Page Type Overview

Create a new page

When you create a new page in Google Sites, you are given the option to choose from several page types. This section will review the different types of pages you can create.

Page Types

This video and the text below describes the different page types

Web page

The first type of page you can create in Google Sites is the most common type- a web page.

A web page is an unstructured page where you can enter text, images, tables, and embed spreadsheets, presentations, videos, and more. The Web Page has standard formatting controls like bold, italic, underline, font control, text color, and text highlighting. You can create bulleted lists, numbered lists, and easily link to other pages in your site. You can attach documents from your hard drive to the bottom of the page, and allow other site collaborators to comment on your pages.

Examples:

• Home page of a class site
• Web page describing an upcoming field trip
• Web page with biographical information about teachers in each department
• Webpage to showcase gallery of Science Fair

Because Google Sites is built on a wiki foundation, all versions of your document that have ever existed are saved. This means you can always go back to early versions of the document and compare changes between different versions.

Page subscribers are notified when the page is updated.

Sample web page:

Start page (only avaiable in a Google Apps account)

A start page is a web page with a special area where each viewer of the page can add their own personalized set of gadgets. Page collaborators can still put content on the page that everyone will see, but below that is content that will be different for every viewer.

A start page is similar in idea to an iGoogle page where a user can customize a page with gadgets. The benefit of a start page is that there is a dedicated section where the site owner or collaborators can add content that everyone will see. This content can be updated just as you would to any other web page.

Anyone can choose the start page as a page type in Google Sites, however one should consider when it is most appropriate to have an area where a user can customize the page. If you create different start pages, the user can customize each of those start pages individually - the gadget content will not carry over from one start page to another. Thus it can be more effective to use a start page sparingly so that users do not have many places they are adding their customized gadgets. Useful applications could be for the first page of a school site - such as a homepage just for students, or a homepage just for faculty. Then you those pages could be where students/faculty go to find important school information as well as their own information in gadgets.

Examples:

• Homepage for school site
• Homepage for a school organization or club

Same as with a web page, Page subscribers of the start page type are notified when the page is updated.

Sample start page:

Announcement page

An Announcement page is a page which makes it easy for an individual or group to post chronological information like news, status updates, or notable events. It can be used to post organizational news, post project updates, announce new releases, post interesting links from around the web, as a simple blog, and more. Each post is like a mini-web page - you can format the text, include pictures, links, and gadgets. You can also edit and update these posts at any time.

Other examples of announcement pages at your school could include:

• Page with school-wide announcements
• Parent newsletter
• Log of homework assignments with links or embedded Docs and other media
• Creating a class 'blog' with posts by the teacher and students
• Team project blog for students

Announcement pages also generate an RSS feed that individuals can subscribe to using a feed reader.

When you create an announcement page, you can also use a gadget in Google Sites that will post the most recent items. This can be useful if, for example, you use the announcement page to post homework assignments. You could then include the announcement gadget on your class homepage to show the most recent posts.

Page subscribers of announcement page types are notified of new posts, and updates on existing posts.

Sample announcement page:

File cabinet page

A File Cabinet page type allows you to upload and manage documents from your hard drive onto your site and organize them into folders. This can be used to organize common documents in one place.

Please note: A file cabinet page cannot be used to upload a document created in Google Docs. It is only for documents that you already have on your computer and want to upload to your site.

For those times when your hard drive crashes or you accidentally save over a document, version history is stored for documents so you can always return to an earlier version.

Other examples of file cabinet pages at your school could include:

• Repository of all materials for a class on a class site
• Parent communications (forms, notices, etc) on a class or school site
• Shared lecture presentations on a school faculty site

Any attachment you make to a file cabinet page will also be available to manage in your site settings under More Actions > Manage site > Attachments. There you will see attachments from any file cabinet page within yoru site, in addition to attachments added to individual pages, or images uploaded to place on a page.

Page subscribers of file cabinet page types are notified of new files, updated files, and delete files.

Sample file cabinet page:

List page

A List page allows you to easily track lists of information. You can choose from a list of templates or configure your own custom columns. Items can be easily added, updated, and removed.

You can specify several types of 'columns' in a list including checkbox, date, text, drop down, or URL. For the drop down column, you can specify the values a user can choose from when entering a new item in the list. This can be useful to standardize how you want information to appear so that it can be easily sorted and uniform.

For example, you could create a list page for project submissions. First you might create a column for the name using the text type column. For project type, you could use a drop down to specify presentation, research paper, or video - the student/user could pick just one of the 3 options. You could then add a column for a URL where a student could include a URL to their project. You could add a date column to enter when the project was completed, and perhaps a checkbox to show whether they would like to have their project included in the end of the year showcase.

Please note: Only individuals with editing access (as a site collaborator or site owner) can add items to a list. Viewers will be able to see the list, but not add items.

Examples of list pages you could create:

• Project status with columns for project name, team member, and a status (that can be updated)
• Sports team roster with columns for names, location, function/role, fun fact
• Vocabulary list with columns for word, definition, origin and part of speech

Page subscribers are notified of list additions, deletions, and updates.

Sample list page:

Custom page type templates

Besides these page types provided by Google Sites, you can create your own page type that can be used on your site. If you find yourself using the same format for many pages in your site, you can save that page as a template and use it over and over without having to type the same content again.

For example maybe you created a new site to showcase student projects from a class and each project should have the same format. You could create that page once with all the elements you want included - text, links, images, gadgets, or any type of content. You can then save that page as a template that will be available as a page type whenever you create a new page in Google Sites.

Basically, when you save a page as a template, you create a copy of the page that you and others can use to create new custom pages on your site.

Please note: Only individuals with editing access (as a site collaborator or site owner) can create new pages, so only those with editing access can use your page template.

Page subscribers to this page type will reflect whatever type of page you created. If you created a list template, they will be notified as they would any other list page. If you created a web page template, they will be notified as they would for any web page.

Sample page template:

Changing the Page Template (Type)

Individuals with editing access (as a collaborator or an owner of the site) also have the ability to 'Subscribe' to a page changes. The notifications of the page changes vary depending on the page type. In each of the page type sections, we will include what types of changes a Page subscriber will receive.

Changing a page type template:

A site owner or collaborator can change the page template at any time. This means that you could change one of your pages from a List page type template to a Web page type template

To change a page type template, follow these steps:

1. In your site, make sure you are not editing a page (if you see the Save and Cancel button, you are in editing mode). If in editing mode, click Save or Cancel to exit.
2. Click on the More button.
3. Select Page settings.
4. Click the Change link next to the page template type.

1. Select the new page template type and click the Change button