Site Options - Themes, Buttons, Colors, Headers, Left-Side Management


This section of the administration allows you to change many features with the appearance of your website.  You can change various sections of the site by clicking on the corresponding part of the website layout graphic on this page.  The other features can be changed by using the right hand navigation buttons on this page.

1.   Change Themes
2.   Change Buttons
3.   Change Metatags
4.   Change Site and Text Colors
5.   Change Header
6.   Change Flash Intro
7.   Change Left Side





F A Q

What is the site layout graphic for on this page?
The graphic is a representation of how your website is laid out. By clicking on the various sections of the graphic, you can edit the corresponding part of your website.
Explain the "Select a Theme" section:
This section allows you to select a new theme for your website. A theme is basically the graphics and colors that are associated with your site. If you change the theme it WILL NOT delete or overwrite any of your website content, pages, or products. Any time you change a theme you can always change it back to the old one.

Explain the "Site Flash Intro" section:
This allows you to choose a Flash Introduction for your website. The intro will be seen when a visitor first views your website. You can modify the text for the intro from the "Site Flash Intro" section of the "Site Options" in the admin tool.

Explain the "Choose New Buttons" section:
This section allows you to select new buttons for your website, without having to change the entire theme. Simply browse the buttons, and click on the one you want to use. The change is immediate.

What is the "Change Metatags" section used for?
This section allows you to add/upgrade your metatags, keywords, and title for your website. Changing these areas will help search engines find and crawl your website. This will help the site will get listed higher, and more specific to your correct category on the search engines. There is only one set of metatags, keywords, and title for the entire website.

What is the "Site and Text Colors" section used for?
This advanced section allows you to change all the various font and border/background colors for your website. However, if you change to another theme, these changed values will be erased, and changed to fit the new theme that you select.

 




Choose a Theme


This is the Theme menu. Once here, you have the opportunity to customize your pages with one several designs. The quickest way to get started is by selecting one of the page templates and personalizing the template.

To choose a theme:

  1. Browse different themes on the left pane

  2. Preview a theme by clicking on it

  3. click the Choose this theme! link to apply the theme to your website

Please keep in mind:



Change Buttons


There are 30 button layout designs to choose from. To select a design:

  1. Browse buttons
  2. Click on a design
    (The layout will be applied automatically to the website)
  3. View web page and change again if desired

This is a sample of the button designs available:

 

 

Choose Metatags / Keywords / Title


Meta Tags are used for search engine browsing and internal browser information. www.w3schools.com explains it this way:

The purpose of the meta element is to provide meta-information about the document. ...Most often the meta element is used to provide information that is relevant to browsers or search engines like describing the content of your document.

NOTE: Unless you are submitting a website to search engines or portals, Meta Tags will not be needed.

  1. Description: Include one ore more sentences describing what the website is about. Try to keep sentences simple and to the point.
     

  2. Keywords: These are words that users enter in search engines. Enter descriptive words that show what the web site is about. The more accurate, the more likely your web site will show up in search engine listings.

    (Remember that you have to sign up with a search engine and pay fees before your web site can even be listed. Tags alone will not get your site in a search engine.)
     

  3. Title: Enter the title of the web site. Usually this is the name of the domain.
     

  4. Click on the Update Site Information! button to activate.







Change Website Colors

Customize web page colors with this Configuration Panel. See the examples below to see exactly what colors of the website these tools change.
 
Button Text
Site Map Text
Header Text
Site Background
Body Background


 
 

Changing colors:

  1. Select the desired color
    (for more information please see     Color Scale)

  2. Click the Update Information! button

  3. View website (refresh)

  4. Repeat process if needed

 

Button Text Color

Changes the text color of links in the menu bar. Choosing color will not affect the actual color of the buttons.

Samples shown in "blue" and "red."

 

 

Site Map Text Color

Changes the color of text only. Bullet color and type cannot be changed.
 

 

Samples shown in "white" and "yellow."

 

 

header Text Color

Changes the text color in the Header and Tagline. Font type and size cannot be changed.

Samples shown in "white" and "orange" in the Color Scale.

 





Header Graphic

How do I add my own Header graphic to the top of my website?
 1.) Click on "Manage Images" from the homepage of the admin tool.
2.) Click on the : "WebSite Body Images (for use in the pages of your website)" link on that page to upload a new graphic to the for use in the header.
3.) Once that has been done, click on the "Site Options" link from the homepage of the admin tool.
4.) Click on the "Header" image in the site layout graphic.
5.) At this point you can choose A. TOP LOGO HEADER or B. MAIN GRAPHICAL HEADER
The TOP LOGO HEADER will take the place of your company name and tagline.
The MAIN GRAPHICAL HEADER will take the place of the large header at the top of the site.

(Be cautious of your header dimensions. Good dimensions are from 700X150 to 770X200)
Title
This function edits the web site's Main Title. This header has two parts, the Main header and the Tagline. In this example we utilize "super market" as the header and "groceries and fish" as the tagline. To customize, login to Site Builder and:
  1. Click on Site Options
  2. Click on Header
  3. Enter information
  4. Click on the Update Header Information! button

 

Sample changes "market   groceries and more"

 to "super market   groceries and fish"

 

Custom Header Image   (experts only!)

Themes can be customized further by replacing the Main Header and Tagline with an image. This is the space that rests above the long picture in the Header of the web page (see above).

A word of caution: Not every image is well suited to be a header image. It is strongly recommended to use an image with dimensions between 700x150 to 770x200 pixels. Do not proceed if you are not familiar how to do this.

To replace the Main Header and Tagline with an image, upload the file first. Then, at the main menu of Websites Now:

  1. Click on Site Options
  2. Select the image desired from the pull down menu
  3. Click on Update to custom header button
  4. View site and test

To illustrate, this example shows the default image shown above being replaced by a customized picture:

Default image:

Customized image:

 

 

Flash Intro

Left Side of Website

How do I add my own graphic to the left hand side of the website?
The first step is to upload the image to your website. To do that:
1.) Click on "Manage Images" from the homepage of the admin tool.
2.) Click on the : "Custom Image for Left Hand Side of your site" link on that page to upload a new graphic to the left hand side.
3.) Once that has been done, click on the "Site Options" link from the homepage of the admin tool.
4.) Click on the "Left Side" image in the site layout graphic, then click on "Change Left Image".
5.) Click: *View and Choose one of your custom images that you uploaded*
to view the new images you uploaded.   Simply click on the new image to use it on the left side of your site.

The Image Dimensions must be 124X99 Pixels, or they will be automatically resized.

Configure the image to display in the space above the Site Map. Keep in mind that it is not possible to customize a single page to show a left-hand picture different from other pages.

There are two options:

  • Select a pre-formatted picture OR

  • Use your own picture (must upload first)

 

Pre-Formatted Picture

Websites Now presents a picture gallery of built-in images to choose from. There are over 40 pictures to select which represent a variety of themes. They are shown in groups of twenty but are not categorized.

To utilize a picture:

  1. Click on Site Options (at the Site Express main menu)
  2. Click on Left Side
  3. Browse for a picture
  4. Click on the desired image

Websites Now will automatically insert the selected image on the left hand side of your website. Review and repeat process again if desired.

 

This example shows a landscape picture changed to the picture of a box.

  

Use Your Own Picture

The process is similar to the steps above but you must upload a picture first. To utilize your picture(s):

  1. Make sure the picture is uploaded
  2. Click on Site Options (at the Site Express main menu)
  3. Click on Left Side
  4. Select View and Choose one of your Custom Images
  5. Click on the desired image

Websites Now will automatically insert the selected image on the left hand side of your website. Review and repeat process again if desired.