Google Sites are websites, wikis, etc that are very easy to create and edit, and are powerful, secure, and richly-featured. A Google account is required in order to use Google Sites.
Your Google Sites can be managed at sites.google.com
Although a google site is technically not a wiki (for one, it lacks the Wiki markup language), it can function as one because it is so easy to edit. A wiki is a site that is quick and easy to edit by all users, so everyone can help keep it a living, breathing document by contributing updated information. It's a great way for a team to share information with each other, such as the latest documentation for team workflows, schedules, contact info, etc.
Here are just some features available for Google sites:
dynamic TOC
blocks for code
linking between pages and also to other sites
html source editing
security
formatting
To access the official Google Sites Help documentation, click the cog wheel ("More actions" button) in the top right of the screen and choose "Sites help".
Your Google Sites can be managed at sites.google.com
To see a listing of classic google sites you're a member of, go to sites.google.com and click on the "Back to Classic Sites" button in the bottom left, or follow this link.
Standard
Here’s how to create the standard type of site that I prefer - a blank one.
Keep in mind that you’re only allowed to create 5 sites per week. (I’m not sure if there is a limit to how many total sites you can accumulate.)
Login to your google account.
Go to sites.google.com
Click the “CREATE” button.
(Keep the defaults of “Blank template” and no theme, with no additional options.)
In the “Name your site” field, enter a name for your Google site. I think the name must be unique across all existing Google Sites, not just your Google Sites, so you might have to try several names until you find one that isn’t taken.
Once you’ve entered the site name in the “Name your site” field, it will automatically be entered in the “Site location” field as well. This is the name that truly matters, must be unique, and cannot be changed. (The contents of the “Name your site” field can be changed later.)
Check “I’m not a robot” and pass the test.
Click the “CREATE” button at the top of the screen.
In the top right of the screen, click the “Share” button.
In the “Invite people” field, enter the email address of the person you want to share the site with.
Manage site
To manage or configure the site's settings, go to any page on the site, click the cog wheel ("More actions" button) in the top right of the screen, and choose "Manage site". The Manage site page allows you to configure the site (wiki) and perform other administrative tasks.
When you're done configuring the site as described in the various sections below, click "< [site name]" in the top left of the screen to return to the normal view of the site.
General Settings
Click "General" in the left pane. The general settings for the site are listed. From here, you can change the name of the site, add a site description for users to see, and change access settings for the site.
For your changes to take effect, click the "Save" button.
Reorder pages
To change the order of existing pages on the site, moving their location in the page hierarchy, click "Pages" in the left pane.
Click the plus signs in the page hierarchy list to expand sections as needed, and drag the desired page from its current location to its new location in the hierarchy.
Sharing
Click "Sharing and Permissions" in the left pane.
In the “Invite people” field, enter the gmail address of the person you want to share the site with and click the "Send" button.
By default, each invited user can edit any page on the site. You can change a user's permissions by clicking the drop-down list to the right of their name in the "Who has access" list and clicking the "Save changes" button.
To remove a user from the site, click the x to the right of their name in the "Who has access" list and click the "Save changes" button.
To enable page-level permissions for the site, go to the Sharing and Permissions section in Manage Site and click the Enable page-level permissions button in the top right of the screen.
Appearance
To change the appearance of all pages on the site, click "Themes, Colors, and Fonts" in the left pane.
You can change the appearance of various elements of the site and pages, and those changes will automatically be applied to all existing and future pages. For example, the color of headers on a page can be changed by clicking "Content area", selecting a specific header such as the top-level one called "Headers (H2)", choosing a color swatch from the drop-down list in the Color section, and clicking the "Save" button in the top left of the page.
Edit site layout
The layout of elements of the site can be changed by clicking the cog wheel ("More actions" button) in the top right of the screen on any page and choosing "Edit site layout".
On the "Edit site layout" page, you can elements of the site, such as the site header, horizontal navigation bar, sidebar, and footer.
Each element of the site can be enabled or disabled by clicking its button at the top of the page (for example, clicking the "Header" button determines whether or not the header will be used for the site).
When you're done editing the layout as described below, click the "Close" button in the top right of the screen to return to the normal view of the site.
Header
Click inside the header area of the page (across the top of the page) to edit it. (Hovering the mouse over this section of the page displays the tooltip "Edit site header"). A window pops up that lets you customize the header. For example, you can change the image that's used for the header. Click OK to save your changes.
Horizontal navigation bar
Click inside the horizontal navigation bar area of the page (just below the header) to edit it. (Hovering the mouse over this section of the page displays the tooltip "Edit horizontal navigation"). A window pops up that lets you customize the horizontal navigation bar. For example, this navigation bar can be used to provide quick access to commonly-used pages on the wiki or external sites. Click OK to save your changes.
Sidebar
Click on the pencil icon on the Sidebar title bar (on the left side of the page) to edit the basic attributes of the sidebar: its width and whether it will appear on the left or right side of the page. Click OK to save your changes.
Click on the plus icon on the Sidebar title bar to add items to the sidebar. A window pops up that lets you browse available sidebar items. For example, you could add a new sidebar item that's a countdown to a specific date by clicking the "Add" button under "Countdown". By default, the new sidebar item is placed at the bottom of the sidebar. You can raise or lower the placement of the sidebar item on the sidebar by dragging its titlebar.
Click inside the sidebar item on the sidebar to edit it. (Hovering the mouse over this section of the page displays the tooltip "Edit sidebar item"). A window pops up that lets you customize the attributes of that particular sidebar item. For example, you can control the number of page levels displayed in the Navigation sidebar item. Click OK to save your changes.
To remove a sidebar item, click the x on its titlebar.
Footer
Click inside the footer area of the page (across the bottom of the page) to edit it. (Hovering the mouse over this section of the page displays the tooltip "Edit custom footer"). A window pops up that lets you customize the footer. Click OK to save your changes.
To copy a site (to use as basis for a new site, or to make a backup of the current site), go to the site, click the cog wheel in the top right and choose "Manage site".
Click the "Copy this Site" button in the middle of the page.
Name the copy of the site.
Customize the settings as needed, such as unchecking "Copy Site Collaborators" if you want the copied site to be private.
Check "I'm not a robot" and click "COPY".
New sites
Classic sites
To delete a classic site, go to the site, click the cog wheel in the top right and choose "Manage site".
Click the "Delete this Site" button in the middle of the page and click "DELETE".
Go to sites.google.com/site and click "Deleted Sites".
Next to the entry for the site that you want to permanently delete, click "Delete Permanently" and click "DELETE".
Limit
Apparently there's a limit to how much data you can attach to a google site by using the "ADD FILES" button on a page. I attached several long PDFs of books to one of my google sites, and eventually got this message while trying to upload a small jpg:
You have exceeded your storage quota. Please delete some existing files and try again.
You might be able to work around this by embedding instead of attaching large files, such as PDFs of books, etc.
To receive an email notification whenever someone makes a change to the site, click the cog wheel in the top right of the site and choose "Subscribe to site changes".
Click the "Create page" button in the top right of the screen or press c.
Name your page in whatever human-readable format you want to in the "Name your page" field. The URL path for it will automatically be generated below.
Select a template for the page, depending on how you want to use it:
Web Page - the most common choice, just a basic web page that's fully customizable
Announcements -
File Cabinet
List
Select a location on the site for the page to be stored in:
Put page at the top level - the page is created at the top level of the site.
Put page under <current page> - this option is context-specific, according to the page you were on when you clicked the "Create page" button. This option can make be used as a shortcut for creating a specific page hierarchy.
Choose a different location - this option can be used to place the page under any existing page on the site.
Click the "CREATE" button at the top of the page.
By default, the browser navigates to the new page, showing its URL in the address field of the browser at the top of the screen. The human-readable name for the page that you specified appears at the title of the page in the middle of the screen, and below that the cursor is placed in the body field for the page. This is where you add content to the page. You can simply click the "Save" button at the top right of the screen to save the page as-is, with no content, and you can edit it later, or you can begin editing it now, adding content, and then click "Save".
Click the "Edit page" button in the top right of the screen, or press e.
Edit the fields in the body of the page, and choose items from the menu at the top of the screen to insert elements on the page, change the content's formatting, add/edit tables, or change the page layout.
Click the cog wheel ("More actions" button) in the top right of the screen and choose "Print page".
Customize your printing options and then click the "Print" button.
Click the cog wheel ("More actions" button) in the top right of the screen and choose "Copy page".
Name the copy of the page and choose a location for it.
Click the "COPY" button at the top of the page.
Edit the page as needed.
Click the "Save" button at the top right of the screen.
Click the cog wheel ("More actions" button) in the top right of the screen and choose "Move page".
Choose a new parent page for the page that you're moving from the Site map.
Click the "MOVE" button.
Click the cog wheel ("More actions" button) in the top right of the screen and choose "Delete page".
Click the "DELETE" button.
Restore page
If you want to restore a page that you deleted, click the cog wheel ("More actions" button) in the top right of the screen and choose "Manage site".
In the left pane, choose "Recent site activity".
Find your delete action in the activity list and click on the link for that page.
Click the "Recover page" button.
Link to heading on current page
To link to a heading on the current page, first create the heading on the page, and then create a TOC for the page.
Click on the heading in the TOC that you want to link to. This navigates to that heading on the page, and also displays its address in the browser's address field.
Click the "Edit page" button in the top right of the screen.
In the body of the page, type the text that you want to link to the heading.
Copy the page's address in the address field. Note that the last part of the address after the # sign specifies the heading you want to navigate to. For example:
https://sites.google.com/site/cgmillswiki/team/chris/general-notes#TOC-Training
Select the text that you want to link, and click the "Add or remove link" button in the toolbar.
Choose "Web address", paste the page address into the "Link to this URL" field, and click OK.
Click the "Save" button in the top right of the screen.
When creating a page for the site, a template for the page must be chosen. The page templates are Web Page, Announcements, File Cabinet, and List. The templates are available by clicking the "Create page" button in the top right of the screen and choosing from the drop-down list under "Select a template to use".
Standard templates
Web page
A web page is the most versatile type of page. The majority of pages on a site are web pages. Typically a web page is formatted as paragraphs of information that are organized under headings, but many other formats are possible.
To create a web page, navigate to the parent page for the page you're about to create, if the new page will be a child page.
Click the "Create page" button in the top right of the screen.
Name your page in whatever human-readable format you want to in the "Name your page" field. The URL path for it will automatically be generated below.
Select the "Web Page" template.
Under "Select a location", choose "Put page under <current page>" if the new page is a child. If you didn't navigate to the parent page before you created the new page, then expand "Choose a different location" and select the parent page. Otherwise, choose "Put page at the top level", meaning the page will be placed at the top of the page hierarchy (it will not have a parent).
Click the "CREATE" button at the top of the page.
By default, the browser navigates to the new page, showing its URL in the address field of the browser at the top of the screen. The human-readable name for the page that you specified appears as the title of the page in the middle of the screen, and below that the cursor is placed in the body field for the page. This is where you can add content to the page.
If this is a standalone or child page, then insert a table of contents at the top of the body by choosing "Insert -> Table of contents". Set the Width to 500, show all levels, and click Save.
If this is a parent page, then insert a subpage listing at the top of the body by choosing "Insert -> Subpage listing". Set the Width to 500, show all levels, and click Save. Create 3 blank lines below the subpage listing to make room for its toolbar when in edit mode, and then add a table of contents as described above. (If you're sure that the parent page will never have its own content, then a table of contents isn't necessary, but when in doubt, add a table of contents so you don't have to later.)
Create 3 blank lines below the table of contents so that its toolbar doesn't cover the page content when in edit mode.
Add content to the page, starting 4 lines below the table of contents.
If you're copying existing text from some other application, such as Google Docs or Word, then pasting that text directly into the Google Sites web page can cause formatting problems. Instead, first strip the text of any formatting by copying the text from G Docs or Word and then pasting it into the Google Sites web page by pressing ctrl+shift+v. Unfortunately, since that removes any formatting that you might have had in Google Docs or Word, you'll have to format the text again using the tools in Google Sites. In some cases, you might want to just paste the rich text from G Docs or Word directly into Google Sites. Some of the formatting might be less than ideal, but it will preserve things you might want to keep such as tables, etc.
Click the "Save" button at the top right of the screen.
Announcements
This can be used to create a page for announcements, blog posts, or other updates arranged from newest to oldest.
File Cabinet
This can be used for a list of files you’ve uploaded to your site. Anyone who’s subscribed to the page is notified when you add, change, or remove attached files.
List
This template can be used to create an itemized list that you use to keep track of tasks as you finish them.
Click the "Create page" button in the top right of the screen.
Name your page.
Select the "List" template.
Select a location for your page.
Click the "CREATE" button at the top of the page.
Choose a list template. For example, you can define your own columns for the list by clicking the "Use template" button under "Create your own".
Define the columns for your list in the "Customize your list" window. You can add new columns, arrange their order, name them, and choose a column type for them. If you select "Dropdown" as the column type, then you can define which options will appear in your custom dropdown list. This can be useful for categorizing items in your list.
Click the "SAVE" button in the "Customize your list" window.
Add a row to your list by clicking the "Add item" button.
Fill in the information you want in the "Add item" window and click "SAVE".
To edit an existing row, click in the row, change the information in the "Edit item" window, and click "SAVE".
To edit the properties of your list's columns, click "Customize this list", change the properties in the "Customize your list" window, and click "SAVE".
User created templates
You can make page templates to choose from when creating a new page. This allows you to partially automate the page creation process, such as automatically adding a subpage listing and table of contents to the new page.
It looks like you can edit an existing template by clicking the gear in the top right of the screen and choosing "Change page template".
Viewing templates
You can see a list of template pages by choosing to create a new page and viewing the drop-down list of template pages to use ("Select a template to use"). You can then cancel out of the page creation process if you're not ready to create a page.
You can also view a list of existing templates by clicking the gear in the top right of the screen and choosing "Manage site".
Click "Page templates" in the left pane. Any custom templates that you have created will appear under "User created templates".
Creating a template
To create a template page, create the template as a normal, new page, customize the page in the format that you want to use for the template, and then save it as a page template:
(It might be a little easier to use the "Create page template" button in the Manage Site settings to create a template, except that after creation you need to go to the gear and choose Template settings and fill out a description. The process is similar to below.)
From anywhere on the site, click the Create page button.
Name the page whatever you want the template to be named. (You don't really have to do this now, you can name it in a later step, but it's easier to do it now).
Select the template to use in order to create this new template page (usually Web Page).
It doesn't matter where on the site you save the template page, but I like to put it at the top level.
Click CREATE.
Configure the page with whatever features/formatting/content you want to use for the template.
Click Save.
Click the gear in the top right of the screen and choose "Save as page template".
Name the template and add a description for it.
I prefer to choose "Top level" as the default location.
Click SAVE.
Click Save.
Your template is now available for use.
Click the arrow in the top left of the screen (to the left of "Template") to go to the Manage Site section. Notice that your new template is listed under User created templates.
Click the arrow in the top left of the screen to return to the site.
You might have to delete the original page that you created if it still exists as a normal page in addition to it being a template page.
Using a template
To use a template page to create a new page:
Navigate to the parent page under which you want to create the new page.
Click the Create page button in the top right of the screen.
Name your page.
Select a template to use (your template will appear in the drop-down list).
Select a location. You can use templates to create pages anywhere on the site (it doesn't matter where on the site the template page was originally created).
Click CREATE.
Click Save.
My templates
Here are some templates that I've been using:
Main Page
This is my template for a main that will have subpages. This type of page is usually for a broad category of topics, such as "Computer", with "Software" and "Hardware" pages beneath it.
Format: subpage listing (500 pixels wide) at the top, followed by 2 blank lines, then a table of contents (500 pixels wide), followed by 3 blank lines
Page description (shows up when you select the template on the create page and hover over the template name):
A category page that includes a subpage listing, TOC, and no content
Base Page
This is my standard basic page with a table of contents. It doesn't include a subpage listing, because the topic is small enough so that it's not expected to have subpages.
Format: table of contents (500 pixels wide) at the top, followed by 3 blank lines
Page description:
A basic page that includes a TOC and no content
You can embed a pdf directly into the body of a page.
Put the pdf in your google drive and open it in your browser by double-clicking it.
Click the three dots in the top right and click Share.
Share the PDF with one or more specific people, or click Advanced, click "Change", select "On - Anyone with the link", set the access rights such as "Can view", click Save, and click Done.
Click the three dots in the top right and choose "Open in new window".
In the new window, click the three dots in the top right and choose "Embed item".
Copy the HTML embed code for the PDF. It looks something like this:
<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P1YnG3yj1THPiKL4r8tt_6PtSVGjpiR9/preview" width="640" height="480"></iframe>
Close the popup.
On the google site, go to the page you want to embed the PDF into and go into Edit mode.
In the toolbar at the top of the screen, click the HTML button.
Find the appropriate place on the page to embed the PDF, and paste the embed code there. Click Update.
Your embedded file appears as a google gadget in the page.
Click on the google gadget and then click on its cog wheel. Set width to 100% and height to 1000 pixels. Check "Include a scrollbar on gadget when necessary" and click OK.
Click Save.
Port all text documents to web pages on the wiki, and moving forward, create new wiki pages instead of creating word docs, google docs, open office docs, etc. Unfortunately, there is no spreadsheet page type that's native to Google Sites, so you can't create spreadsheets directly in Google Sites. Instead, create a Google Sheet in Google Drive and then embed it in a Google Sites web page by editing the web page and choosing "Insert -> Drive -> Spreadsheet".
When naming workflow pages, focus on the process, not the software used. For example, when naming a page whose purpose is to explain how to edit a video, instead of naming the page "Windows Movie Maker", name it "Editing", after the stage in the process. That way, if we use editing software other than Windows Movie Maker in the future (such as Adobe Premiere) then the page won't be miss-named.
Avoid adding duplicate information to the wiki. This makes the wiki more difficult to maintain, because when a piece of information changes, you have to manually change it in all places on the wiki where it appears. Instead, try to generalize the piece of information, put it in a common place, and then link to it whenever another page needs to refer to that information. Before you add new information to the wiki, check that it doesn't already exist by using the search field on the top right or browsing existing pages in the navigation sidebar on the left.
Use links to connect pages in meaningful ways, making several sources of information readily available to the reader.
Hierarchy
The page hierarchy is the structure or order in which pages on the wiki are organized, showing any associations that pages might have with other pages. The page hierarchy can be viewed in the navigation sidebar on the left or in the sitemap. The view of the hierarchy can be expanded or collapsed by toggling the arrows to the left of entries in the navigation sidebar.
Standalone, parent, child pages
Standalone and child pages are the most common types of pages.
The Home page of the site is a standalone page because it doesn't have any pages above or below it in the page hierarchy. The home page is at the top level of the hierarchy. It doesn't depend on any other page and there aren't any pages that depend on it.
The Maya page is a child page because it has one or more pages above it in the page hierarchy. A child page depends on the page above it in the sense that the page above it (its parent) in the hierarchy helps define the context in which it belongs. In this case, the Autodesk page clarifies that the Maya page contains information about a specific Autodesk product.
The Autodesk page is an example of a parent page. A parent page is a less common type of page that has one or more pages below it in the page hierarchy. Similar to a folder in a file/folder hierarchy, a parent page organizes or helps define the context in which its child pages belong. In this case, the Autodesk page clarifies that all of its child pages (such as 3ds Max and Maya) contain information about Autodesk products. In some cases, a parent page might not contain any content itself, but is merely being used as an organizational tool for its child page(s), such as the Computer page.
Note that a child page can be the parent of another page when it is in the middle of the page hierarchy. For example, the Autodesk page is a child of the Software page but is a parent of the Maya page.
Elements
You can insert a TOC, subpage listing, gadgets, spreadsheets, tables, etc by using the menu options when in edit mode for a page.
Formatting
Here are some formatting standards for most one-column-layout pages (a normal web page).
Subpage listing
If this is a parent page, then insert a subpage listing at the top of the body by choosing "Insert -> Subpage listing". Set the Width to 500, show all levels, and click Save. Create 3 blank lines below the subpage listing to make room for its toolbar when in edit mode, and then add a table of contents as described above. (If you're sure that the parent page will never have its own content, then a table of contents isn't necessary, but when in doubt, add a table of contents so you don't have to later.)
Table of contents
insert a table of contents at the top of the body by choosing "Insert -> Table of contents". Set the Width to 500, show all levels, and click Save.
Create 3 blank lines below the table of contents so that its toolbar doesn't cover the page content when in edit mode.
Add content to the page, starting 4 lines below the table of contents.
Headers
Use headers to organize a page into clear sections, similar to the way that you would organize sentences into paragraphs. Headers help the reader to quickly see what the main ideas of the page are without having to read the paragraphs of the content itself. If a table of contents (TOC) is used in conjunction with headers, then the TOC provides a condensed outline of the entire content of the page so the reader can see what the page contains at a glance. The reader can also click on a heading in the TOC to jump to that section of the page without having to scroll down. The TOC is dynamic, so when a new header is created in the body of the page, it is automatically added to the TOC and hyperlinked.
For an example of a TOC, see the top of this page. This page is also organized with headers (the larger, colored text).
To create a header, choose Format, and then Heading 2, Heading 3, or Heading 4. The header hierarchy is structured in a parent/child relationship so that heading 2 is the top level, heading 3 is the next level down, contained under heading 2, and heading 4 is the deepest level down, contained under heading 3. The header hierarchy can be most clearly seen as the tree structure of headers in the TOC. The three levels of headers are color-coded:
Heading 2 Red
Heading 3 Blue
Heading 4 Green
Bold text can be used to create one more level in the header hierarchy under heading 4, but keep in mind that the bold headers will not appear in the TOC.
Code can be used within what is otherwise a normally-formatted sentence, in order to emphasize that the text in code format is something that the user would literally type when performing a task. Highlight the text that you want in code format and choose "Format -> Code". For example:
When logging in, enter the username chris at the prompt.
Blockquote code is useful for isolating what would be the contents of a page that a user is viewing, a path that the user should browse to, or other similar examples of what the user would see when performing a task, short of a screenshot. Highlight the text that you want in blockquote code format and choose "Format -> Blockquote code". For example, an instruction might say something like browse to the following path:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2017\
...or, here's the tree structure for Autodesk info:
Computer
Software
Autodesk
3ds Max
Maya
To remove formatting, select the text that you want to affect and choose "Format -> Remove formatting", and then if necessary also choose "Format -> Normal text".