At a time when bandwidth delivers multimedia sites at relatively good speed - we have begun incorporating the ‘flipping page effect’ into several of our projects. This allows us to build  cool features into our web pages. Imagine web pages that allow you to flip the pages of a book in real time with your mouse and see images, flash, videos and text.

In this way we can intertwine the comfortable functionality of a book page with all the new multimedia technologies and present an amazing  3d portfolio or album.

The following sites are examples of how this technology can be taken advantage of:

Casa Velha do Palheiro
This luxury hotel has used the technology to display the pages from magazines that carry articles about the hotel. See it here…

Tecnidesenho
These architects from Madeira island have incorporated designs, sketches and plans from their numerous projects into an interactive catalogue. See it here…

IVBAM (Madeira Wine, Embroidery and Handicrafts Institute)
These talented artists have taken their beautifully designed glossy catalogue and transformed into a digital flipping catalogue for their new web site. See it here…

Kommunikationsoptimierer
This German communications consulting company utilize ‘Flipping Book’ technology to introduce clients to their services. See it here…

The FlippingBook technology is helping to change the appearance of the Web for a more pleasurable and exciting experience. See more about this product at http://flippingbook.com/

To learn more about Navega Bem - Web Design visit our web site.

Keeping a web site up to date has become a simple task for Joomla based projects. Today it is easier than ever before to manage your content quickly and efficiently. But what about when a company closes for the weekend or recess or block vacations… how can you enjoy your time away from the company and be assured that your website is being updated and managed for you by Joomla?

Surprisingly, there appears to be many Joomla based site owners who are unaware about ‘time triggers’. This is something we explain when we school clients taking over a new and completed site. But probably because of the ‘jaw dropping’ experience of coming face to face with Joomla for the first time (hey -it is awesome!)- this important feature often gets swallowed and forgotten.

So what is a time-trigger? When you create a new article in Joomla 1.5 or new static content in Joomla 1.0.x you have the option specify  a ‘Start Publishing’ date and also a ‘Finish Publishing’ date.

This is a really cool and useful feature. You can prepare news, promotions, special offers etc… and when you leave your website behind at the office to enjoy your freetime - Joomla will publish the ‘time triggered’ information automatically. Your website stays totally up to date and your customers continue to receive the professional service you provide.

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Learn more about Joomla from the design specialists ‘Navega Bem -Web Design‘

The 2008 Madeira Wine Rally, the largest automobile event in the Region is into its second and final day.
Famous names from the world of motor racing and their cars are taking part in this major event.

58 participants were allowed to start the race with 21 special stages, to be covered by the drivers over three days.

With the second and final day of the Madeira Wine Rally underway, the top five drivers appearing on the leader board are fighting a heated battle for points and podium positions.

At lunch time today the Peugeot domination over the last several stages of Rally Madeira came to an end – somewhat – along the numerous curves of the Ponta do Pargo 1 stage, when Giandomenico Basso’s Abarth Grande Punto and Bruno Magalhaes’ Peugeot 207 tied for the stage win.

Navega Bem  wants to thank everyone that helped in getting numerous technical projects ready in a timely and professional manner for the start of the Rally. Special thanks to Marcia:

See you all at the party

The Clearview-Homes Group is several companies under one umbrella focusing on all aspects of the property market. The fully licenced group is  based on the idyllic island of Madeira offering new affordable luxury homes primarily for overseas property buyers.

The newly launched website offers information to English, Portuguese and Russian visitors. Although the site is not a property listing site and is more oriented to the groups activities - this is certainly an ideal starting point for prospective real estate buyers who are researching the property market on Madeira and Porto Santo.

Clearview-Homes Group knowledge and experience in guiding clients through the sometimes confusing task of buying a property on Madeira is second to none. Within the group of companies they have years of experience & have many satisfied clients. The company’s operations are based in the village center of Ribeira Brava, one of the most sought after residential areas of the island.

David Albon the managing director of the Clearview-Homes Group is your prime contact and he will see you through every aspect of buying and personalizing your dream home.

All the developments are owned, designed, supervised and constructed by the Clearview-Homes Group, whose fulltime employees cover professions such as construction, architecture, engineering, design, marketing, economy / accounting and law.
They have many developments in construction along the south coast of Madeira to suit every body’s requirements and budgets.

The site was developed by web design specialists ‘Navega Bem - Web Design‘. The project was crafted using the Joomla CMS framework.

When it comes to CMS solutions, some things are just plain obvious - and here are 5 good reasons where Joomla falls down again and again:

1. You can’t recognize a good Joomla web site
Professional web developers that create CMS sites using Joomla have no regard for the standard templates that are available and inevitably create sites that are totally unrecognizable as CMS and where the origination software can only be found after digging in the source code. Very original!

2. Get lost in the available extensions.
Good CMS solutions sport a ‘reasonable’ number of extensions. I know of several that can boast dozens. I know some CMS developers that can list them by heart. I even know of commercial CMS options that sport approximately 60 extensions. But Joomla with total disregard to its user base has gone totally overboard and currently offers 3461 extensions. Now that’s just sick! Who can keep track of so many extensions?

3. Joomla sites can fall to bits when they are finished.
It is alleged that Joomla sites are so easy to manage and keep up to-date that virtually anyone with a web browser and an internet connection can edit their website. In fact Joomla will tell you that you need no programming or HTML experience to manage your site. Therein lies the problem! Once a web design company has handed over a finished site to a client - they go crazy and add new texts and images and the whole thing ends up looking quite different to what the designer had in mind and has a really ‘up to date’ feel about it.
Caution: If you want your site to stay the way it was when you designed it - don’t use Joomla and don’t let your client update it.

4. Joomla is not for the elite
Elite design companies use specialized tools. They like to use things… the elite use. So forget Joomla! - Apparently masses of people are now using Joomla. There are hundreds of thousands of registered Joomla developers and a whole heap more of people using Joomla websites. Joomla has become very common indeed.
The bottom line: Joomla isn’t for the sophisticated anymore. Stick to your Mac and your iPhone!

5. You can’t deduct Joomla from your taxes
Yes, for most of you this will be the sticking point. You really can’t get tax returns when you use Joomla. So what’s that all that about then?
Those people at Joomla really went out on a limb when they decided to make Joomla ‘Open Source’. Without going into the small print I can tell you that it’s cost free - you can’t buy it. You won’t have any ‘overhead’ advantages with Joomla. For Pete’s sake - you don’t even get to pirate it!

So there you have it in a nutshell, Joomla is free, common, over used and quite possibly under rated.
You can find many more drawbacks at www.joomla.org

Being seasoned CMS professionals we tried several CMS solutions and quickly got into the mindset that we had to develop our sites around the software. That is exactly what we did for quite some time - until we encountered Joomla!

Joomla is ultra flexible and our sites are designed in Photoshop without any regard to what you may think Joomla can or cannot do. Our finished sites look exactly the way they do in the design layout.

Now that Joomla 1.5 is stable and supports many of the extensions we like to use, it has become even more apparent that we have no limitations when it comes to website design.

We feel that too many CMS sites look very similar and can often be spotted as CMS sites from a distance. For that reason we never use templates. Each site we design is carefully crafted from a unique graphic layout that has been meticulously researched for the clients particular needs. So, we have a large portfolio of websites - each unique and attractive in its own right.

So what is the secret? Well, there is none. Joomla makes it possible. Joomla for us is the ultimate CMS framework and it lets you take control of the complete development process. Sure, you may sometimes need to do a little extra programming to get things exactly the way you want them - but that is what professionals do.

Navega Bem - Web Design has absolutely no affiliation with Joomla and is a totally independent web design company. Our only connection is that we love Joomla!

The ballet school on Madeira island (Escola de bailado Carlos Fernandes) has launched its website. The feature full site has information about the school including how to enroll, activities, ticketing, image gallery, video clips and much much more.

Carlos Fernandes, the school founder hopes that the site will serve the public on Madeira island and be an inspiration to future dance students.

The site was designed by Sara Lomelino from ‘Navega Bem - Web Design‘ and is crafted around the Joomla CMS framework.

Sara explained “the site is a content management system that allows the school to edit and publish the content on their own - using a computer connected to the internet and a standard web browser - from anywhere in the world. They don’t need any experience with web site programming or HTML. I think this kind of site which we have developed around Joomla 1.5 is perfect for companies and organisations that want to keep their site up to date and attract loads of visitors”.

Visit the Escola de bailado Carlos Fernandes site here.

Portugals renowned Dj Foksen has launched his new official website with professional support of ‘Navega Bem - Web Design‘.

The site has been designed by Sara Lomelino and many interactive features are incorporated in the Joomla 1.5 framework: Image gallery, live digital audio feeds, download and media areas as well as the latest charts. Of course you can find all the latest news about Dj Foksen and upcoming dates of special venues. Visit the site ‘Dj Foksen - The Official Website‘.

One year after a meeting between Peter Russell and Chris Szabo to produce a podcast about Joomla, they meet again as Peter records a videocast in London and talks with Chris about his adoption of Joomla! 1.5, e-commerce and real estate implementations of Joomla! 1.5.

Joomla’s PR man, Peter Russell, is an Australian who resides in Yorkshire, UK. Peter works in media strategy, PR, media liaison and infomatics. See the videocast in full here.

Our Real Estate Agent CMS solution includes full design, multilingual
capability and search engine optimization. Just add your properties!
No license fees, no monthly fees, no maintenance fees or set-up fees.
Learn more about our award winning Joomla websites at Navega Bem - Web Design.