Welcome Tour
Getting StartedWelcome to BoltWire. Through the next few guides we're going to give you a basic introduction to our software and how it works.
Like all software, BoltWire has its pro's and con's. The advantage of BoltWire is its extreme flexibility, that it can do about anything you need right out of the box. And right from your browser. But the flip side is that it can take some time to master its many capabilities.
Here's another way to think about it: BoltWire is not for everyone. If you have very simple needs, and you just want to click a few buttons and put up a very basic site, there are plenty of automated website builders out there. You'll just be limited to whatever options they offer.
If time and money is not an issue, you can hire a developer and have them custom build your site exactly the way you want. But you could be talking thousands of dollars, and then you may find it hard to change your site down the road, without investing more.
BoltWire is something different. It takes some time to learn, but if you are willing to roll up your sleeves and tinker a bit--you can build a highly customized, innovative site with all the features you want fairly easy. And in the process, you'll acquire the skills you need to make other changes down the road as your needs change!
Essentially, what we've built is a fully programmable web development engine, for non-programmers, that runs right through your browser.
Now to help make learning BoltWire easier, we've gone ahead and configured our core engine to work the way we recommend. In the past, we offered our software as a giant lego box you could use to assemble your site any way you wanted. But some found that openness confusing. So in version 7, we decided to go ahead and set up more of the basics for you, with a specific focus on building interactive membership sites. Things are no less flexible, we've just gone ahead and included more tools and pre-built components for you.
We've also created a special Site Checklist page in our DOWNLOAD area you can use to go right to the parts of your site you are going to want to change first. It's a great tool to help you get going with your site customization.
But both of these changes get you into some of the nitty gritty of BoltWire. So if you are new to our software, I recommend completing this entire welcome tour first before getting too far into that checklist process. A good overview of the features in BoltWire will go a long way toward helping you understand how to set things up the way you want.
In the guides just ahead we'll look at how actions work in BoltWire, the power of page names, how to edit your site layout, how our membership system is designed, and all kinds of things about how to put dynamic content up on a page. You are probably going to be surprised at everything BoltWire can do. So buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Before continuing, however, I do recommend getting BoltWire installed and working on your server. That way you can follow along with the guides you'll be reading. If you are not sure how to install BoltWire, read this Installation tutorial. If you have any problems with the installation process, be sure to ask a question in the comments below.
Once your installation is running, click here to continue on to the next guide in our welcome tour.
Using Actions