Site Look

There are many changes that you can make to the look of your Site to suit your needs. Remember that if you make a change that you don't like, you can always change it back again, or choose something different!

These changes are all made at the site level i.e. not when you are editing a page.

At the top left of your Site is a set of buttons.

Choose Site Settings and then Change appearance. From here you have a range of things that you can do. This dialogue opens on the Site elements tab.

Site Elements

Change Site Layout

Choose the Change site layout button to include or remove the Header and put the Sidebar on the left or right of the page.

Logo

Add a logo to replace the Google logo in the top left. Don't make the logo too high or it will push your content down the page. Edit your image first before adding it to your Site.

Sidebar

This can contain various elements. Often the most useful is the Site navigation which allows your users to quickly get to the content they need. By default it contains the Navigation and the Recent site activity items. It's recommended that you normally keep the navigation item. The Recent site activity item can be useful to see what has changed since your last view, however, it can also be distracting. Choose to keep or delete, whatever works best for you and your users. Remembers that you can always add these back if you delete them.

Other Sidebar items that you can add include:

• Text - add a description of your site, contact details, etc. This info can be see wherever a user is in your Site
• Countdown - have a key date coming up? Add a countdown timer!
• My recent activity - just shows a user their own recent activity. Can be handy when editing an extensive Site to help users return to where they were last working

Save or Preview

Remember to save your changes with the button on the top right of the Site Layout page. You can also preview them first to check they look OK.

Themes

Themes allow you to apply a set of colours and layouts to your set as a pre-configured package. Click on the Themes tab and you'll see a whole range of themes that you can apply. General advice is to stick to themes that are colour based and aren't busy with lots of designs. The images on the Themes page only give a rough idea of what the theme is about, so use the Preview link under each theme to see what they will look like on your Site. When you are happy with the look, click the Save changes button

Colours & Fonts

The Colours & Fonts tab allows you to fine tune the look of your site.

Colours

Each element on your page can have a custom colour.

• Choose the element that you want to change.
• Click on the colour palette to select the colour that you want to apply (you can also enter hex codes directly if you know what they are!)
• Your changes will be previewed immediately
• When you are happy with the look, click the Save changes button

Notes:

1. Applying a theme will remove any customisation that you have made using Colours & fonts so apply themes first and fine tune after.
2. Be careful of the colour combinations you choose. Ensure that there is a good contrast between text and the background colours. Also be aware that a certain percentage of the population (including your users) are colour blind. Red-Green is the most common form so don't combine these colours.

Fonts

Within the list of elements, there are entries for the Site font and the Sidebar font. Selecting either of these will allow you to change the font used throughout your Site. The default setting of Normal will normally be appropriate, however, there may be ocassions when you want to change to something else.