Create a Google Site [original]

Post date: Oct 06, 2010 1:52:51 AM

Start by going to Google Sites. Sign in using your Google account.

Starting the site

    • Click "Create New Site"

    • Select a template. I used "Project wiki" for this site, but had to remove a lot of things

    • Enter your site name. Update the "location" field, since it has to be unique to Google sites.

    • Expand "Choose a theme" and select one.

    • Expand "More Options", and enter a site description.

    • Answer the captcha

    • Click "Create Site". If it fails, you may need to change the "location" or enter a different captcha.

The site show the generic homepage.

Changing global site settings

Click "More Actions > Manage Site"

    • Site Settings: General

    • "Users who can access site activity": I changed this to "Collaborators only"

    • I changed "Landing Page" later, after I added the blog-style page

    • Click "Save Changes"

  • Site Settings: Web Address

    • You could assign a "real" web address here, if you had one :)

  • Site Appearance: Site Layout

    • Click "Change Site Layout" to fine tune the template, column widths, etc

    • Click "Add a sidebar item" to... add more things to your sidebar. Ads, anyone?

    • In the "Navigation" sidebar item, click "edit" to modify your public sitemap.

      • Click "Add page" to add a created page not already in the navigation list

        • Uncheck "Automatically organize my navigation" to make navigation actually useful ;p

        • Uncheck "Sitemap" and "Recent Site Activity" if you want to keep them private

      • Click "Save Changes" if you made any of these changes

    • Site Appearance: Colors and Fonts

      • If you care enough, you can change them!

Click "Return to Site" when you are finished changing your site settings.

Modifying page

Click "More Actions > Page Settings".

  • Show page title

  • Show links to sub-pages

    • Allow attachments: good for project pages, perhaps

  • Allow comments

    • Show this page in the sidebar: works with "Automatically organize my navigation"

    • Page URL: Change the internal name of the page.

To start making changes, click "Edit Page". There are a lot of Google widgets to insert. I use the "Bullet List" icon a lot.

If you run into problems after copying and pasting, try "Format > Delete Table". Sometimes a pasted table can really make things difficult. Also, "Format > Clear Formatting" is useful.

Be sure to "Save Page", or at least "Save Draft" before navigating away. Be especially careful if you return to the page as a different user. It might look like you lost some work, then you need to return as the original user for Google to recover the page.

Create a new page

Select the template to use:

    1. Web Page: Blank webpage, no required widgets

    2. Announcements: Web-log style page, where you can make individual posts

    3. File Cabinet: Place to upload and download files, in a typical hierarchy

    4. List: Customizable, sortable list. The list can have any number of columns, of these types:

      • Date: has a mini-calendar for choosing the date

      • Checkbox

      • Dropdown: user-definable choices

      • Text

      • URL

Name: this is the default page title, and internal page ID.

Choose a place in the site hierarchy. "Top level" is normal.

Click the "Create Page" button.

What now?

If you simply want a page to put blog updates, create a new page with "Announcements" template.

There are tons of widgets in the "Insert > More Gadgets" menu.

There is a Help link in the top-right corner. It's useful!

Have fun, you can always delete the page from the "More Actions" menu if you get sick of it.