Customize your guestbook

Your guestbook is a page hosted at ultraguest.com, but it does not have to look like one. Colours, fonts, a header of your own and, if you want it, a complete stylesheet are all set in the Control Panel and take effect the moment you save. Nothing to install and nothing to pay.

Colours, fonts and background

Under Design › Colors and Style you set six colours (text, links, page background, message text, message background and message border), the font family and the font size (10 to 20 pixels). An example message at the top of the page changes as you type or pick a colour, so you see the result before you save.

A header of your own

Design › Guestbook Header takes text or HTML for the top of the guestbook: a welcome line and a link back to your site. A preview updates while you type. Scripts are not allowed in the header, so it stays safe for your visitors.

Custom CSS

If you know CSS, Design › Edit CSS replaces the guestbook's whole stylesheet with your own, so it can match your site exactly. The class names in the guestbook markup have stayed the same for many years, and stylesheets written long ago still work. Your stylesheet replaces the defaults completely, so define every class you need; delete it to return to the colour settings.

What the page shows

Settings › Guestbook Options holds the switches: your site's title and address (shown as a "return to" link), the link to the sign form, smilies, private messages, approval of new posts, the word filter, a Website field for your visitors' own sites, and up to three custom fields of your own, such as "Where are you from?" or "Favourite song". Visitors can also pick a country flag when they sign. Settings › Language shows the guestbook's labels in one of 24 languages, and Date and Time sets your time zone and date format.

Linking it from your site

Account › Link Code gives you three ready-made snippets: the embed, which shows your newest messages inside your own page, and a "View Guestbook" and a "Sign Guestbook" link, which you may edit freely. The addresses are simply /view/YOUR-ADDRESS and /sign/YOUR-ADDRESS, so your own link or button works just as well, and Account › Guestbook Address lets you put a name of your own in place of the number or code. The setup guide walks through it step by step, and the demo guestbook shows the default look.