Active Link Exchange Help: Main Screen User Interface.

Active Link Exchange main screen is divided into three distinct areas: the program's main menu, the link list workspace and the link exchange management workspace.



● Main Menu:
The program's main menu contains five submenus which provide access to all the software functions.



Just below the main menu a toolbar provides access to the most frequently project related functions including creating, opening and saving projects plus editing project options, categories and statuses respectively. You will normally start an Active Link Exchange session by creating a new project or opening an existing project. Click here for a sample and step by step Active Link Exchange session that will help you get started quickly and easily with the software.

Below the toolbar there is a set of buttons with shortcuts to the most frequently used link related functions.



- Find New Partners button: launches the Partner Research Wizard. When you create a new project the first step is to find the right partners and top web sites for your link exchange project. The Find New Partners Wizard will help you research the top potential partners and extract their web sites and information into your link list workspace. You can run the Find New Partners Wizard any time you want to research and add new sites to your link exchange project.

- Add Link button: allows you to manually add any web site you feel is important for your link exchange network and adds it to your link list.

- Remove Link button: removes a selected link from your link exchange list.

- Check links status button: launches the http link checker to find out if the selected web pages from your link list workspace are alive or no longer exist. This function updates the value on the Check Status column of your link list.

- Check link back button: checks whether the selected partner site still contains a link back to your web site. For this function to work the field named "Page containing a link to your site" (located in the Edit Link screen) must be filled out for the web sites that link back to you as soon as you get an email confirmation from each link exchange partner.

● Link List Workspace:
The link list workspace contains and lists all the web site links incorporated into your link exchange project by the Partner Research Wizard or added manually. All the data for each link is displayed including their url, web title, statuses, contact email address and web rank. All links for a given project are shown by default; to display just a subset of the links (such as the "Last added links") select any subset from the "Status filter" drop down box.



By clicking and selecting a link or list of links you can perform actions on them like editing their data, sending emails, checking the status and more. You can also edit individual link items by clicking on a particular column for a given link such as changing the email address, the link back status and so on.



The following fields or columns of the link list display information about each link:



- URL: the web page address found by the Partner Research wizard or entered by you manually. When you click on this field the program will preview the site in the "Preview" window.

- Title: the title of the web page as found by the partner research wizard. You can optionally edit the title from the "Edit Link" tab.

- Link back status: indicates whether the site links back to you or not. The link back status is managed automatically by the program link back checker (accessible through the "Check Link Back button"). However you can also edit it manually by just clicking on the field.

- Status: the web page progress status as set by the Find New Partners Wizard or updated automatically by other program functions. Default statuses include:
   □"Undecided"
   □"Link request mail has not been sent yet"
   □"Waiting for answer to link request mail"
   □"Waiting for answer to second link request mail"
   □"Web site links back"
   □"Web site wants to link back"
   □"Web site does not want to link back"
   □"Web site wants to be asked later again"
   □"Web site's reciprocal link does not work anymore"
   □"Web site is down"
   □"Web site belongs to competitors"
   □"Web site is not relevant"
As your link exchange network progresses and depending on the actions you take, the program assigns a status to each partner link on your list. You can also manually modify the status of any listing as you wish by just clicking on the status field. If you ever need more status options for a link exchange project you can add new statuses to your project by clicking on "Project/Edit Status List" from the main menu.

- Email: the email address of the owner of the site as extracted by the Partner Research wizard. You can edit it by just clicking on the email field.

- Check Status: the web page status indicates whether the web site is alive or is down. This field is managed automatically by the software "Check Link Status" function button. The status assigned is either "Good" or "Broken".

- Link present on my link exchange page: indicates whether your link exchange web page contains a link to the seleceted site. This is set to "Yes" automatically after you use the link page generator wizard to include a link and then upload your page using ftp. It is also managed by the main menu function "Project/Check partner links on your page". You can also edit it manually by just clicking on the field.

- Category: the category in your link exchange directory as assigned from the Find New Partners Wizard. If you do not wish to structure your link exchange project by categories the "General" category will be assigned by default. You can manually assign a new category to a given link at anytime by just clicking on this field. If you need additional categories for your project you can add them by clicking on "Project/Edit Categories" from the main menu.

- Notes: you can enter any notes or comments about this web page on this field.

- Date: the date when the web page was initially added to your link list either manually or by the Find New Partners wizard.

- Rank: the position in the search engine where the web page was found by the Partner Research Wizard. You can also edit this field and enter your own values.

Additional information such as the logo of a partner site or the exact web page where your partner has placed a link back can be entered by clicking on the "Edit Link" tab on the link exchange management workspace, located just below the list of links.
After selecting a link or group of links from the link list workspace you can then perform actions on them by either right clicking on them and selecting an action from the drop down menu or clicking on the desired action tab (such as Preview, Edit Link or Send Email) on the link exchange management workspace.

● Link Exchange Management Workspace:
There are four main tabs and work areas within the link exchange management workspace:



◊The "Preview" area works like a web browser and allows you to view any web page you have previously selected from the link list. You can also open the preview workspace by just clicking on the url field of any web page in the link list.



- Url: the address of the partner site selected is contained in this field. Since the preview window behaves like a web browser you can enter any url address and press enter to go there.

- : goes to the web address in the url field.
- : goes one page backward.
- : goes one page forward.
- : stops loading a web page.

- AllTheWeb button: finds out if the site is present in All the Web directory.
- Yahoo button: finds out if the site is present in Yahoo directory.
- Yandex button: finds out your position in the Yandex directory.
- : adds the web address in the url field to your potential partners link list.

Alternatively you can also preview the web page in your favorite browser by clicking on "View/View link in browser" from the program's main menu.

◊The "Edit Link" work area allows you edit or add more information to any web page you have previously selected from the link list.



- Url found: the web address of the page as found automatically by the Find New Partners wizard or added by you manually.

- Partner site homepage: the main home page for the web site.

- Page containing a link to your site: the web page address on your partner site that contains a link back to your web site. As soon as you obtain a partner confirmation email you should enter the exact web page where your link exchange partner has placed a link back to your site. The address entered here is used by the "Check link back" button function to automatically check if your partners continue to link back to you at any given time.

- Partner company: optionally enter your partner company name.

- Icon or logo of the partner site: if you want to include partner logos in your link exchange web page you may get a partner logo from any of the images located in the partner web site by clicking on the Get button.

- Title of the partner page: the title of the web page as extracted automatically by the Partner Research wizard (from the web page title meta tag). The Get button will extract the most recent content from the title meta tag. If the partner web page does not have a title meta tag this field will be left empty and you can enter any title here.

- Description of the partner page: the description of the web page as extracted automatically by the Partner Research wizard (from the web page description meta tag). The Get button will extract the most recent content from the description meta tag. If the partner web page does not have a description meta tag this field will be left empty and you can enter any description here.

- Partner name: the site owner's name as extracted by Partner Research wizard from the author's or owner's meta tag. You can edit or enter any name here which will be optionally used in your email exchanges with the partner.

- Notes: enter any notes or comments about the web page.

You may also edit any other data not present on the Edit Link screen like the email or the page status by clicking on the corresponding column from the link list workspace.

◊The "FTP" work area allows you to upload the link exchange page you created with the Link Page Generator wizard to your server. You can optionally use your own FTP program by indicating it on the External FTP option settings (when using your own FTP program you can upload your link exchange web page by just clicking on the Upload button from the Link Page Generator wizard).



The default ftp data used is the one you set for this project from the project FTP Settings screen.

- Folders window: the leftmost window is the folders window. When you connect to your server your server folders will display in this window. You may navigate between folders by clicking on them.

- Files window: the right window displays the files located in the selected folder.

- FTP host: enter your ftp host address (such as ftp.yourdomain.com or alternatively your ftp  IP address).

- FTP port: enter the port of the FTP server. The default port, 21, is used as the standard FTP port for most web servers.

- Username and Password: enter your ftp account and password.

- Passive mode: check this box if your server uses ftp passive mode. Leaving this box unchecked will work fine for most servers.

- Connect button: click on the connect button to establish a connection to your ftp server. When connected the button turns into Disconnect which you can use to shut down the ftp connection.

- Generate button: if you have not previously generated your link exchange web page for this project click on this button to launch the Link Page Generator wizard. The wizard will drive you through easy steps to automatically generate and upload your link exchange web page.

- Upload button: after you have generated your link exchange web page using the Link Page Generator wizard you can upload your links page to your server by clicking on the Upload button. The page will be uploaded to the currently selected FTP folder.

- Get button: use the Get button to download a link exchange web page that you previously created and uploaded to your server and save it locally to a folder in your PC.

◊The "Send Email" work area is used to communicate with link exchange partners. You can automatically send any of the built-in email templates or your own personalized email message to any number of partners which you have previously selected from the link list workspace.



- To: the email address/es to which the email will be sent. This field is filled automatically by Active Link Exchange with the email addresses corresponding to all the links you have previously selected from the link list. The email address corresponding to the first selected link will be displayed. Note that separate emails will be sent to each link on the list. If the Partner Research wizard was not able to extract an email address from a particular web site on your list the default email address as set on the General Options settings will be used for that web site.

- From: this is the sender email address, the email address you want to use to send the email. The program will use the email address you have entered for this project in your Project Options configuration screen. Before sending the email be sure you have previously configured the smtp email server to use from the Mail Options settings screen.

- Cc: if you want to send a copy of the email to some other email address enter it here.

- Email Template: select from one of the built-in email templates or select "New Template" if you want to create your own email body content. Available templates include:
   □ Initial link exchange offer (7 templates available)
   □ We have added your link, please add ours (2 templates available)
   □ We have added your link (4 templates available)
   □ Our link seems to be broken (1 template available)
   □ Repeat offer (1 template available)
   □ Circular link exchange (1 template available)
   □ New Template (create your own templates, unlimited)
As soon as you select a template it will be displayed in the body section within this same window.

- Subject: enter the subject of your email here. The subject of the template you have chosen will be automatically entered.

- In queue: the number of emails to be sent. This should correspond to the number of links you have selected from the link list workspace. After you have chosen an email template you should click on the "Add to queue" button so that emails are prepared to be sent and added to the queue. If this field shows 0 no emails will be sent when you click the "Send now" button.

- Add to queue button: as soon as you have selected the group of links to which to send the email from the link list workspace and after you have chosen an email template click on the "Add to queue" button to prepare the emails for sending and to add them to the mailing queue. You can add more emails to the pending queue at any time by following the steps above.

- Remove from queue button: click on this button to remove the selected link from the mailing queue.

- Clear queue button: click on this button to remove all messages from the mailing queue.

- Preview queue button: previews all email messages exactly as they will be sent to your link partners. Click on this button before actually sending an email to check that all email contents are correct.

- Priority: set the priority of your email. Default priority is set to "Normal".

- Confirm Receipt: check this box if you want a confirmation receipt that your email has been sent. By default it is unchecked.

- Send now button: click on this button when you are ready to start a mailing campaign. All emails stored in the mailing queue will be sent.

As soon as your emails have been sent, Active Link Exchange will mark the Status of those links accordingly (such as "Waiting for answer to link request mail"). You can see this under the Status column in the link list workspace. After a mailing campaign has been completed it is recommended to click on File/Save from the program's main menu to save the current project.