Signing Up Was Easy, But What Is a Guide?

• Sum it up: A guide is a visual list. It’s that simple.
• Fill me in: Building a guide allows you to combine text, links, photos, videos, addresses and maps all in one place without having to use the techy stuff to get it done. Organize the layout via drag and drop.

I Get It, But I am Having Guide- Block, Tell Me What to Write About:

Ok, for those easily entertained, you could start out with writing about your local favorites, your pet peeves, your favorite things on the internet, your ideal night on the town, your worst adventures, or ideas for the best adventures.

Feeling GuideFrisky, then write a guide to dating, a guide to creating, baking, designing, directions, suggestions, photos of your favorites, links to the cool, or bad television that rules. Need a real creative challenge? Leave a comment on this guide and I will bring it on!

I’ve Got 30 Seconds Until I Get Bored, So Tell Me What I Need To Do To Make a Guide:

Sign-Up, or Log In if you are already a member, activate your account, fill out that fun profile, and let the fun begin by clicking on the link in the toolbar that says, Create a Guide.

Shutup with the Guide Inspiration and Help Me Make a Guide:

Once you clicked on Create a Guide, you will be inside the guide edit mode. First, decide what kind of guide you are going to write, a personal guide, created and edited only by you, or a Community Guide, which is a guide that any GSpotter can add to.

Fill out the basics, the title, description, the categories, the tags, and what kind of guide it is, and then scroll down to your own personal canvas… Your guide, your rules…

Note: The guide is private until you allow it to be public, so don’t forget or we can’t see it!

I See The Guide Tools But Tell Me What They Do:

Business / Attraction:

- Look up and find the addresses to businesses, restaurants, schools, attractions, cities and States, and then add them into your guide.  Once the address is inserted into your guide, you can write about the listing within the listing text box where it says, “Add a Description.”

- If You see content already there, and you don’t want it there, then click on “Add a Description” and click on the option to write your own content. If you click on this option, you can write in your own description or leave it blank all together.

- Press “Edit” and “Save” to go back and fourth between edits within the text box.

Custom Address:

- Not all listings and addresses are searchable via the Business / Attraction tool. For example, you can’t find the address or contact information for individuals, but you can customize and map out an address on your own with this tool.

- Please note that you must have a city and state or a zip code entered in this object in order for Guidespot to recognize the address.

- Guidespot tries hard to make sure that all business listing information is up-to-date and accurate, but sometimes, we have a brain fart, and the information is not correct. Please help us out by sending us a quick feedback email and let us know.

Text:

- Add this object into your guide if you want to have your own content separate from any of the other objects. Use it for anything you want, and customize the look by editing the text with the provided text editing tools. Basic textile is accepted in text boxes.

– Hint on how to add a link within your text: Quote the word you want hyperlinked “Guidespot” and include a colon after the quotations “Guidespot”: and then add in the entire url (http://) after the colon. There are no spaces at all. When done correctly, here is what it will look like: Guidespot is the best website on The Internets.

Map:

- When you insert a map you have the option of flagging addresses/listings on a map that you have already inserted into your guide via the Business / Attraction or Custom Address objects. Simply insert a map and then while in the edit mode, check which listing you would like to appear on the map. You can pick none, one, or all of them, or you can have multiple maps representing different listings.

- Feel free to give the Map a title and description.

Image:

- Insert an image from your own collection on your computer or from Flickr.com. You can also write in a title for the image, as well as a description when you are in edit mode.

- If you want to use an image from Flickr all you have to do is copy the url of the image you like and paste it in to the object box where it says, “Paste the Flickr URL for your image in the field below.” Make sure you only use the url for that image, and you can do this by first clicking on the image before you copy the url. Make sure you have permission from the photographer to use the photo from Flickr before making the guide public. Click here for more Info on copyright rules and image help.

Video:

- Find a video you like on YouTube.com and copy the video URL and paste it into the “Video URL” section on the Video object. You can also write in a title for the video, as well as a description when you are in edit mode. 

- Can’t get the video to play? It might not be your fault. More info on the FAQ Guide.

Link:

- If you want to make a statement and put a link into your guide, insert this object and designate a new name for the link and have the option of adding text directly under the link and/or a title. You do not need to know anything techy to use this object.

Tell Me About Reorganizing my Guide With Drag and Drop

Anytime you have more then one object to your guide, you are able to drag and drop the objects to different locations within the two columns. Move them left or right, up or down… It is up to you! You can always come back and change the layout of your guide, so you are never stuck!

If you are the author that initiates a Community Guide, you are the only person who can delete objects someone else added, as well as the only person who can reorganize where the guide objects are within the guide.

Share Your Guide

Keep your guide private and share the URL via email or IM with friends or family, or designate the guide as public and allow your guide to be seen on Guidespot and show up in search sites like Google.