Creating Your Google Site

Sign in to Google Sites for your school

To create a site in Google Sites you must first login to your school Apps account (or your personal Google account) and go to Google Sites within your school Apps domain.

You can access Google Sites from any of your school Google Apps product pages. Note- If you are using a personal Google account, go to www.google.com/sites.

1. In the top left corner of any product main page, you will see a list of links.
2. Click Sites.

Create and name a site

Once you have logged in to Google Sites on your school Apps account, you can create a new site. You can design your own site, or you can choose a site template to help you get started. Some common site templates are highlighted on the site creation page, or you can click Browse the gallery for more to see more template options.

**For your site for this class DO NOT choose a pre-designed template from the template gallery**

To create a new site, follow these steps:

1. Click on the button located in your Google Sites directory that appears when you've signed into Google Site with your school Apps account.
2. Select Blank template if you would like to design your own site from scratch, or click the Browse the gallery link to choose from a variety of site templates. (DO NOT choose a pre-designed template from the template gallery for this course.)
3. Type your Site name - this will also auto-populate your Site URL to be sites.google.com/a/yourschool.org/your-site-name. (where yourschool.org is your school Apps domain)
4. If you would like to change your site URL, you can change what appears after yourschool.org. Just type the new name for your site in the box following yourschool.org

When selecting a URL for your site, keep the following in mind:

• Your site name (and URL) can't conflict with an existing site name- if you do choose a site name that is the same as one that has already been created, you will receive an error that says address not available.
• Site URLs can only use these characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9.

Beneath the site URL, there are also 2 additional sections, Choose a theme and More Options.

• You can select a design for your site in the Choose a theme section. You will learn more about themes in the in the next lesson.
• You will be able to add a description and category for your site and select the sharing access level in the More Options section, which will be reviewed in the next step.

Use a theme design for a site

Whether you are building an intranet, a project wiki, a classroom site, or a public website, we know it is important for your site to look good. Google Sites has a total of 50 themes to make it easier to get started with a great looking site. Themes are a combination of site layouts, colors and images that is available in Google Sites pre-packaged.

You can watch a slideshow of all the themes that are available, or view a thumbnail of the options when creating or editing your site.

Once you chose a theme, you can still change specific values such as background colors and images via the Colors and Fonts section.

Please note: If you switch themes and you had previously made specific changes to colors/fonts, your previous changes will be discarded with the new theme.

When in the site creation process, you must choose a theme for your site:

1. Click the dropdown arrow next to Select a theme to expand the page and show all 50 themes.

1. Select the theme you would like to use by clicking the thumbnail. The thumbnail will turn red to indicate your selection.

Make a site easier to find with site categories and descriptions

When creating your site, you can also add site categories and a site description in the More Options section.

Categories allow you to group related sites and make them accessible together within the popular categories list for your school Apps domain. Categories are deemed popular when they contain more than five sites. Categories can have multiple words such as 'math department' or 'student projects.'

For example, if you used a 'math department' category for your site, and all other math teachers used that category, then someone at your school could browse the 'math' category to view all 'math' sites. Or you could use a 'athletics' category that identifies the sites that have information related about school sports teams.

Please note: The site category setting does not affect search results.

A Site Description can be added to identify the purpose of your site. This will appear next to your site name in the list of sites at your school's domain.

Both the Category and Site Description settings are not required and can be modified after the site is created.

When in the site creation process, you can add the site category and description in the More Options section beneath the site name and URL:

1. Click anywhere on the More Options section on the 'Create a new site' page.

1. Type in the names of the categories for your site in the 'Site Categories' box, separated by commas (e.g. "math department, ms. smith").

1. Type in a short description of your site in the 'Site Description' box (e.g. "Ms. Smith's math class site with homework assignments, class schedule, parent newsletter, and class materials").