Google Sites

Setting up your Site

There are many options that you can use to set up your. Access them through the cog button, 3 vertical dots or the Publish pull-down arrow.

Settings under Cog icon

  • Navigation - choose a drop-down side menu (3 horizontal dots) or top links

  • Color - menu bar is transparent, white text on black, or black text on white

  • Brand Image - logo and favicon

  • Viewer Tools - Info icon and Anchor links. Shows page details if turned on.

  • Custom URLs - allows you to set up your own custom address

  • Analytics - set up tracking of statistics for your page

  • Announcement Banner - have a banner with important information appear at the top of a page


Settings from the 3 Vertical Dots beside Publish

SETTINGS

  • Version History - Similar to other Google tools, you can use this to revert to a past history

  • Duplicate site - copy a site and give a new name

  • Report a problem - give feedback on an issue

  • Privacy Policy - Google's policies

  • Terms of Service - Google's terms of services

  • Help - Help centre and community help area

  • Take a tour! - shows you a few areas of Sites

Publish Settings (accessed from drop-down arrow beside Publish)

SETTINGS

Publish settings

  • specify a web address to use with sites.google.com; it must be available for you to use

  • Request that Google not include your site in its search results

  • Set so editors get a chance to preview before publishing

Review changes and publish - will display old version of site against any changes to be published. If you pick this option you will see a side-by-side view. click Publish again to verify your changes.

View published site - opens a new tab with your published view

Unpublish - makes site no longer live but you can still edit

Collaborate and Share Site

Google Sites has settings that can determine who is allowed to edit and who is allowed to view your site. You can add collaborators to one or both options by changing settings.

ADD COLLABORATORS

  • Published viewer - specific person added can only view the draft version

  • Editor - allows a specific person to help edit the site

LINKS

DRAFT: restrict who can edit your site.

  • Draft Public - Anyone on the Internet with this link can edit

  • Draft Restricted - Only people added can edit with this link (Recommended)

PUBLISHED SITE: restrict who views the site.

  • Any one can view - more like a traditional site on the web.

  • Only certain people can view - maybe you want to keep the site for members, or restrict to your school domain (Another option would be to build your site within your domain).

Click to add people who can publish, change permissions and add new people. You can add someone as an Editor or as a Published Viewer. You can also make them the owner or remove them.

Click on Links > Change.

You can change Draft Restricted to Public (Anyone on the Internet with this link can edit )

Published site Public (anyone on the internet can find and open the site) to Restricted (Only people added can open with this link )

Viewing your Site on Different Devices

Up at the top menu you have the ability to view your site as it will appear on different devices. This will give you the opportunity to maximize your site for different views.

When you are done viewing, click X on the device menu to close the view.