I believe the challenge initially will be to keep information organized so it is easy to find. I think we should create new pages under the primary page for each collaborator. We can worry later about another level of organization.
To see what I mean click the sitemap link to see what I have done then return here. Keep in mind that you may use any organization YOU want. As long as it makes sense to you the rest of us will figure it out or help you clean house if it gets out of hand.
This is to say that if you go to the "Navigation" and click "Hyde Lake Information for residents" you will be at the top of the stack for all other pages. While there click the "Create new page" button and for your first page choose "Webpage" (the default) and then click the radio button "Put page under Hyde Lake Information for residents" Give the page a name which identifies you as the author. This will help the rest of us find your additions to the site.
After you create this first page just type in a little text or whatever you want like "Hello All" and click "save" you can edit the page later at any time. Go back to the Home page by clicking the word "HydeLake" at the top of the page (this is at the top of all pages, and could as well be called "Home") Notice at the bottom of the page now you see your addition at the bottom by the word "subpages" isn't that handy.
Now mosey over to the Navigation tab and click "sitemap", here is the whole site just waiting to be plucked, and you get a better feel for how important it is to have the rudimentary level of organization we have . Not to worry it will get better with time. It won't be long and all your friends will be coming just to see what you've added!!
O'yeah, if you create a page you want to delete just navigate to the page using the sitemap or your link down near "subpages" on the Home page and go up to "More Actions" and choose "delete", simple as that.
Alright you've created your first level page, now just navigate to that page using the prescribed methods and choose "create a new page" it will again default to "webpage" and the radio button now allows you to choose "beneath the firstlevelpagename" thats what you want to do -- create it under your first level page--easy or what. Give it a meaningful name an continue on.
Okay you realize you created a page and put it under the wrong page. You just spent an hour typing and you're mad as hell. Not to worry, just navigate to the page you want to move, go up to "More Actions" and choose "move" a magical box opens and you just click the page you really meant the page to be under and say OK. The program is good about not letting you navigate away without first saving changes you have made. Remember this is a wiki and you can always "go Back". If Sites keeps giving you a warning about "drafts" it means you left a page before you saved. Say save at these little warnings unless you truly wish to "discard".
Now is probably a good time to fill you in on the other options available when you choose "create a new page" They are really just other web pages that are already formatted in a special way to fit a special requirement. The one that needs mention here is the "File Cabinet". I would create one new page with this format since it allows you to upload any file from your local hard drive easily. If you check out my file structure you'll see PDF's listed --it is a file cabinet that I intend to use strictly for pdf's. Go ahead check it out.. You could also upload pictures to your file cabinet but if you have a lot of photos I would use picasa instead. Picasa gives you a whole gigabit of storage while here at Sites we have a 100Mb limit, which is still alot of space for free. Picasa will store about 4000 good sized images for free. Not to worry though I don't plan on being inundated with pictures quite yet.
Here is another cool feature. When you are at one of your pages or any site page for that matter, you can choose to get an email if that page gets modified or if any changes are made across the entire site. At any page go "More actions" then "subscribe to page changes" or "subscribe to site changes" depending on what you want. The choice becomes "Unsubscribe ....." if you are already subscribed. Be careful though, I tried it and in no time I had 30 messages in my Inbox because I'd forgot I'd subscribed to site changes then began editing like a madman.
If you wish to set up your own Site all it takes is a sign up with google to create a google account and your'e off to the races. You do not have to use Sites like a wiki -- just don't invite any collaborators or owners and Sites behaves like any other site. You mean EVERYBODY doesn't have a Google Account, that comes free with an 8 gigabyte Gmail Box!!
Well that should get us going for now. Lets fill up that 100 Mb!!
added by taiken 11/14/08
May be an issue for some, I don't know, but collaborators must have or setup a Google Account. I learned that fact this morning after I invited my mother to collaborate. She is Vaiken here at the site. Anyway I sent her the invite and she could only collaborate after I set her up with a Google Account. When the account was setup(there is a verification email to deal with) I went to the Google homepage, clicked "My Account" then had to click "more" then found "Sites". Upon clicking "Sites" you are brought to a page where "HydeLake is a link. Here also is where you could create an entirely new Site if you wanted to, but for this help section you just click the "HydeLake" link. You'll end up at this site with your email address listed at the top right of the page and you'll be presented with the editing interface buttons. This should make yesterdays post more sensible. I tend to forget that not everyone has a Google Account or if they do they don't use it very much. I on the other hand, have been sympatico with Google for years and use all of their web applications. Those of you who may be reluctant to setup an account, I understand but it makes sense to do so, if for nothing else than the free storage and the convenience of web mail and IMAP services, not to mention Sites. To each his own but you can always come to the site as a viewer and send me an email-- I'll post anything you want.
The table of contents control at the top of this page is useful for quick navigation on a single long page. To use it go to the page on which you need the control and choose "edit page". Click on the page where you want the control, hopefully near the top of the page. Under Insert choose "Table of Contents" and the control appears but big. Now go down into the page and select some text to act as the marker for the control. Go up to "format" and choose a header to use. Repeat for other markers you need. Choose "save" and when the page refreshes there is your TOC already to go. It's perfect for an FAQ. You can always edit your way out of trouble.
