This document provides an overview of how to create and customize a Google Site. It discusses getting started by creating a new site and choosing a theme. It also covers editing pages, changing page templates, adding sidebars, sharing the site, setting the time zone, creating a calendar, and embedding content like documents and videos. The goal is to teach educators how to build a useful site for their class to share information.

1. The Beginner's Guide to
Class Google Sites
D. Norman
ictforeducators.com
Twitter @ictforeducators
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 License.

2. Google Sites
Introduction Videos

3. Presentation Overview
● Getting started in creating your Google Site
● Editing pages and changing page templates
● Sidebars (Top level and sub-pages)
● Sharing your site
● Calendar, time zone, contact lists
● Embedding (Calendar, Videos, documents)

4. Getting Started
● Go to Sites
● Create new site

5. Getting Started Continued
● Choose the theme (default theme for our school)
● Give your site a unique name

6. Getting Started Continued
Choose More options and fill in the details

7. Editing Pages and Changing Templates
● Once your site has been created, you will see the basic
template.
● From here you can start to edit your site's contents.

8. Editing a Page
● Go to the Page you want to edit and click "Edit Page"
● Make your changes and then click "save"

9. Changing a Page Template
● Click "More Actions"
Choose "Change Page template"

10. Changing a Page Template Continued
Page Templates:
Webpage: Good for general page to insert text and embed
objects.
Announcements: Adds new posts to the top with date and title.
Good for newsletters, homework, announcements. Great for
blogging as well.
File Cabinet: Use to store uploaded documents
List: Good for listing books, websites, etc

11. Sidebar: Top Level and Sub Pages
● Top Level pages will create a main page on the sidebar (ie.
subjects)
● Sub-Pages are added under a Top Level Page and will
give you a drop down menu (ie. The name of each
subject)

12. Sidebars
ADDING A SIDEBAR
● Click "Create Page"
● Choose the page template and give it a name (ie.
Newsletters, UOI's, etc)

13. Sidebar: Deleting a Page
● Click the page you want to delete from the sidebar
● Click on "More Actions"
Choose "Delete Page" and confirm by clicking delete

14. Sharing your Site
● Before sharing your site with your class, you should create a
contact distribution list for your class within your email.
● Click "More Actions"
● Go to "Site Permissions"

15. Sharing your Site continued
● You can add people to your site by either adding their
emails individually or choosing from your contacts list
(faster)
● The default is to let people edit. Be sure to change to "can
view" if you don't want others to change content on your
site.
● "Notify people" will send an email. Uncheck if you want to
share without sending a notification.
● Click "Save and Share"

16. Creating a Contact List
● You will want to create a contact list for the parents (and
students) in your class. Remember to use BCC when
emailing parents with your contact list to ensure privacy.
From your email, choose "More" and "Contacts"

17. Creating a Contact List Continued
● To start a contact list, choose to add a new group (the
second icon)
● You may be able to add contacts from your available
contacts or add them manually.
● You can later add new people to this contact list by
choosing the first icon.

18. Time Zone
● You will need to make sure that the time zone is set
correctly for your site so that events on your calendar
appear correctly (fix only if required)
● At the top of the page click "sites"
Click on the gear icon at the top right and choose "User
Settings"

19. Time Zone Continued
Edit your language and Time Zone if necessary:

20. Calendar
● Before you can embed a calendar on your site, you will
need to create one.
HOW TO CREATE A CALENDAR
● In your email, choose "Calendar" and the top
● Under "My Caldendars" Choose "Add"

21. Calendar Continued
● Fill in the details. Don't forget to set the time Zone correctly.

22. Embedding
There are two ways to embed:
1. Insert from the list of choices offered
2. Get the embed code from the site you want to embed and
use Html to embed (for any content that can be embedded
which is not on the list)

23. Embedding: Inserting
When editing a page, click on the "insert" button and choose
the correct option. This will link directly to your Google Docs as
well as let you embed from Picasa and Youtube.

24. Embedding: using HTML embed code
● Many sites will have an embed code which you can copy
and paste to view the content on your site.
● When editing a page, click on the HTML button:
● Paste the embed code before or after the other code on the
page and save.

25. Want to Learn More?
Check a website which a colleague and I created to learn more
about creating a Google Site for your class: