eCatholic Release Notes provides a brief look at what we’re accomplishing for you through our product releases, upgrades, and internal workings. Our goal is to help you stay in-the-know while we strive to keep improving. Enjoy our September 2018 edition of Release Notes!
First impressions are everything, and that’s why homepage content is so important - it welcomes visitors into your site. Several free eCatholic themes offer homepage designs with large feature regions to display beautiful photography. Now, we are excited to announce that many of our new themes offer the option to fill the feature region with video.
That's right: Easily add video from YouTube, Vimeo, or your eCatholic LIVE account directly on your homepage! Trust us, it is super simple. The video clip will then play muted the moment the site is accessed (and you can choose to show or hide the video's controls). You can also add text over the content including a title, caption, and call-to-action button.
This new option will help you tell your story, evoke specific emotions, or simply capture visitors’ eyes as a way to say, “Come on in!”
Check here to see if Video Mode is supported in your eCatholic free theme.
Look for this beautiful new free-theme design for your website!
Our newest free theme, Loyola, makes it incredibly easy to create a unique and welcoming Catholic homepage, complete with engaging photo or video content!
Loyola is completely free and now available in your site's Design Studio. Select Loyola, then customize the theme with:
We think you'll also love Loyola's support for the new Video Mode feature (mentioned above), unique header design, and larger thumbnail images.
Here are a few improvements we've made to existing features and functionality.
Site publishers have always had the ability to add, edit, review, and publish content on specific pages of websites. Now, publishers can go directly into the Site Map Editor to easily edit page settings or create new subpages (only under pages they've been granted access to edit). This fine-tuning of our admin user roles is a development that improves site editing for your entire team.
Learn more: Understanding the Site Map Editor
Allow easier communication with those who submit a form on your site by utilizing the reply-to address option for the auto reply email field.
When building a form using eCatholic's online forms module, you can use the auto reply email field to automatically send your visitors a confirmation email along with summary of their submission and a customized message. Now, you can click into the advanced settings of the auto reply email field to add a reply-to address.
This means that if your visitors would click Reply on the automated confirmation email they receive after completing your form, their message will no longer get lost or overlooked. Instead, their response will go to the email address you specify.
Our simple drag-and-drop Catholic News modules provide an easy way to add reputable Catholic news to your website. Once the RSS feed for the Vatican News module (powered by news.va) became unavailable, we've replaced it with Vatican News powered by Crux.
This feed will easily show headlines regarding news in Rome from the writers of Crux. If your site had already been using the Vatican News module, it will now display the Crux news feed in its place.
In a recent team building exercise, we learned that 30% of the eCatholic team considers “Oh God Beyond All Praising” their favorite church hymn. And on a slightly funnier note, “Hail Holy Queen,” (the infamous version performed in the movie Sister Act) even received one vote. Our staff completes an internal survey regarding everyone’s individual likes, interests and other random facts. Then, we share the results in a fun guess-who-this-is type of game. What kinds of team building activities does your staff do?
A lot of people have their own “ritual” for getting through the work day. It’s those little things we look forward to like that afternoon coffee run, a certain work playlist, a special packed lunch, etc.
Well...at our latest Team Summit, we learned that eCatholic Evangelist and Diocesan Specialist Luke Tristani is all about his slippers. (Yes, you heard us right.) One benefit for working remotely is that he gets to enjoy a small selection of slippers while committing to each day’s pair based on crucial factors such as location, weather, etc.
Plus, we learned that Quick Flip Specialist Sarah Rennie has answered the call to serve in her hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada. Sarah teamed up with close friends and family to create a unique ministry experience for Young Adults in the Las Vegas. Cor Jesu Ministries creates events that offer prayerful environments through praise and worship, guest speakers and Eucharistic Adoration. They are focused on welcoming young adults “to connect to the faith of the Church through nourishing their relationship with God.”