list have changed.
  • Some images found on the "Graphics You Can Use" page are updated to look their best on the new pages.
  • When you print a page from your browser, you will get a cleaner, "stripped down" page to make it easier for people to read the text.

In summary, only the appearance is changing. The method used to change the appearance is to rely more heavily on something called a "stylesheet" that contains lots of definitions determining how the pages look and where elements are on a page. This was a major change for us and very welcome (thank you LWVUS!!). It means that future changes will be much easier to make. The part of the page templates that deal with how things look also changed.

What things are not changing? Do I need to worry about any of them?

These are not changing and should not be a worry:
  • The pages you have created and their order and structure.
  • The words you wrote for those pages.
  • The words in the Table of Contents in the left column.
  • Images you have uploaded. But read the next answer about white backgrounds on images.
  • Search engine results (they are based on your words and the words have not changed).
  • Links. If your links work today, they will continue to work. (And if they don't work, they will continue to be broken until you fix them).
  • Email addresses, PayPal, videos.
  • The computer programs that make up the LEW system.

Our advice: don't worry about any of the items above. You need not check links, you need not compare the data on pages. It would be a waste of your time. On the other hand, this is a great opportunity to review your entire web site to make sure it is ready for the election!! You can do that before or after we make the change.

When I see our newly-updated site, what should I look for?

Things that have to do with appearance:
  • Look at all images. Do you see white where you wish you didn't? If so, you should find a new transparent image or you should make the image you are using transparent. Or you could choose to add a border around the edge. If you are using the HTML <img...> command, include the "border" keyword: <img .... border="1"...> Or use an image processing program and add a physical border, then re-upload the image.
  • Are your images placed the way you want them? Do the words wrap the way you want? If you are using the <image-here...> or <image-left..> or <image-right...> commands, see Upload photos to LEW.
  • Did you use table commands, either real HTML or our LEW version? If so, check that they still look as you wish. If you used them to create a tabular list, they should be OK. If you used them to place objects and text in certain places on a page, then check that they are as you wish.
  • Do you tend to use real HTML commands for styling? Some people use the commands for bold, italics or <div> or <span> or headers. If you do that, be sure to check those pages. If you made some HTML coding errors, it could strongly impact the look of your page.
  • Do you see a scroll bar at the bottom of a page? The pages are of a fixed width. When you open your current web site in any browser and grab the left or right edge and move it, the width of the page usually changes to fit the width of your window. In the new design, the width will not change. If you currently have some photos, for example, that are wider than the area we have for the main body of your page, the viewer will need to scroll right at the bottom of the browser window to see all content of your page. Also long URLs on pages could cause the same issue. What to do? Make the images smaller or hide those URLs!!

If you have any concerns or questions about your site or see something that looks strange, don't hesitate to send us an email at support@lwvnet.org.

I want to print out a copy of one or more pages of our site to show my board how they look on the web. How can I do that?

Previously, you could just print the page on a printer from your browser. Now such a print will do a simple format of the words in the main body of the page so people can easily read your material offline.

If you want a printed copy of one of your web pages -- as it looks on the web -- you have a few choices:

  • Install a browser plugin. For example, there is a good one for Chrome called FireShot. If you are reading this with Chrome, click here, then click on "Add to Chrome". There are probably similar tools for other browsers.
  • Use a screen capture tool like ScreenHunter from http://www.wisdom-soft.com/. It will create an image file.
  • Use your computer's screen print key which will copy your screen into the clipboard. Open a .doc file and paste that image onto a page. You may want to crop it before printing.

How does LEW create our web pages?

When you enter data into any form, we store it in a simple file associated with your web site. When we generate one of your pages, we apply our templates and styles to your data creating the physical page the browser will display. Because your data is stored separately, when we make an upgrade, all we are doing is applying the upgraded templates and styles to the same data.

Other Hot Topics!

Do you have a discussion group or elist where all LEW webmasters can trade experiences and discuss topics about web sites?

We recommend that you sign up with the New Media group Facebook page. They discuss using social media which can drive people to your web site. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/114269905330219/

I received an email from you sent to me as a member of the LEWMasters Googlegroup. I have an account with Google, but cannot login to this group.

We enrolled all webmasters in the group using your "wm@lwvxxx.org" email address. Unless you tell Google that you own this email address, you will not be able to log in to the Googlegroup.

Go to your Google account and add your "wm.." address as an alternate email address. You will have to respond to an email proving that you receive email sent there, but then you should be able log in to the group.

Remember, this is not a discussion group and we are using this group simply as a way to send you email messages. So if you login, you will just see the list of messages we have sent.

See the presentation to the LEW Users Group at Convention 2012.

See the LEW Users Group presentation that announced the new functions and gave some examples of good pages by you!

May I upload my photos and other images myself?

YES! Read all about it on this photo upload help page.

I see a search box on my pages. How does it work?

This search function was added in June 2012 so that your visitors can search your pages by entering keywords to find your pages.

If you don't see a search box on your pages, go to your site generation home page and turn those dots green!!

We decided to use "Duckduckgo.com" which, in spite of its crazy name, has several advantages. They do not display ads, they claim to reduce spam and offer real privacy.

I just added some new text and after approving its release, I searched for some words in the new text. The changed page was not found.

When you add new text, the search facility will not find that text for some time. Sorry, but we don't yet know how long it will take. Duckduckgo will periodically send "robots" to read all the pages on your site and create searchable indexes. Try the search again in a couple of days.

Why is there no search box on my members site?

Because we ask search engines not to index your site to afford you some privacy.

You can now ask that the events on your calendar be sorted in reverse.

In a past or archived calendar, users wanted to see the most recent date at the top of the list. Read about sorting events.

LWV.org has updated their look. How will LEW make all of us look like part of the family of Leagues?

We changed the logo and will be looking at making other changes soon now that the templates are available from lwv.org. We'll keep you posted! You will not need to do anything. (March 2012)

Can we check for broken links?

Yes, by using an openly available tool. Read 'Do you have a tool I can use to check---'.

My League has qualified with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) organization which means that all dues and donations are tax deductible. Do you support this? (Updated January 4, 2012)

Yes. This specification must be made in the League registration data form. By default, all Leagues are considered 501(c)(4) organizations and have the ability to accept tax-deductible donations to an Education Fund.

If you have qualified as a 501(c)(3) organization, go to the registration form section titled "Detailed Information about your League" and check the box that says: "The League overall qualifies as a 501(c)(3) tax deductible organization". When you approve and update all pages, you will see this information reflected on the Join the League Form and the Donate form. Some text changes have also been made to the page "Join the League".

Can we use PayPal to collect money online? How do we do this? (updated November 2011)

Through the use of PayPal, League members or others can utilize their personal credit cards online to pay for membership dues, make donations, purchase merchandise, pay for attendance at League annual meetings or other events, etc. PayPal will regularly transfer such payments, net of its fees, to the League bank account you designate and provide detailed reporting of the source and purpose of each payment.

Please see detailed instructions for using PayPal with additional questions/answers on this topic.

NEW! You may now embed the PayPal form on your LEW web page!

Does your site need a "makeover"? (May 2011)

Some hints and tips about changes you can make to your site and ideas about how to organize a team of League volunteers to maintain the site are found in the new Powerpoint presentation by Carol Watts and Jenny Waggoner. See Web Site Makeover: What, Why, and How to Make your Site Hot (PDF) This was presented at a workshop during the recent LWV California state convention so may appear to be California-centric. But it should be useful to all.

Also available is an excellent presentation by Mary Pickett from LWV Michigan: Making the Most of Websites and Social Media (PDF).

A sans serif font is now used on all LEW pages. (December 2009)

To provide a consistent appearance of all LEW pages, we have changed all fonts in the body of LEW pages to use a sans serif font rather than the user's default font.

Your link to the list of Leagues in the US may be broken. (October 2009)

When LWVUS reorganized its Web site (lwv.org) several years ago, all its page names were changed, and LEW changed its templates to use the new links. However, most revised templates did not and cannot affect the contents of those pages on existing LEW Web sites -- only those LEW Web sites started after the template changes. When the lwv.org Web site was initially changed, special definitions were included to redirect links to the old page names to the new page names, so we did not ask Leagues to change their LEW links. However, those lwv.org redirects have been removed, so the existing LEW links no longer work.

Leagues who started their web sites before this change was made in the templates, should check their About the League page in the section "Other League Organizations". If you see something like this sentence:

See "other Leagues in [your state]"<http://...> and "other state Leagues and local League websites"<http://www.lwv.org/about/state.html>.

The link to lwv.org should be changed to:

See "other Leagues in [your state]"<http://...> and "other state Leagues and local League websites"<http://www.lwv.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Find_a_Local_League>.

How can you link to a YouTube video from a LEW Web site? (October 2009)

You can imbed your YouTube video on a LEW Web site page. While on the YouTube site, looking at the video you want to embed, there is a "share" button under the video. Click that, and now below you will see an "embed" button. Select that and copy the code it generates.

A New Directory of Ready-to-Use Images has been added (September 2009)

To make it easier for Leagues to include graphical images on their pages, please see Graphics You Can Use. If you want another general image, please send an email to support@lwvnet.org and we will consider adding it to this page for you and other Leagues.

What new features will we see in the future?

We keep a detailed list of feature requests from users. Periodically, we review and prioritize the items and work with our developers to implement them. Please let us know your suggestions! Send to support@lwvnet.org.

When was the last price increase?

July 1, 2009. LEW's one-time set up fee is currently $100 for all Web sites and the annual fee is now $200 for all new or renewal billings. This was the first change in pricing since League Easy Web was introduced in 2001. We use the funds to cover ongoing costs and to fund improvements to keep LEW modern, secure, and fun to use.

I understand that some Leagues are getting a discount?

Leagues in California are being subsidized $40 annually by LWV California, their state League. We encourage other state Leagues to support their local Leagues by providing a similar subsidy. Leagues are more successful when they collaborate and support each other, and state League support can be a key factor in making our online presence nonpartisan, informative, and something to be proud of. LEW is also working to find grants and donors willing to help fund this incredible project. Are you able to help us? Email support@lwvnet.org.

How can I help LEW? (April 2009)

Because of the growth of LEW, we are looking for volunteers to assist in LEW management. We are also considering starting a "buddy" program so that LEW webmasters can get to know each other and share ideas; please let us know if you'd like to get involved! Email support@lwvnet.org.

How can I find out about prior changes to the LEW system?

For information about prior changes to the LEW system, go to the Archive.