Branding Your Site

Manage Site Style, Background, and Colors

Click the Administration button in the Menu Bar. Then click Manage Site Style, Background, and Colors. Take a moment to browse the form. Like other capabilities, you can always come back to this form and make changes, instantly. There are some settings we recommend that you verify or set now.

Color Scheme

GroveSite has several preprogrammed color schemes: Corporate Blue, Steel Blue, Red and Black, Maroon and Grey, and Green. Each has two main colors, affecting the Menu Bar buttons, the Site Navigation area, the borders, and some headings. You can click on each color scheme, then click the Save button to view your site in those colors.

You can also customize your colors by selecting Custom colors in the Color Scheme box. Then try out different colors by clicking on the color you wish in the Color Picker chart. Again, once you take the time to tailor a color scheme for your organization, you will be able to save those site settings later and make them your default for other group websites.

Font style

You may select other font groups to be used in item headings, subheadings, etc. We recommend you leave the defaults initially, and come back to this setting in the future if you want to change the fonts in your website. At that time, you may select from GroveSite's several choices, or choose custom fonts and define these in the form.

Advanced Settings

• Site Top Background File Background files are displayed behind other text or images. If you loaded a logo file, you will probably not want to have a background file. One good use of a background file is for an image that is designed to fit the entire top space. An image approximately 75-100 pixels high and 700 pixels wide fits best. See the Sandbox demo on www.grovesite.com for an example of this.
  
  
• Overall Site Width If your site is too wide, the page will not fit on some monitors, and your users will have to scroll sideways. If you set your overall site width to 700 pixels, the site should display well on any screen. This may not be wide enough for some applications, but it is a good starting point. You can also set the site width to 100%. The screen displayed will then adjust based on the user’s browser/monitor. However, as you are creating pages and posting content, you may not be able to predict how the page will look on every user’s monitor. Does it look good on both 800 pixel monitors and 1100 pixel monitors?
  
  
• Navigation width This determines the width of the left hand Site Navigation bar. We recommend entering about 20-25%.
  
  
• Expand Use the checkbox to expand table pages to 95% for the main content area. Table pages include project plans, file libraries, and database pages.
  
  
• Printer Friendly Use this checkbox to show a printer friendly icon on each page. If a user clicks this icon, the page will be displayed in a format that can be printed.

*** Click the Save button to save your settings. ***

Manage Site Text, Logo and Settings

Once logged in, click the Administration button in the Menu Bar. GroveSite will display options available to you as Site Administrator. Click Manage Site Text, Logo and Settings. A long form appears which you may want to browse.

Text, Logo and TimeZone

• Site Logo File Your starter site may have our starter logo inserted if yours is not. If so, our starter logo file, starterlogo.jpg, is attached. Do you have a group logo in .jpg or .gif? The best size is approximately 75 pixels high and 150-300 pixels wide or so. Use the Browse button to find and select your own file (just like adding an attachment to an email). Its path name should be displayed in the box. Check the box that says Delete existing file. Click any Save button on the form. VOILA! Your website should be displayed with your logo.
  
  
• Logo Text If you don't have a logo image file now, you can check the Delete existing file box, then enter your organization name in the Logo Text field. If you click any Save button, you'll be able to see your change.
  
  
• Site Headers The Site Header 1 and Site Header 2 fields will be displayed in the upper right corner of your website. This might be a project name, seminar name, event name, etc. Delete the samples and enter these if you wish. Click any Save button to view your changes.
  
  
• Site Footers The Site Footer runs across the bottom of each page. The left side you cannot change – it contains the GroveSite 'Submit Feedback' link. The right corner contains two fields you can change. Typically you might enter a copyright notice (as in the sample), and perhaps a phone number, email address, web ink, or other organization contact information. Edit these fields as you wish.
  
  
• Site Notes These notes are used for a brief site summary, only displayed if your site has a page with a type of 'List of Related Sites.'

Security

• Default Page Security This setting will be applied as the default for all pages you create. When you create a site page, you can override the default with a tighter security setting for a particular page.

New Content Flags

Checking either or both of these boxes enables 'new content flags' in the navigation area, and/or the page area. Any changes or postings will cause the 'new flag' to show for all who view the site.

HTML Headers

• Site Keywords: Site Keywords are used by commercial Internet search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) when indexing a site. You may wish to give keywords which index your site when a keyword is typed into a search engine. For example: "Environmental Sciences", or "Wastewater", or "Environmental Engineering."
• Site Description: Site Descriptions are used by commercial Internet search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc) when indexing a site. You may wish to enter a short description of your site to be read when a search engine indexes your site. For example: "A website detailing wastewater research by an ABC Environmental Engineering Corp."

*** Click the Save button to save your settings. ***

In your role as Site Administrator, you can always come back to this form to complete other fields or make changes.