The Google Sites Dashboard

1.After signing into your Google Account, click the waffle (the 9 squares) icon in the top right corner of the screen.

2.  Click Sites.  If you do not see Sites on your list, scroll down to the bottom of the list and you will see it.  

3.  Under the Start a New Site section, click Blank.

4.  Now you have a basic template that will start your first webpage.  You will see the Google Sites dashboard.  Before we go any further, let's go over some of the main features you will use.  Get familiar with these features before you go any further on your first page.

5.  The banner/header space is at the very top of the page.  The blank space just below the banner is where the website content will be placed.

6.  The Text Box button will place a text box anywhere you want on your website.

7.  The Images button allows you to place images on your website.  You can place images saved on your computer or pull them from other websites.  

8.  The Embed button allows you to embed the URL (website address) links of other websites within your site.

9.  The Drive button allows you to insert files directly from your Google Drive onto your website.

10.  The Content Blocks are individual templates containing spaces for pictures, videos, and even additional text boxes.  Along with the Text Box feature mentioned above, the Content Blocks provide a framework to help you assemble each section of your website.

11.  A series of 8 buttons located toward the bottom of the page allows you to insert videos from YouTube, files from Google Calendar, images and satellite views from Google Maps, and files from Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets, Google Forms, and Google Charts.

12.  The Pages tab enables you to create additional pages and add them to your website.  Hover your cursor over the + sign at the bottom to see some additional functions at your disposal when creating additional pages.

13.  There are four tools available when you hover the cursor over the + sign.  Starting from the bottom and going upward, they are:  A.  New Page:  This tab is used to create each additional page added to your website.  B.  New Link:  This tab enables you to add hyperlinks to other websites within the page you created.  C.  Full Page Embed:  This tab allows you to embed other websites within your created page.  D.  New Menu Section:  This tab creates a menu tab that is not an actual page.  It simply creates a topic that is a section of the same page you are currently creating.

14.  The Themes tab provides some premade backgrounds that you can use to provide colors for your website.  We will provide more details on how you can select your colors to use for your website and also how you can create your own custom theme templates as well in the tutorial on Adding Backgrounds and Colors to Your Website.  This tutorial is located on the main page of this Google Sites tutorial.

Now that you have an idea of what features are available on Google Sites, let's get started on creating your first page.  Click Here to go to the next tutorial:  Creating a Basic Website.