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You can change the appearance of your portfolio to fit your personal preferences and to fit the content on individual pages. These instructions list the steps for changing the design in Google Sites. Most other web site hosts include tutorials for almost any design question you may have.
Changing the General Appearance
To change the overall "look" of the site, you can change the theme or layout, which will apply to the entire site. To change the theme:
Select "More Actions" (top right).
Scroll down and select "Manage site."
Scroll down to Site Appearance and select "Themes."
Select and preview different themes.
Save the theme you want, which will apply to all pages.
Tip: Changing the theme may require you to change the color of your text.
Also, the web includes many video tutorials on editing your site. Changing Themes--YouTube is a helpful tutorial on customizing your site and individual pages.
Other Appearance Tips
Many other options exist for customizing your site. The best way to learn them is to try them. You can add buttons, gadgets, and more. However, remember to keep the focus of your site on a professional message, not the design. Too many "bells and whistles" can overpower your message.
Tip: Duplicate your site and "practice" on the duplicate so that you can "experiment" with other options that don't show up on your main site. To duplicate your site
Select "More Actions" (upper right).
Select "Manage Site."
Select "General" under Site Settings.
Select "Copy this site" under Site Actions.
Your new site will appear in your list of sites. On your site page, select "more" in the upper tool bar, then "Sites." Your new site should be listed here.
Specific Typographical, Layout, or Individual Page Changes
For specific changes to pages or text, use the tool bar at the top of each page, which is available when you "Edit Page." This will allow you to change the type style, color, layout, etc., for text you select or for the page on which you are working.
To change the number of columns on a page, select "Layout." This is a nice feature for including a graphic or slideshow on one side of the page and the text on another. This page is an example of a 3-column layout.
For other design changes, go to the "More Actions," then "Manage Site," then "Site Appearance." Select what you want to do:
Change the site layout, which affects the headers, footers, and sidebar layout of the entire site.
Change colors and fonts, which allows you not only to change font colors, but to add background images to your pages for a more custom look.
Adding Visuals
Use the Insert Image tool in the menu bar to upload and add graphics to your pages. Please follow the guidelines for adding visuals to ensure that your graphics are appropriately displayed for publication.
Image source: ©iStock.com/prill
Note: Copying and Pasting from Word
Occasionally you may find copying and pasting from a Word document easier than developing your site pages in Google. However, you should know that the code in Word will affect the page appearance on the site. You can see all of the code when you view the HTML (see toolbar).
One way to eliminate some, if not most, of the extra coding is to copy and paste the text from Word into a RichText format (TextEdit for Macs and Notepad for PCs). Save as "Plain Text," which will eliminate the formatting, then copy and paste this text into the page on your site. Of course, you will need to redo the formatting, but the text will be there (and without the extra code that would prevent you from formatting the text as you like). However, tables and other graphics won't copy into your site from Word. You must re-create them on your site page.
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