Google Sites Getting Started 1. Log into your gmail account 2. Click on Sites 3. Click on Create 4. Choose a Template if you want (these will have preset elements and page settings which you can then adapt for your own use) you will be able to change some of the features later (logos, etc) 5. Name your site (this will be the title of your page as well as part of your url address (you can edit the url if needed to shorten or remove characters)
6. Choose a theme (if you chose a template then you can skip this part by choosing a theme when you have also chosen a template you are keeping the way the site is set up and just changing the background of it) 7. Click on More Options and add a Site Category (such as education) and a description (both are optional) 8. Once you have set all up then click on Create at the top and the next page you will see will be your Home Page. Edit Sidebar Edit New Page Manage Site Permissions Editing your site To edit your site, click the pencil button in the upper right hand corner of the screen. The edit toolbar will provide you with the tools necessary to edit your site. It works like the Word toolbar. Insert allows you to add documents, presentations, gadgets and more. With Format you can format the text on your page. You can insert tables onto your page using the Table menu, and under Layout you can choose different layout looks for your page.
The link button on the toolbar will allow you to link to other pages on your site or to a web address.
Editing HTML Click the HTML button to edit the HTML on your site. Please keep in mind that Google limits the amount of editing that can be done. Some advanced coding won't work. Changing your site's layout With Google Sites, you can easily change the overall appearance of your site by editing your site's layout, themes, and colors and fonts. To change any of these, select Manage site from the "More" drop-down menu. Then, follow these instructions for the specific sections: 1. Site layout a. Select the Site layout tab under the Site appearance section. b. By clicking "Change site layout," you can change several aspects of your site: i. Site width: You can set your site's width to a specific number of pixels or to the default width of your theme. ii. Header: You can check the box next to Header if you would like to
have a header for your site. If you choose to have a header, you can specify the header's dimensions and how it should be aligned. iii. Horizontal navigation bar: If you would like a horizontal navigation bar, click the box next to Horizontal navigation bar. Usually, a site has either a horizontal navigation bar or a sidebar. iv. Sidebar: You can choose whether you want a sidebar on your site by checking or unchecking the box next to Sidebar. If you choose to have a sidebar, you can also set its width and choose whether it should be on the left or right side of your site. v. Footer: You can choose whether you want a footer on your site by checking or unchecking the box next to Footer. If you choose to have a site footer, you can also set its height or have Google automatically adjust its height according to the footer content. c. To modify the options for searching your site, click "Configure Search." You can then choose between several options: i. Enable search: This option turns search on or off. ii. Search providers: This allows you to specify whether visitors to your site can search your site, Google.com, or both. iii. Advanced tab: Here, you can add other custom searches by clicking "Add provider" then specifying which search engine you would like to use and which sites you would like to include in the search. d. You can change your header's image by clicking Change logo. e. To rearrange the items in your sidebar, drag the different boxes in the order you want them to appear. f. You can also add more areas to your sidebar by clicking Add a sidebar item. g. You can add or edit text, images and more to your footer by clicking edit footer content. 2. Site themes
a. Select Themes below Colors and Fonts. b. Select the theme you would like to use for your site. (You can see what your site would look like using that theme while clicking the "Preview" button near the top or the Preview link below each theme. c. Click "Save changes." 3. Site colors and fonts a. Select Colors and Fonts below Site Layout. b. In the scrolling box, choose what aspect of your site you would like to modify. For most options, you can choose to use the default for your site's theme, to turn the option off, or to choose a custom value. For images, you can choose a custom image. For text, you will usually be able to choose from a set of colors or enter in your own six-character color code. Changes you make will be reflected in the Preview area within moments. Some of the areas you can customize include: i. Entire page: These options will set the default for your site, though you can override much of this formatting by selecting specific fonts, colors or images in other sections or by formatting on a specific page. ii. Site header: If you have not turned off your header, these options control content in the area that appears at the top of each page. iii. Content area: These options control the main page area, where the majority of your content will be. You can override this formatting by making changes on individual pages. iv. Content area gadgets: These items will format gadgets that you place in the main area of your pages, such as text boxes or slideshows.
v. Sidebar gadgets: If you have not turned off your sidebar, these items will format the gadgets the you place in your sidebar. vi. Navigation gadget: If you have not turned off your sidebar, these options will format the navigation area of your sidebar. vii. Horizontal navigation: If you have chosen to include a horizontal navigation bar, these options will format your horizontal menus. c. Click "Save changes." Configuring your sidebar and navigation gadget Most site templates include a sidebar to help visitors navigate your site. The sidebar can also house sidebar gadgets, such as a text box or ads delivered through Google AdSense. Turning on your sidebar 1. From the "More " menu, select Manage site. 2. Select the Site layout tab and then click "Change site layout." 3. If the box next to Sidebar is unchecked, check it. If the box is checked, your sidebar is already on. 4. Click "OK" to return to the Site layout page. 5. If you already have gadgets in your sidebar and want to return to your site, click "Save changes" then Return to site. Otherwise, you will likely want to read on to learn how to add and organize gadgets in your sidebar. Adding and reordering sidebar gadgets You can add, delete and reorder your sidebar's gadget on the Site layout tab. Adding gadgets: To add a gadget, click Add a sidebar item in the Sidebar area.
Then, find the gadget in the list you want to add and click "Add." Reordering gadgets: To reorder your gadgets, click on the gadget you want to move and drag it on top of the gadget where you want it to appear. Deleting gadgets: To delete a gadget, click delete on the gadget. Make sure to click "Save" when you are done modifying your sidebar. Adding, deleting and reordering your sidebar navigation gadget's pages You can add pages to, delete pages from and organize your sidebar's navigation gadget in two different ways. Automatic organization takes less time, but manual organization gives you greater control over how your navigation is structured.
Automatic organization If you want to quickly set up your navigation gadget, you can have the navigation gadget automatically display pages according to how your site is structured: 1. From the Site layout tab, click edit on your sidebar navigation gadget. 2. Make sure the box next to Automatically organize my navigation is checked. 3. Choose how many levels of pages you want to be included in the navigation gadget by choosing a selection from the drop-down menu. For example, if you choose 2, the navigation gadget will display any top-level pages and pages listed under them, but will not display any subpages listed under those second-level pages. 4. You can also choose to include a link to your sitemap (which displays the hierarchy of your site) and your recent site activity by checking the box next to those options. 5. If you want, you can type a name for the navigation gadget in the box next to Title and check the box next to Display title to have that name displayed at the top of your navigation gadget. 6. Click "OK." If you have chosen to have your navigation gadget automatically organized and you want to change the order of pages, you must change the location of your pages.
Manual organization If you want more control over your navigation gadget, you can manually organize your pages: 1. From the Site layout tab, click edit on your sidebar navigation gadget. 2. Make sure the box next to Automatically organize my navigation is unchecked. 3. To add a page from your site to your navigation gadget, click Add page. Then locate your page in the pop-up window and click "OK." 4. To add a page from another site or an email address to your navigation gadget, click Add URL. In the pop-up window, enter the URL of the page and the name you'd like to give to the link, then click "OK
5. To delete a page from your navigation gadget, select the page in the Select pages to show box, then click on the remove icon. 6. To change the order in which your pages appear, select the page in the Select pages to show box, then click the up arrow, down arrow, right arrow, or left arrow. Your pages will appear in your navigation gadget in the same order in which they appear in the Select pages to show box. 7. You can also choose to include a link to your sitemap (which displays the hierarchy of your site) and your recent site activity by checking the box next to those options. 8. If you want, you can type a name for the navigation gadget in the box next to Title and check the box next to Display title to have that name displayed at the top of your navigation gadget.
Turning off your sidebar 1. From the "More" menu, select Manage site. 2. Select the Site layout tab and then click "Change site layout." 3. Uncheck the box next to Sidebar. 4. Click "OK" to return to the Site layout page. 5. Click "Save changes" then Return to site.
Horizontal Navigation Bar To create a Horizontal Navigation Bar go to More Manage Site Site Layout Change Site Layout and check the Horizontal navigation bar box then click OK.
Click on edit horizontal nav content Click on Add Page or Add Url to begin adding tabs to the navigation bar. You can also select how the navigation bar looks by choosing a Style. Click OK when done.
Comments and attachments These are for the use of site editors and are found at the bottom of the page. Enabling comments and attachments To enable comments or attachments for a particular page: 1. Navigate to the page that you'd like to change. 2. Select Page Settings from the "More" drop-down menu. 3. Check the boxes next to Allow attachments or Allow comments. 4. Click "Save." 5. Repeat for all pages that you would like to change.
Uploading attachments To upload an attachment: 1. Navigate to the page that you'd like to change. 2. Click the plus icon next to the Attachments at the bottom of the page. 3. Click "Browse" or the box next to Attach a file. 4. Select the file you would like to upload and click "Open." Currently, attachments are limited to 20 MB or smaller. Adding comments 1. Navigate to the page that you'd like to change. 2. Type your comment in the text box. 3. Click "Add comment." Deleting attachments or comments Only the creator of the comment or attachment, or an owner of the site may remove comments and attachments. To delete a comment or attachment, these users can navigate to the page where the comment or attachment is located, then click the Remove link next to the comment or attachment. Viewing attachments on your site You can view your sites attachments from the attachment management section of Sites: 1. Select Manage site from the "More" drop-down menu. 2. Select Attachments from the Site content section.
3. You'll be taken to a list of all of your attachments for the site. Here, you can rename, move, delete or replace your attachments. Sharing attachments from your site If you would like to share attachments from you site, you must have the person you are sharing the attachment with visit the page that the attachment is on, then click to download the attachment. That means that the person you are sharing the attachment with must have access to your site. In order to keep your site secure, you cannot just provide a link directly to the attachment. If you would like to know when a new comment or attach attachment has been added to a site or a specific page, you might want to set up email notifications. Site or Page Changes if you have people who edit your site Site owners and collaborators can sign up to be notified by email whenever a site or page changes: 1. Visit the site and, if you want to be notified when a specific page changes, the page for which you want notifications. 2. Click the "More" drop-down menu. 3. Select Subscribe to site changes or Subscribe to page changes depending on the type of notifications you'd like to receive.
Once you've subscribed, you'll receive an email each time the site or page is updated, someone makes a comment on the site or page, or someone uploads an attachment to the site or page. The email will highlight the additions and deletions to the site or page to which you've subscribed. Removing or hiding the site title (used if you are going to put in your own logo) By default, the settings are checked to show the site title. In order to hide the site title, you'll need to go to the More menu and click on Manage Site -> General. Once you're in the General tab, you'll need to un-click the box that says "Show site name at top of pages". Checking the box will make the title show, un-checking it will hide the title. Creating pages within a site 1. From your homepage, click the create button. 2. Choose a page template. Web page A web page is the simplest kind of page; you can write content, embed gadgets, and arrange it however you like. The web page has standard formatting controls like bold, italic, and underline, bullets, and more. You can attach documents from your hard drive to the bottom of the page, and you can let other site collaborators comment on your pages. Google Sites periodically saves versions of your page as you make edits, so it s easy to go back to earlier versions of the page to make comparisons or undo changes. Announcements Much like a blog, announcement pages display posts you make to the page in chronological order, starting with the most recent. For example, an announcement page
would be great for keeping a record of weekly meeting notes, while providing quick access to the most recent meeting info. File cabinet File cabinet pages let you store and organize files from your computer s hard drive, making it an easy way to share files with other users of your site. Anyone subscribed to the page will be notified when files are added, changed, or removed. List page List pages let you make and organize lists of information. Items on the list are easy to add, edit, and remove, and viewers of the list can sort it by any column. Like the file cabinet page, subscribers are notified when items are added, changed, or removed. Start page (Google Apps Premier users only) A start page is a page that can be customized by each of its viewers (a little bit like an igoogle page for your site!) to show a personalized set of gadgets. Site collaborators can still add content that all viewers see, but that section remains separate from the section that can be personalized. 3. Name your page. Google Sites will generate a URL (web address) based on the name you choose, but you can alter it by clicking Change. 4.Choose where to locate your page within your site: Put page at the top level: Top-level pages are the most general in your site's hierarchy. They exist at the same level as your homepage, and it's easy to create subpages beneath them. They are best for main categories of your site's content. Put page under {current page}: The second option is to place your new page as a subpage of the page you were on when you clicked "Create page". Choose a different location: Choose to nest your page under any other page in your site. 5. Click "Create". Deleting a page To delete a page: 1. Go to the page you want to delete. 2. Click the "More" menu. 3. Select Delete page. 4. Confirm you want to delete the page by clicking "Delete". If you delete a page, its sub-pages and attachments will be removed. If you accidentally delete a page, you have 30 days to recover the deleted page, which will automatically restore its sub-pages and attachments. Recovering a deleted page If you accidentally delete a page, you have 30 days to recover the deleted page and restore its sub-pages and attachments. To recover a deleted page:
1. Select Manage site from the "More" drop-down menu. 2. Select Deleted Items. 3. Click the box next to the page you would like to recover. 4. Click "Recover." On the Deleted items tab, you can also see how long each page has left before it will be deleted permanently by looking under the Delete permanently column. If you want to delete a page permanently right away, you can click the box next to the page and click "Delete permanently." Be careful, though you cannot undo this action. Page names and titles Your page has two separate attributes -- the page URL and the page title, also referred to as the page name. These are both different from and independent of your site URL and site name, which are linked to each other. When you create a page, you will be prompted to give your page a name, and that name will be used to automatically create the page URL. However, you can change your page name at any time.
Changing your page name Your page name is what appears at the top of your browser tab, on your navigation menus, and throughout the administrative side of your site, among other places. To change your page name: 1. Navigate to the page whose title you want to change and click " Edit page." 2. Your page title will be in the top text box in your page's main content area. Change this to be whatever you want your page to be named. 3. Click "Save." Hiding your page name If you do not want your page name to appear at the top of the page and as part of the name on your browser window, you can turn your page name off: 1. Navigate to the page whose title you want to turn off. 2. From the "More" drop-down menu, select Page settings. 3. Uncheck the box next to Show page title. 4. Click "Save." Please note that hiding your page title will not prevent your page title from showing up on your sidebar or horizontal navigation bar. To do this, you will need to remove pages from your sidebar or remove pages from your horizontal navigation bar. Image Links Remove Default Automatic Link to Image 1. When you add an image to the page Google Sites automatically makes the image a link to the image itself, so select (or click) the image 2. You will see the Image Option dialogue box appear (it contains both the link information, alignment, size and wrap options): use the upper Remove link - this removes the automatically added link to the image itself. Make an Image a Link 1. Use the Insert menu and Image to add your image to the page 2. Select (or click) the image and you will see the Image Option dialogue box appear: use the Change link
3. Either choose the page you wish to link to or go to the Web address tab and add the URL you want to link to 4. Use the OK button and your image will now link to the page or web address you chose. Inserting maps Embedding a Google Map into your Google Site and sharing it with your coworkers, friends, and family is easy. Here's how: 1. Click the Edit button. 2. Click the Insert menu and select Map. A window with a map appears. 3. Type in an address or location in the search box and click Search. Your location appears in the map, marked with a red placemark. 4. Inside the map, there are three options you can select: map, satellite map, and a hybrid of both. Click one, then click Select. Note: if you have an existing Google Map you'd like to add, simply add the link to the box below the map and click Select. 5. In the next window that appears, you can add a title to the map, choose to display a border around the map, or change its size. 6. Click Save at the bottom of the window after selecting your options, and Save again at the top of the page to save all your changes.
Embedding photos from Picasa You can embed a single photo or an entire album from Picasa. To get started, click the Edit Page button in the top right corner of the page. Embed a single photo 1. Click Insert and select Picasa Photo. 2. Click the album from which you'd like to pick a photo, and once it loads, select the picture you want to insert. 3. Click Select and the picture will be added your page. 4. Click Save. Insert a web album 1. Click Insert and select Picasa Web slideshow. 2. Paste the URL of the album you'd like to insert. 3. Select the size of the slideshow and how you want to display it on the page. 4. Click Save. Embedding Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and Forms You can embed Google Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and Forms into your Google Site in two simple steps: 1. Click the Edit page button to open the site editor. 2. Place the cursor where you would like to insert the object. 3. From the Insert menu, select the object you wish to insert. Note: The inserted object will be view-only to the public. However, when the contents of the objects are updated at its source and published, it is updated automatically within your site. Anyone with collaborator access to your site will be able to view a link under each embedded object that will allow them to pop out an editable version of the object. Embedding Google Calendars on your site You can easily embed as many Google Calendars as you want into your Google Site: 1. Navigate to the page where you want to embed your calendars and click " Edit page." 2. Place the cursor where you would like to insert your calendars. 3. From the Insert menu, select Calendar. 4. Click the name of the calendar you would like to embed, then click "Select". If you would like to display another calendar in the same gadget (as opposed to a separate gadget), click Display another Calendar. Click the name of another calendar you would like to embed, then click "Select". Repeat these last two steps until you have added all the calendars you want in your gadget. 5. Choose how you would like your calendars to be displayed by choosing among the gadget options, then click "Save". 6. A box should now appear on your page that reads Google calendar and the name of
your calendar. Continue editing your page or click "Save" and you're done! You'll need to make sure that the calendar is shared with the members of your site in order to avoid error messages. Creating a site footer A footer is a section that appears at the bottom of every page on a site and typically contains information, such as a contact email address or phone number, that is useful or applicable no matter which page your visitor is viewing. To add a footer: 1. Select Manage site from the "More" drop-down menu. 2. Select the Site layout tab. 3. Click "Change site layout." 4. Check the box next to Footer. 5. Select one of the two radio buttons under the Footer section to control whether the footer's height is a specific number of pixels or is automatically adjusted according to the
size of the content inside the footer. 6. Click "OK." 7. Click "Save changes." When you would like to add or edit content in the footer, go back to the Site layout tab and click edit footer content. You can then use the pop-up editor to add or edit text, images, links and more. To preserve your changes, make sure to click "OK" and then "Save changes."
Making your site live Go to Share in the upper right Click on Change under Who has access
Choose the Visibility Option you wish to use by selecting the appropriate radial button. Click Save
On the Share page you can also add people to the page to be owners, editors, or viewers by entering their email addresses in the box at the bottom and then assigning the type of rights you wish to give them via the dropbox to the right of their names.