Our Web site is still www.fdmonline.com, but everything else is new and improved. Instead of recklessly making changes, we cleverly waited and tried to get everything right. The final project was worth the wait. Check it out and see for yourself. There's more information, and it's organized in a better format than before. Articles, product information, columns and news can be accessed more quickly and easily than on the old site.

I had wanted to include videos of building implosions and photos of Nicole Richie on the new site, but that wasn't necessary. We already have a growing library of our own videos, which are an important part of www.fdmonline.com. Viewers can see what we've been seeing in the shops, both in FDM and in CabinetMaker, with a few clicks of the mouse.

The Web site also has Gene Wengert's popular Wood Doctor's Rx and Wood Explorer articles, and readers can also search for specific Wood Doctor questions and for any wood species that has been profiled in FDM. The forum is up and running again. Many of the participants are from small and medium-sized shops, but anyone can post a comment or question, even the president of a Fortune 500 company.

Better and faster article search

One of the biggest changes is how our articles are organized. Instead of a single large, cumbersome database, we have rotating headlines of current stories, along with recent stories organized by subject, including equipment and technology, business management, materials, finishing, hardware, product focus, safety and regulations, and special reports. If you're looking for recent feature articles on, say, equipment and technology, you can click on this category and get a quick look. And you can still search using a word or phrase.

New products are always important, and we've upgraded this search capability. You can search by product keyword, category (matched to our directory categories), or by company name. You can also search by state, if you know where the company is located but don't know its exact name.

On the events tab, you can see information on upcoming woodworking webinars (we're working on a full schedule for 2008), and our Woodworking Automation Xchange event, which will be held in Arizona March 2-5, 2008.

FDM 300 data is available in a quick-look summary, along with the most recent design trends study. We've also included a recent news archive, recent Economic Watch columns, and an industry calendar.

You can subscribe to the magazine online, and take a look at the current issue in digital format. Information on sister publications CabinetMaker and CounterTop Business, our digital magazine focusing on the specification, fabrication and installation of countertops, is also available.

Take a few minutes and explore the new www.fdmonline.com. And then tell us what you think. You can go to my own email, [email protected] to offer comments.

You can see Nicole Richie anywhere, but who else has "preventing snipe" on their home page?