To create a guestbook, simply go to the Members page located at http://www.netutilities.com/members, and enter the name of the guestbook to be created under the heading, "Guestbook". Then hit "Create My Guestbook!", and your guestbook will be activated instantly. Next, just cut and paste the code that will be provided to you, in the source code of your web page. The code you are supplied with will provide a link to the URL to view your guestbook, but you're the one who will have to actually create the guestbook itself. The reason you're the one who has to create it is because Netutilities has no idea of the questions you want to ask your visitors. To make creating the form easier, Netutilities has a form generator located at http://www.netutilities.com/members/forms/customize.html. To use the form generator, simply check off the attributes of the input you would like to create and then click on the buttons of these inputs. After entering the information that is asked for, the code will be shown to you in the text area box under the text, "Form Code". To preview your form, simply click the button that says "Preview This Form", and a new window should appear with the form that you created. Unfortunately, if your browser is not JavaScript enabled, you will not be able to use this form generator. After you are satisfied with the form you have created, you will have to change the line, <FORM ACTION = "http://www.netutilities.com/cgi-bin/form.cgi" METHOD = "POST"> to <FORM ACTION = "http://guestbook.netutilities.com/sign.cgi" METHOD = "POST"> and you will have to add <INPUT TYPE = "HIDDEN" NAME = "Webmaster" VALUE = "login"> & <INPUT TYPE = "HIDDEN" NAME = "Guestbook" VALUE = "guestbook"> (in that case), replacing the italicized words login and guestbook with your login and guestbook name, respectively. After creating your form, all you will have to do is change the italicized link provided to you when you create your guestbook to the location or URL of this page with your newly created form.

Follow the link provided to you after creating your guestbook, which should be http://guestbook.netutilities.com/view.cgi?webmaster=login&guestbook=guestbook. Up to 500 messages are stored in any one guestbook (10 are displayed at a time). After that, the newest messages will begin to push the oldest messages out of the guestbook. To prevent this from happening, create a new guestbook, and only provide a link to the URL which is used to view the filled up guestbook.

The code that you put on your page will provide a link to the place to view your guestbook and a link you'll need to change to sign your guestbook. Your guestbook will contain the information that was posted on it, in the form Name:Value where Name is the name of the input field and value is the preset or entered value. For each name where there is no value, (None Given) will become the text that appears after Name: where Name is the name of the field for which there is no value. Each field will be displayed in this fashion, separated by line breaks. The guestbook will also contain the time that the visitor signed the guestbook, the subject of the message, and the name and e-mail address of the sender. To set these fields, use the names, Subject, Name, and From, respectively in whatever input you choose to have set these values. Each entry is separated by an open line, created by the <HR> command. FYI: Inputs with the names, x and y will not appear in the guestbook. This measure was implemented in the guestbook program to prevent the coordinates of where your visitor clicked on the submit button to sign your guestbook, from showing up. (The x and y coordinates are sent to the program when you have an image submit button.)

If you have any problems with one of your guestbooks, the error message that is displayed should provide adequate information about the nature of the problem. If you receive an error that says that some file/folder cannot be created/written to, please inform webmaster@netutilities.com of the file/folder that cannot be opened. If the error says that no webmaster/guestbook name was supplied, upon viewing or signing the guestbook, make sure that the link to your guestbook has ?webmaster=login&guestbook=guestbook_name at the end of the URL. Many if not all of the other errors should be able to be solved by actually creating the guestbooks, which are case sensitive. (e.g. Guestbook will not enter the guestbook, guestbook.)

If this troubleshooting paragraph does not solve your problem, please contact support@netutilities.com.

The following is a sample of the links that you will receive after putting the guestbook code on your page (and changing the second link to the place to sign your guestbook). (The link takes you to an active sample guestbook.):