Have you ever wished you could change your account URL on Calaméo from numbers to something a little more, well… you? Something that includes the name of your business, so readers always know whose publications they’re browsing? Starting now, you can!
We are pleased to announce that custom account URLs are now available on our platform.
There are many valuable reasons to change your account URL on Calaméo. First, seeing your company name in the site address will reassure readers that your Calaméo account is official. Second, it will work with your company logo in the publication viewer to reinforce the link between your content and business. And lastly, along with a strong account page, it may contribute to improving your visibility online.
How it works is simple. All users with an active PLATINUM plan are eligible to choose a custom account URL. Just go to the Account info section of your Settings and click the blue “Customize Your Account URL” button. Then follow the instructions to select your new URL!
But be careful: you can only change your account URL on Calaméo once. Make sure you’re entering the name you want and double-check for typos before you finalize your choice.
For complete details, check out the full tutorial in our Help Center. And if you’d like to change your account URL on Calaméo but don’t yet have a PLATINUM plan, visit our Pricing page. You’ll see all of the great professional features that our digital publishing solution offers.
Still have questions? Let us know at contact@calameo.com for awesome help, fast.
In the digital age, virtual libraries have become essential tools for organizing, sharing and accessing online resources. Thanks to technological advances and new solutions such as the Library Widget from Calaméo, it’s easier than ever to create a virtual library that meets users’ modern needs. In this article, we’ll explore the key steps to creating your own virtual library and show you how to make the most of the tools available.
A virtual library is an organized collection of digital documents, accessible online. Unlike ordinary libraries, virtual libraries offer unlimited accessibility, simplified content management and the ability to adapt to the needs of their users.
Here’s an example of a virtual library created with Calaméo:
Why you should create a virtual library: the major advantages
Optimized visual display
One of the greatest advantages of creating a virtual library is the simple, interactive way of showcasing your publications. Whether you want to display every issue of your magazine or a varied collection of documents, the virtual library enhances the visual impact of your content. Thanks to intuitive navigation, visitors can easily browse your virtual shelves and click on a cover to open the publication in full screen or in a new window. They can then easily return to your virtual library once they’ve finished reading.
Automatic updates
Automatic updates make it easy to manage your virtual library. Every time you add a new publication to your Library Folder on Calaméo, it instantly appears on your virtual shelves. By choosing to create a virtual library, you’re freed from repetitive manual management tasks. Removing publications is just as easy: mark them as private or move them to another Folder to adjust their accessibility with a few clicks.
In-depth analytics
When you create a virtual library, you also benefit from detailed analytics on how your audience interacts with your publications. You can track views, link clicks, downloads and traffic origin. These analyses enable you to adapt your content to better meet your audience’s expectations and improve engagement with your virtual library.
Why choose Calaméo to create your virtual library?
To create an effective virtual library, it’s essential to choose a platform tailored to your needs. Several solutions are available on the market, but the Library Widget from Calaméo stands out for its ease of use, intuitive interface and numerous advanced features. This solution is ideal for those who want to create a virtual library quickly and without any particular technical skills.
By using this feature, you benefit from :
Easy embeding on your website: Calaméo enables effortless embeding of your virtual library on your website, which means you can showcase your digital resources in a harmonious, professional way.
Visual customization to match your brand: Thanks to a variety of customization options, you can adapt the appearance of your library to reflect your brand identity and blend seamlessly into the pages of your website.
Numerous options for sharing and distributing your publications: With Calaméo, you can easily share your publications on social networks or by e-mail. This enables you to reach a wider audience and increase the visibility of your resources.
Step 1: Publish and organize your documents on Calaméo
Organizing your documents is a key step in ensuring an optimal user experience and smooth navigation in your virtual library. To ensure that your publications are easily accessible and well structured, it’s important to prepare them well before publishing them on Calaméo.
Start by publishing your digital documents on Calaméo. Each publication should be accompanied by a catchy, descriptive title, incorporating relevant keywords linked to your content. Don’t forget to fill in the description of each publication with clear, engaging summaries that will encourage users to discover your content.
Next, organize your publications by placing them in Folders or adding them to a Favorites list. For these documents to be visible in your virtual library, it is essential that Folders and publications are defined as public.
NOTE: Private publications will not be displayed in the Library Widget, giving you total control over what is visible to your users.
All you have to do is select the Folder (or favorites list) whose contents you wish to display in your virtual library. All public publications in this folder will automatically appear in your library, making it easy to manage your documents without any extra effort.
Step 2: Customize the appearance of your Library Widget
Personalizing your virtual library is essential to ensuring a user experience that reflects your brand identity. Thanks to the many customization options offered by the Calaméo Library Widget, you can adjust the appearance of your library so that it blends seamlessly with your website while reinforcing your brand image.
You can adjust the following elements of your Library Widget:
The texture or background color of the library to match the style of your website.
The number of shelves to display to visually organize your publications.
The size of your publication thumbnails for optimized display.
The information to be displayed for each publication (such as title or description).
The order in which your publications appear, allowing you to highlight certain strategic documents.
The way publications open (in a new window or full screen).
You can also adjust the appearance of thumbnails by choosing, for example, a shadow or other visual effects that enhance the impact of your publications. These subtle details play a key role in enhancing the aesthetics and navigation of your virtual library.
TIP: While you’re customizing the look and feel of your Calaméo Library Widget, you can see the changes in real time thanks to the preview function. This allows you to test different configurations and ensure that each modification fits perfectly into your overall site before finalizing the upload.
By customizing your virtual library with these options, you offer your users a fluid, visually appealing experience, while reinforcing your brand identity at every stage.
Step 3: Embed the Calaméo Library Widget into your website
Once you’ve carefully customized the look and feel of your virtual library, the next step is to embed it directly into your website. This step is crucial to making your virtual library accessible to your users and enabling smooth navigation between your content and the other pages of your site.
Embeding the Calaméo Library Widget is quick and easy, and you have several options for doing so. Once you’re happy with the configuration and design of your virtual library, simply copy the embed code provided by Calaméo. This code can be inserted on any page of your website, whether on a page dedicated to your publications or another section of your site.
This intuitive process makes it easy to present your digital document collections in a professional, interactive way.
READ MORE: If you need help with embedding, resources such as the tutorial or the support pagein the Calaméo Help Center are available to guide you step by step.
By embedding a Calaméo library on your site, you enable your visitors to easily explore your digital publications directly from your platform, without having to navigate to another site. This not only enhances the user experience, but also reinforces the consistency of your brand image by providing seamless access to your documents in a controlled environment.
Embeding requires no advanced technical skills and, once the code has been inserted, your virtual library will be automatically updated every time you publish new documents or modify existing ones. So you don’t have to worry about manually keeping your library up to date, which saves you and your team valuable time.
With just a few clicks, you can create a dynamic, scalable virtual library that blends seamlessly with your website, while enriching your users’ experience and facilitating access to your digital content.
Conclusion
Creating a virtual library represents a unique opportunity to modernize your content management and improve access to your digital resources. With the Calaméo Library Widget, you have a powerful and flexible tool at your disposal to set up a virtual library perfectly adapted to your needs.
Don’t wait any longer, transform the way you share information by starting to build your virtual library with Calaméo today!
Here on the blog, we show the details of different features that make Calaméo work for you. From virtual libraries to custom viewer themes, we’ve highlighted plenty of ways to bring your digital publications to the next level. But one tool that we haven’t talked about is the Calaméo API and how to use it.
Today we’re taking on the subject of Calaméo’s API. We’ll look at what API is and in particular ways that it can help simplify your digital publishing needs.
Short for Application Programming Interface, an API is the set of protocols that allows a particular program to communicate with a different program. A main advantage of having programs communicate with each other via API is that it removes the need for people to intervene between them.
For example, your business may use software to manage the content of your digital publications and Calaméo to publish them online. By connecting your content management system to Calaméo’s API, you can avoid having to transfer files manually from your software to your Calaméo account for uploading. You can instead configure your software to publish to Calaméo directly.
💡 TIP: To make use of our API, you’ll need to roll up your sleeves and code. If you’re not already comfortable with software development, we recommend discussing your specific needs with a professional for best results.
As a PREMIUM or PLATINUM user, you can publish up to 10 documents every 15 minutes or make up to 10,000 requests per hour with our API.
The Calaméo API in practice
It’s easy to see that making smart use of API can be a real timesaver. However, seeing where to get started may not be quite as easy. You might want to use Calaméo’s API if:
You use your own software for managing content
You use your own software for managing subscribers
You use your own monetization system
You want to monetize your publications on Calaméo
One of our API’s most valuable uses for our publishers is to create a system for selling their digital publications. First, make Subscriber lists to control reader access to their publications. Then, link your publication’s subscriber protections to an external payment program. A simple development will let you collect revenue for individual publications, a series or a period of subscriber access.
How to set up API access
The first step is to be sure you have a Calaméo account! If you don’t yet, you can sign up here for free.
Next, create an API key and set its access to the external software you want to connect. This is where you’ll need to begin developing your own code.
Once your API key is configured, all you need to do is consult our list of the Calaméo API’s methods and decide what you need to get done. The exact configuration for publishing, managing subscribers and monetizing content will depend on the programs used by your business.
To sum it up: No matter what you wish to accomplish with your digital publications, Calaméo’s API can be a great resource.