In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve upgraded our app for Facebook Pages. We also gave it a proper name (drum roll, please): Publisher.
The most interesting features are….
1. Upload directly from Facebook. No need to visit Issuu to upload anymore (although you must sign up from Issuu first).
2. Manage your publications. You can choose which publications to show and in which order. You can even change the document info too.
It’s simply the easiest way to publish in style to your Facebook fans!
Add the application here, and follow the on-screen instructions. Enjoy!
(Note that if you want to share a publication on a Facebook profile, you still need to click ‘Share’ / ‘Embed’ / ‘Add to Facebook’).
We’re getting really many requests from businesses who want to use our viewer. The most common questions are about pricing and if we provide a whitelabel solution (without Issuu branding). The answer is simple: Issuu will always be free to anyone who wants to use our standard solution. We will later introduce Premium memberships with very competitive pricing for a whitelabel viewer solution.
Luckily, many companies already got the message and are uploading by the bundle. A real hit has been the two embedding options:
1. Adding a small preview to your webpage. This is simply done by copy-pasting the embed code (click ‘Share’ and then ‘Embed’).
2. Integrating our fullsize standalone viewer into a custom weblayout. This is a bit more technical, but anyone with html skills can do it (you basically need to embed the URL for the standalone viewer in a frame or iframe). You will find the URL for this in the bottom-right of the Issuu viewer window.
A few examples of companies using Issuu
Demco provides tools for home, gardening and agriculture and has embedded our standalone viewer both with their catalog and their corporate book.
Würth UK is another great case where the automotive company has embedded practically all their brochures, using the small Issuu preview.
Using Issuu this way is like using the online marketer you never knew you had. And it’s free and easy! Apart from making your content available to new and existing customers on Issuu, you kill the ‘Download as PDF’ link that most customers dislike. You also get to keep your own URL and get the full potential out of Issuu, such as fullscreen mode and visitor statistics.
So, don’t be shy; keep those great catalogs coming.
Learn more about embedding.
No one enjoys signing up for a website. If you’ve been wanting to change your signup-email on Issuu, but didn’t want to start over, there’s good news.
Go to your Account Settings and click ‘Change email’. You will have to enter your password to verify the change, and click the link in a confirmation email we’ll send you.
On the Account Settings page you can also change your password, zoom-settings and email preferences.
We’ve just now released a bunch of exiting new updates on Issuu:
Google indexing
Now Google and other major search engines will be able to index content on Issuu. It will mean a lot of additional traffic to our member’s great publications. People have uploaded an extreme amount of pages already, so please be patient while the search engines do their thing, as it might take a while.
Text mode
Since we launched in December, we’ve heard a few voices saying our viewer wasn’t perfect for text reading. We listened. Now Issuu provides text mode. It disables the left/right movement of the mouse, until a vertical line is crossed. It’s ideal for easy reading of text pages. Try opening an Issuu document with text and zoom in. You can set your preferred zoom mode/level by changing your Settings.
Issuu for Facebook Pages
Many companies and professionals have a Facebook Page. Several of them have asked to get their Issuu publications displayed here. Once again we listened, and created a brand new application, just for FB Pages. You simply add the application to your page here.
Note: Adding an Issuu publication to your profile (not your Page), is still done by clicking ‘Share’ / ‘Embed’ on the actual publication.
Rating
Everybody has an opinion and it just got easier expressing that opinion on Issuu. Simply open a document and rate it in the upper right corner of the viewer.
These were the four major changes. Several smaller ones were also included that you will discover along the way. As always, we’re open for feedback.
Vote for Issuu
SXSW Interactive has opened the voting for The People’s Choice Award. If you like Issuu, make it heard by voting for us. All you need to do is click the image above, sign up and vote for Issuu.
We hope you will help us not totally lose face in this competition 
If you really want to help out, you can post the funny looking mascot above on your own blog/site with the link. Also note you can vote once a day.
People have been asking us where the animation video on our Explore page comes from. It was actually made in-house, except from the pages you see flipping about. They are real pages borrowed from a magazine we hold very dearly: Multilink Magazine.
The pages are from issue 9, which is embedded below. All Multilink’s back-issues are available on their Issuu profile.
Multilink is edited by Rob Lynam, with design and layout by his own company Inmo Ltd. Check out Multilink’s own website here.
We are very happy to have Rob with us, so we asked him to tell us what Multilink really is about:
“Multilink is about creative initiatives of all kinds, a showcase of various ideas and viewpoints. The magazine serves multiple purposes for me; as a networking aid, a tool for self promotion and ultimately as a scrapbook of all my favorite things. The format and regularity has shifted around a little in the years since it’s inception and as a non-profit project I do in between client work.”
Rob also tells us that his magazine will continue to remain free, and that he will start releasing two expanded volumes a year, instead of four annual issues.
Eventually we had to get our hands down to let you know just how happy we are with the great feedback we’ve received after the blogosphere started buzzing about us last week. Thanks a lot to all the people who blogged or emailed with valuable feedback.
As if that wasn’t enough, we just learned that we were selected as finalist for the SXSW Interactive Web Awards. “Hundreds and hundreds of innovative web designers and developers from across the globe” competed for the finals, and it goes without saying that we are truly honored to be among the finalists!
We are part of the category called ‘Experimental’, defined as “Cutting-edge and trend-setting destinations that are pushing the envelope and challenging our perceptions of the web.” It’s fair to say the we at Issuu appreciate this category in particular, as this is exactly what we are trying to do.
SXSWhat? Learn more about the event here and see the full list of finalists here.
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