Google Sites How to Guide

1. Overview & Key Concepts Portfolio Introduction Understanding the connection between your Google Site and your Google Drive 2. Portfolio Design Basics 4 Principles of Design Choosing the Right Font 3. Getting Started Technology Check Activate UW Google Apps Create a site & apply the ECFS Portfolio Template Create a Google Drive Folder for your Content Share your Google Drive Folder Share your Google Site ePortfolio 4. Building and Editing your Portfolio Integrate Google Drive in my site Add A Page To Your Site Remove A Page From Your Site Edit Page Content Insert images Insert video Insert audio Insert Documents Insert your Resume Scan paper documents

5. Extras Change site background Customize site colors and themes Compare page revisions Revert to an old page version Link text to the middle of a page (create an HTML anchor) Embed HTML 6. Transferring your ePortfolio Understanding your Student Privacy Obligations Steps to transfer ePortfolio ownership to a non-UW Google Apps Account 7. Troubleshooting Your Site How Can I Improve the Look & Feel of My Site? How Can I Change the site URL? How Can I Change the Name of This Site? How Can I Delete an entire Google Site? How Can I Compare This Page to Previous Revisions? Where Can I Get Additional Support?

 

Choosing The Right Font

When it comes to choosing a font, use your best judgement. Readability and consistency are key, so choose one or two that are readable and stick with them.

Fonts are classified as either serif or sans serif; Using one for headings and one for main text can help you create contrast between page content.

You can view and compare some common fonts here.

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Follow these steps to activate your UW Google Apps. You only need to do this step once.

Make sure you are completely logged out of all non-UW Google accounts.

• Log in to MyUW
• Click on My Account in the top right corner of the screen.
• In the left navigation on this page, click UW Google Apps

• Read the terms and agreements and check the ‘I agree..‘ box
• You can ignore Step 2
• Make sure your first and last names are spelled correctly
• Click Sign Up

Once you see this page that congratulates you for signing up, you know that your UW Google Apps are active. To get to your UW Google Apps is to go to gmail.uw.edu. You will be prompted to log in with your UW Net ID and password. The first time you enter your UW Google Apps, agree to Google’s Terms of Service. After you read the terms of service, type the characters you see in the Captcha picture and click ‘I accept. Continue to my account‘.

You have successfully activated your UW Google Apps!

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Create a Site and Apply the ECFS Portfolio Template

Follow these steps to create a site and apply the ECFS Portfolio template: You only need to do this step once.

• Make sure you have activated your UW Google Apps
• Go to http://gsites.uw.edu
• Click the Create button
• Under ‘Select a Template to Use’ click Browse the gallery for more
• Look up ‘ECFS’ in the search box and find the ECFS ePortfolio Template
• Click on the template, a new window will appear
• Click Select
• Next, where it says ‘Name your site’ title your site: Lastname, Firstname ECFS Portfolio
• Finally, click Create

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Create Your Google Drive Folder

• Log in to your Drive with your Netid credentials (https://drive.google.com)
• Click the New button in the top right corner of the screen
• Choose the folder option
• Name the folder

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Share Your Google Drive Folder

• Right click on the folder you would like to share
• Click share…
• Enter the email addresses of the people who need access to the folder
• Click advanced for more sharing options

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Share your Google Site ePortfolio

In order to let an instructor view your site, you will have to allow access in your site settings. To do this, click on the blue Share button at the top right corner of your site to access the share settings.

Share your site with the instructor’s UW e-mail. Make sure that the instructor’s e-mail address ends in @uw.edu. If you wish to share the site with people other than your instructor, any valid e-mail address will work.

Invite your instructor as an owner so they can comment on your pages as well as remove themselves from the site when they are finished looking at it. Any other people who you wish to share the site with can be invited as a viewer to prevent them from editing the page.

Once the e-mail addresses of the people you want to invite have been entered, a message box will pop-up specifying that you are inviting people from outside the domain. Click OK. The people you have invited now have to access your portfolio.

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4. Building and Editing your Portfolio

Integrate Google Drive in My Site

• Make sure you are logged into your UW Google account
• Click the edit page button
• Select insert > drive…
• Select the type of media you want to embed
• (Optional) adjust height and width of media to your liking

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Add a Page To Your Site

• In the top right corner of the page, click the ‘add page’ button or press ‘c’ on your keyboard
• Give the page a name and select it’s location on your site. Leave the template option alone.
• Add content to your newly created webpage

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Remove a Page From Your Site

• Click on the page you’d like to delete
• Click the settings button in the top right corner of the page (gear icon)
• Click delete page
• The content of the page will be removed as well as it’s listing in the site navigation bar (on the left side of the page)

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Edit Page Content

• Make sure you are logged into your UW Google account
• Navigate to the page you would like to edit
• Click the edit page button in the top left corner (pencil icon)

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Insert Images

Adding Images to your Google Site can improve the visual appeal of your site and draw the interest of the viewer.

1. First, begin editing the page you want the image on
2. Next, click on the Insert menu and select Image
3. Select Upload Image and select the image to upload and click OK

Once an image has been inserted, a menu will pop up any time you select that image. This menu will allow you to change the alignment, size, and text wrapping of the image, as well as adding a link to the image.

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Insert Video

• Open Google Drive
• Navigate to your Google Sites folder
• Click new
• Click file upload
• Allow 5-10 minutes for the video to upload to Drive
• Navigate to the page where you want to put the video
• Click insert > drive > video
• Select your video

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Insert Audio

• Click edit page
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click add files
• Select the file you would like to upload
• Once uploading is complete, click save

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Insert Documents

Word (.doc or .docx), Powerpoint (.ppt or .pptx), and Excel (.xls or .xlsx) files must be uploaded to Google Drive before they can be hosted on your site.

Uploading Documents to Google Drive:

• Navigate to the folder you created for this site
• Click New
• Select File upload
• Choose the file you want to upload and click OK
• Once the file is uploaded, right click on it and select open with > Google Doc (or Slides for Powerpoint, or Sheets for Excel files)
• A copy of your file has been made, either rename or delete the original file to avoid confusion

Embedding the Document on Your Site:

• Navigate to the page you’d like the document on
• Click edit page (pencil icon)
• Select insert > Drive > Document (or Presentation or Spreadsheet)

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Insert your Resume

Although you can display Google Documents in your Google Site relatively easily, Google doesn’t allow you to easily embed PDF files that you’ve uploaded into Google Docs. If you try to use the “Insert > Document” method for a PDF that you’ve uploaded to Google Docs, it will say something like “The URL is not supported.”

• Click edit page
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click add files
• Select the file you would like to upload
• Once uploading is complete, click save

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Scan Paper Documents

There are scanners located at the College of Education Technology Center in Miller Hall. There, you can scan documents directly to PDF for use on your site. The Help Desk is located inside of the technology center (room 424) and is available to help you with scanning and other technology-related issues. More information on the technology center can be found on the right sidebar or the bottom of this page.

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5. Extras

Change site background

1. Open the More Actions menu on the top right (or press M on your keyboard)
2. Click onto Manage Site (or G then M on your keyboard)
3. On the bottom of the left sidebar, click on Themes, Colors, and Fonts
4. Click Entire Page in the custom window
5. Click on Background
6. The right of the menu gives you options for the background color, image, and wrapper image. You can choose the theme’s default colors, or customize your own background

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Customize site colors and themes

1. In your portfolio, click on More, then Manage Site
2. In the left navigation menu, click on Themes, Colors, and Fonts at the bottom of the menu
3. You can change your portfolio’s base theme by clicking on the drop-down menu at the top and choosing one of many themes.
4. By selecting a base theme, you can then customize each individual element of your portfolio with the options underneath the base theme drop-down menu.

Click here for more information on colors and themes

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Compare Page Revisions

1. Go to the page you want to review
2. Open the More Actions menu on the top right (or press M on your keyboard)
3. Click on Revision History (or G then R on your keyboard)
4. To preview a version, click on a version number
5. The top menu will give an option to compare two versions
6. Select a version from the dropdown menu to compare

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Revert to an Old Page Version

1. If you want to revert to an old version of a page, go to the version history page
2. Do this by clicking on the More Actions menu (or M on your keyboard) and click on Revision History (or G then R on your keyboard)
3. Click on a version number to preview the page
4. In the top menu click Revert to this version

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Link Text to the Middle of a Page (Create an HTML Anchor)

Creating links to anchors makes it so that you can link to a specific point on a web page. This is especially helpful for pages with an index referring to a long list of content. For example, you may have clicked a link on this page’s index to find this tutorial or if you click [Return to Top of Page], it will take you back to the top of the page.

To link text to the middle of a page:

1. Click on the page where you want to drop an anchor and click Edit Page.
2. Click HTML on the formatting menu.
3. In the window that appears, locate where you want your anchor held.
4. Copy and paste the HTML code as follows: <a name=”AnchorName” />
5. Replace AnchorName with a name that reflects this link’s destination.
6. Update and save your changes

You have two options when it comes to linking to your anchor: either linking it from the same page or a from different page. Either way, the process is the same.

1. Follow the steps you would to insert a link
2. Paste the page URL followed by #AnchorName
3. The URL for your anchor will look something like this: http://sites.google.com/a/uw.edu/YourSite/Page#AnchorName YourSite is the name of your site, Page is the page that contains the destination of your link, and AnchorName is the name you used to mark the destination of your anchor link.
4. Click OK

*Note: If you know HTML and would rather manually enter the links:

1. Create a link as you normally would.
2. Use <a href=”#AnchorName“>Link Text</a> to link an anchor to the same page
3. Or use <a href=”WebsiteURL#AnchorName“>Link Text</a> to link an anchor to an external page

Visit w3schools HTML Links tutorial to learn more about HTML linking

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Embed HTML

Using HTML in your Google Site ePortfolio allows a larger variety of content and more flexibility in customization. You don’t have to be a programmer to know how to code for basic use calls for simply copying and pasting codes from sites such as YouTube or Scribd.

To embed HTML onto your page:

1. Click onto the ‘Edit Page’ button on the top right of the page (or press E on your keyboard)
2. Click <HTML> in the rich text editor
3. Locate where you want your code to be placed
4. Copy and paste a code you have found, or start creating your own!

OR

1. Click onto the ‘Edit Page’ button on the top right of the page (or press E on your keyboard)
2. Click Insert on the top left of the page, then HTML Box under Gadgets
3. Copy and paste the HTML code into the window that appears
4. Press Save

There are many resources available on the web (such as w3schools) to help you learn more about HTML and web development.

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6. Transferring Your ePortfolio

Understanding Your Student Privacy Obligations

As an early childhood and family studies professional, it is your responsibility to ensure that the private details of any educational setting remain confidential. You should never disclose children’s names, program, address, or any other information in a public space (online or other).

Before making your ePortfolio public, it is your responsibility to mask or remove all names on any typed or written materials that could identify individuals. Protecting your privacy as well as that of children, families, and programs is very important.

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Steps to Transfer ePortfolio Ownership to a Non-UW Google Apps Account

Now that you have graduated, we strongly encourage you to back up your most important files including your assignments, videos, and e-portfolio, so that you can use it at any time in the future. While you might already have backups of your assignments or know how to back them up, the e-portfolio Google Sites and the Google Drive require a special set of instructions we are providing here.

ECFS e-portfolio Google Sites and Google Drive are housed by the UW. Even though the content can stay on the UW systems for now, it is important that you keep full control over your e-portfolio for long-term use. Please follow these steps to copy your UW Google Site and UW Google Drive into your personal account and/or storage device.

Copying your UW Google Site e-portfolio into your personal Google Site

Note: The following instructions assume that the user has two Google accounts, the UW Google account (<username>@uw.edu), and a personal Google account (<username>@gmail.com). If you don’t have a personal Google account you can open one for free at https://accounts.google.com/SignUp?hl=en

This is a two-step process. First you must transfer ownership of your UW Google site, and then you must make all files from Drive that appear on the site accessible to your personal Google account.

Steps to transfer ownership of UW Google Site:

1. To begin, open your UW Google Sites and click on the ECFS e-portfolio.
2. Click on the gear icon in the top menu bar (“More Actions”). Then go to “Sharing and Permissions”.
3. In the section titled “Invite people to join site as owner” type in the email address of your personal Google account and select “Is Owner” from the dropdown menu on the right.
4. Click on send to invite your personal Gmail account to access the site. This will send an email to the account listed above which will include a link to the site.

Steps to make items on Google drive accessible to your personal account:

1. To begin, open your UW Google Drive.
2. Either select all items (click on the first item, then hold down SHIFT and click on the last item), or select the specific items that appear on your site (click on the first item, then hold down CTRL while selecting the rest).
3. Click on the icon in the top menu bar that shows a person with a plus sign to the left of their head.
4. Type in your personal email address. Make sure the drop down on the right has the automatic selection of “Can Edit”.
5. Click on send to invite to your personal Gmail account.

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7. Troubleshooting Your Site

How Can I Improve the Look & Feel of My Site?

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How can I change my sites URL?

• Click settings (gear icon)
• Select manage site…
• Click copy this site
• Choose a new name for your site and enter it into the To: box
• Click copy

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How Can I Change the Name of My Site?

• Click settings (gear icon)
• Select manage site…
• Replace the text under site name

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How Can I Delete an Entire Google Site?

Note: Before proceeding, make sure you have removed and stored, or transferred, all the contents of the site that you want to keep.

To delete one of your Google Sites, you must:

1. Go to the site you want to delete.
2. Click More and then Manage Site in the drop down menu
3. Next, click on the Delete this Site button, situated underneath the site description text box
4. When clicked, a window will pop up, asking you if you really want to delete this site. This action is irreversible.
5. Click Delete when you are sure and ready to proceed.

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How Can I Compare This Page to Previous Revisions?

1. Go to the page you want to review
2. Open the More Actions menu on the top right (or press M on your keyboard)
3. Click on Revision History (or G then R on your keyboard)
4. To preview a version, click on a version number
5. The top menu will give an option to compare two versions
6. Select a version from the dropdown menu to compare

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Where Can I Get Additional ePortfolio Support?

On Campus ECFS Students: College of Education Technology Center Hours Monday to Friday: 8am-5pm Saturday: Closed Sunday: Closed Contact Help Desk: (206) 221-4693 Email: edhelp@uw.edu	Online ECFS Students: Online Learning Technical Support Hours Monday to Friday: 8am-5pm Saturday: Closed Sunday: Closed Contact Help Desk: (206) 221-1393 Email: dltechsupp@pce.uw.edu