Customer Support

The purpose of the EZ-Directory is to provide an efficient way to arrange alphabetical lists of people, places, or things according to a certain classification. It will also create an automatic alphabetical search by a category and name. For example, a customer may want to develop a community directory. Each business or family that customer wants to include would become an Associate. That customer would group businesses or families according to a certain Category, such as Grocery Stores, or Main Street Residents. Once the information on each individual is compiled, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, etc, it can be manually inputted or imported from a spreadsheet like Quattro Pro or Excel into EZ-Directory. Each Category can also include premier listings, which will appear at the top of the page before regular alphabetical listings and show several graphics and various extras such as email, website, map, and audio. More advanced features include subcategories and placing button ads onto a category page.

To get to the EZ-Directory go first to Construction tools. There you will see the option for the EZ-Directory on the right side. Select this to enter the EZ-Directory setup.

Setup of the EZ-Directory

First, decide what classification name you would like your directory to have. (Note: You can only set up one directory per member account.)

1. Under the Construction Tools, select EZ-Directory and click Go.
2. The first option on the left is Label. Click on "Label". This allows you to set the classification of your directory, such as business, medical, etc. The Category name could be Business Types, Medical Types, etc. Next, the Associate name could be Businesses, Families, Doctors, etc.
3. Click Submit to finish.

There are two ways to enter information into the EZ-Directory.

MANUAL INPUT

The first is to manually enter the information one by one which is used for Directories under 35 enteries or so. Click above for full instructions on using the manual input option.

IMPORT

The other option is to enter in the information by using the import feature which can upload data from a spreadsheet program. Click above for full instructions on using the import feature.

BUTTON ADS

After you have your directory somewhat established, you may want to add button advertisements onto your category pages. For instance, if one of your customers is an Auto Dealer, you may want to create a button for him and place it on the A category page. This is an easy, quick way of implementing a very lucrative part of the directory function. It may help to create a graphic that says "Ad space available" or "Advertise here" and show your phone number, to help generate interest. Also, it may help to have a specific number of ads such as 3 or 5 that you will run on all pages. That way you can control how many advertisements are displayed and create more demand for ad space.

To include ads in your directory:

1. Click on "Button Ad" from the EZ-Directory Main Menu. The Button Ad menu will appear. Some instructions for the Button Ad are included on the top of the page here. Be sure to read these.
2. In the drop down menu "For all Category that begin with the letter" select the letter that represents the page of categories you would like to add your add on.
3. From the drop down menu, select which letter you would like an ad to appear in. For instance if you have a customer who sells cars and he would like to place an advertisement on your A page because that is where the automobile link can be found, you would select the letter A in this drop down menu.
4. Click Edit, the Button Ad page for the "A" category will now appear.
5. Click on browse to find the name of the graphic you want to use for your advertisement, or type in the filename in the text box.
6. Continue adding advertisements until you have finished adding all the advertisements you wanted to add.
7. The Sort box will allow you to easily change the order of your ads without cutting and pasting or retyping .
8. If you would like to delete any of the ads, click in the box next to that graphic and click on Delete at the bottom of the page. (Note: It will not ask you if you are sure, so be careful when using this button.)
9. When you are finished, click on the Submit button. At any time you can click Return to go back to the Button Ad Main Menu.

Email Associates

The Email Associates option on the main EZ-Directory menu will allow the owner of the EZNet-Tools account to email a message to all Associates that signed up for a Newsletter.

1. Click on Email Associates.
2. The "From" address shown is the account owner's email address; this is retrieved from the Edit Profile section under Administrative Tools.
3. The Subject box is where the subject of the Newsletter or Advertising message can be entered.
4. The large Message box is where the actual body of the email message can be entered.
5. When finished, click on Send Email.
6. Click on Return to go back to the main EZ-Directory menu without sending the message.

EZ-Pagebuilder™ EZ-Directory Block

1. Open the page you want to have the directory listing placed on.
2. Add a new block and select "Directory Listing" from the "Type" list.
3. The Directory Listing window will now open. First, in the Header box, type in the title, such as Search by Category, Search by Name, etc, or leave it blank.
4. Next, select the font size for the listing, 3 or 4 is standard.
5. Sort by: will allow a directory listing either by category, by the Associate's name, or by the Contact Person's Last Name. Alphabetical display will show an A B C D E F G , that link to a page that will list all the categories that start with that letter. The complete listing will show all categories or listings on the page. Like the note says, choosing the complete listing option will not update according to updates within the EZ-Directory function, only if the page is resubmitted. Also, if there are more than 15 or 20 categories in the EZ-Directory, it is not wise to use this option, only if there are a small number of categories or listings or if you do not have at least one category per letter of the alphabet.
6. Turning the Search on will display an input box underneath the Search criteria (either by category, by organization name, or by last name) where the user can type in a name themselves to find a type of listing.
7. Hit Submit when finished. Any number of Directory listing blocks can be added to fully customize the Search.