Archden.org has a fresh face.

If you’re a regular visitor to the Denver Archdiocese’s Web site, archden.org, you probably noticed a difference last week. On Sept. 3 the Communications Office launched a refurbished version of the site.

Calling it “the new face of archden.org,” Communications Officer Tracy Kmetz said the new version offers more information and is easier to navigate than its predecessor.

If you haven’t ever visited archden.org, now’s a good time to discover the wealth of information available to you there.

The refreshed site, which was six months in the planning and design stages, has new features, including more detailed menu bars, an interactive calendar; a parish index that can be sorted by name, city or zip code; and an events calendar that can be sorted by category—listing all events alphabetically according to chancery office—or by chancery office, which lists only the events related to that office.

In addition to the regular menu bar, a second quick-link bar will connect people to overall information about the Archdiocese of Denver, the Pastoral Handbook and the Cardinal Stafford Library. Pages devoted to Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M Cap., and Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley can also be found here. Bishop Conley’s new page is largely modeled after Archbishop Chaput’s Corner, and offers a comprehensive archive of his own writings and discourses made since his arrival in Denver.

The new server for archden.org is contracted through HostWorks Inc. of Denver. The fact that the server is now local is a real plus, according to Kmetz.
“Our previous server was located in Peru,” she explained. “They did a good job, but now if we have questions or other aspects of the site to be worked on, all we have to do is go downtown.”

Designer of the new site was Jorge Paredes, Web master for the Denver Archdiocese.

The Web pages of the archdiocesan newspapers, the Denver Catholic Register and El Pueblo Católico, also got new looks. Among the new features on those pages (archden.org/dcr and archden.org/pueblo) are slide shows of photos related to the top news story. In response to readers’ requests, the newspaper Web sites now also pair photos with many of the stories, to better reflect what ran in the newsprint version of the papers.

Future plans for the archden.org home page, according to Kmetz, aim to include more photos of parish and archdiocesan events.

“Archden.org is an important tool for the faithful to communicate with the offices of the Archdiocese of Denver,” said Kmetz. “A huge benefit of the Web site is that people can find information regardless of the time of day or where a person might be—as long as they’re plugged into the Internet.

“Because the refreshed site was so recently launched,” she added, “technicians are still troubleshooting small bugs in the system.”

She asked for patience and prayers.

“We are very proud of our work,” Kmetz said. “But we have learned time and time again that prayer and God’s graces are the only way to effectively cross such technologically challenging bridges.”