I have released a new “How to…” tutorial on adding Font Awesome icons to your website. This new tutorial can be found in the Continuing Education section of the Classroom curriculum, and runs about 15 minutes.

Font Awesome is a collection of over 300 icons that are technically fonts, so they can be styled like fonts in any size or color. Some 3rd-party RapidWeaver themes have started including Font Awesome, but many themes still do not, so this tutorial will walk you through two different methods of integrating Font Awesome. One method is very simple, while the other is quite advanced, but either way the tutorial provides all the details you’ll need to have success with integrating Font Awesome.

I’m also excited to announce that RapidWeaver Classroom is undergoing a complete redesign! It’s hard to believe that it has been 2.5 years since the last major design update, but I’m certainly not taking on this redesign project just because some amount of time has passed. I believe that Responsive Design is not just the newest trend in web design, but a design solution that is here to stay, and I want RapidWeaver Classroom to be an example of what Responsive Design can achieve. While the tutorials have been compatible with mobile devices for quite some time, the website itself is still static across all devices, and that is going to change with this new redesign. With a new responsive layout, you will find the website easier to navigate on your iPhone (or other smart phone) and iPad (or other tablet).

A responsive layout isn’t the only new feature that is coming with the redesign of RapidWeaver Classroom. I am also taking this opportunity to restructure the entire Classroom curriculum. Since the start of RapidWeaver Classroom in 2008, add-ons (plugins and stacks) have been grouped by developer. This was useful when the collection of add-ons was small, but it’s now clear that add-ons need to be organized by function -- so a redesign of the members’ area will include this new structure. You will find categories of add-ons such as layout, photo, media, light boxes, e-commerce, etc. Each category will include both plugins and stacks, and I will also be including the developer name alongside the add-on.

In addition to everything mentioned, I will be adding more useful resources such as a glossary and project checklist, a feedback and tutorial request area, and I am testing the integration of a search function that could provide another useful way of filtering through all of the available tutorials. I am very excited about all the benefits that this redesign will bring, and my goal is to launch it first for members sometime in the first half of October.

If you have any good ideas for a useful addition to this next version of RapidWeaver Classroom, please let me know! Thanks for taking the time to read this more lengthy update, and I look forward to sharing all of this progress with you soon!