~ How to create a basic website ~ Prepared by Jann Bradshaw April 2010

There were computers. And then there were computer teachers. You were created as a Section Editor by your omnipotent computer teacher, so that you might become a creator yourself! Enjoy, and happy creating!

To Begin  Open Internet Explorer  At District website go to “Select a School”  Sign in to the school’s website  Click on Site Manager in the upper right corner

 Click on Classrooms and then on your name  Notice the default pages that are listed

Under “Current Pages” click on Welcome. This is your home page. You can rename this page if desired Click to the right on Rename Type a new name Now click on Welcome or your new name for the page Notice the table layout when the page opens.

Deleting the layout and starting with a blank page is easier. Use “Control A” to highlight all Press delete to erase all that is now in the editor Your editor page should now be blank

Familiarize yourself with the toolbars  Roll your mouse over the various icons to see what they do  Working in the Schoolwires editor is very similar to working in a Microsoft Word document. Many of the icons may already be familiar to you.

Borrowed from Row 1

Borrowed from Row 2

Borrowed from Row 3

Text can be added by just typing in the body of the workspace. If you create a table, for your text however, you have more options for color and design. **But before we continue**

There are more text formatting options under the formatting tool

Refer to Undo as the emergency 911 procedure for all of your computing tasks! Make Undo your friend! Whenever you are in trouble just click up on the Undo icon Control/Z will also work even though you are online

Make a table Create a one row table to put a heading in Use “insert table” tool and click on the first box to create a one cell table Type a heading inside the table Change font, color, size as desired Add any other text you would like to on this first “Page” of your website.

Under the editing screen is the Save box. You must use this box to save. There is no File, Save and “Control S” will not work as you are working “live” online and not from your hardrive. When you click Save your text will be live immediately on your school’s website! This will happen every time you save. View your site online now! Click up on the View Website tab

Take a few minutes while you are in View Website mode to look at some of the other teacher’s websites. Look at how the pages are set up Notice what type of information they have Get some ideas!

You can work with a larger screen Click on the full screen icon in the top toolbar This will enlarge the screen Notice you can not save with an enlarged screen. You must click on the full screen icon to get back to the Save box

To use a clip art image from Schoolwires: Click on the “Insert image” tool – It is on the left on the bottom row of the toolbar. Choose “Select image from Schoolwires Clipart Library…”

Click Next The image library search box will pop up showing just a few pictures You must type in a word in the search box to see related pictures (Click Go)

Select a picture and click Next Type a name for the picture and click Insert Image The picture should appear in your Editor You may need to resize picture – notice how it does not automatically stay in proportion You can align the picture like text – left, center or right

Pictures are not automatically “free-floating” in Schoolwires. You can click on the “Position by Pixel” tool to move them more freely before inserting them You can also use the “Edit Image Properties” tool (Next to the Insert image tool) Here you can change such things as size, spacing and add a border

To select a digital or other picture already on your computer Click on the “Insert image” tool Choose “Select new image from my computer or network…”

Click Next Click Browse and locate the picture on your computer After locating the picture click Next Type a name for the picture and click on “Insert Image” Also, before inserting the picture you can change its size. 120 X 160 is a nice small size. If you choose to resize picture after it is inserted, notice how it does not automatically stay in proportion

Go to Google (or Bing) to search for your picture After typing your search word and clicking “Search” you will see a list of pictures called “thumbnails”

Follow directions in Schoolwires to “Select new picture from my computer or network”

Once your picture is inserted into Schoolwires go back to the Internet Go back to the page with the thumbnails. Under your picture will be a short address.

Highlight the address (URL). Keeping your mouse on the address, right click your mouse and click on Copy Go back to Schoolwires and click on Paste The address (URL) will appear in a text box Highlight the URL text and change the size to a very small size such as 8 or 6. Move the text box to a “secluded” area so that it doesn’t interfere with your slide contents. Voilà, you have now satisfied copyright law for schools! Get cute animations!

You can add a background color to your table (That’s one advantage of making a table) Click inside the table, but not on an image Click up on the table editing tool, which is next to the Insert Tables tool Select “Edit Table Properties” In the Table Properties box, click the Properties tab In the Properties box, under Background click on Pick to choose a color Select a color and click Ok