new google sites

For the longest time, Google Sites did not get much love from its developer. Updates and new features were rare. And let’s face it — the classic Google Sites was not user friendly.

Oh, how things have changed since the Google Sites was released in 2016. The new Google Sites R-O-C-K-S! You get a lot of bang for your buck (or no bucks, if you have a G Suite for Education domain) as new bells and whistles are being released all the time

Below you will find seven stupendous additions to Google Sites. I have also created a Google Site to highlight and explain each bell and whistle. Check it out here.

Table of Contents

If your website is quite long and you want your user to quickly jump to sections, set up a table of contents.

Steps:

1. Make sure you are at the top of your page
2. Under Insert, click the Table of Contents
3. As soon as you use the Headings format in a text box; this will appear in your table of contents section.

You have the option of hiding words when the eye-shaped icon appears, allowing you to customize your table.

Add a Button  

Use a button for your users to access a URL or a page within your site.

Steps:

1. Under Insert, click on button. 
2. Name your button.
3. Copy/paste your hyperlink.

You have a choice of filled or outlined buttons, and the button will be the color of your theme’s check-marked color.

Image Carousel: Insert Multiple Images

Google has provided the Image Carousel to show multiple images in one space.

Steps:

1. Under Insert, select Image Carousel.
2. Next, select your images.
3. Click the gray + button (you must have two or more images).
4. Resize your image carousel.

Under the settings gear, you can show the “dots” that represent each image so that the user can cycle through your images manually, too. You can also show captions, program the carousel to auto-start, or change the transition speed.

Add a Divider (or Two or Three)

If you need to separate your horizontal sections, use a divider. It’s a common and useful tool and very easy to use.

Steps:

1. Click on the section of the Google Site where you wish to place the divider
2. Under Insert, select Divider

Add a Favicon

A favicon is the small icon associated with a URL which is displayed on a bookmark list. A favicon helps you locate a website quickly if you are using your bookmark bar. 

Steps:

1. Click on the three vertical dots on the menu bar.
2. Select Add Favicon.
3. You will need to upload your image and then X out.
4. Publish the website.
5. Bookmark the website and you should be able to see the favicon.

Not every image will work with a favicon. Keep in mind that they should typically be small and without too much detail.

Add a Custom Map

Custom maps can be a nice addition to your Google Site. First, you will need to go to Google Maps to create your custom map before inserting your map in the Google Site. 

Steps: 

1. Go to: https://www.google.com/maps/about/mymaps/.
2. Click on Create a New Map.
3. Click on Untitled Map and give your map a title/description.
4. Click in the Search bar for a location.
5. Click Add to Map.
6. Now you can change pin color and icon.
7. Repeat steps 4-6 to add more locations.
8. Go back to your Google Site and insert your map.

Collapsible Text

This is the newest trick on the block. If you have a large body of text and you do not want it to take up space on your website, collapsible text is now available.

Steps:

1. Under Insert, select Collapsible Text. Automatically a heading and normal text box will appear. 
2. Enter your text in the appropriate places.

Now your user will be able to expand and collapse text boxes on command. 

No longer is Google Sites the outcast of G Suite! Go forth and create amazing websites with the new Google Sites bells and whistles. Plus: Google is constantly adding new features — so be on the lookout!

Featured Image designed by author.

In a previous blog entry, Three Tips for New Google Sites Makers, I shared suggestions for setting up your new Google Sites website. In this blog entry, we will explore three more tips. These suggestions answer questions colleagues have shared with me about their use of the new Google Sites.

Tip #4 – Embedding HTML Content

Embedding content into a page on the New Google Sites was a bit of a challenge. Now, you can paste embedded code into a Google Sites page. You can drop YouTube videos, Vimeo videos, and other content that features embedded codes. For example, let’s say you have a Microsoft Sway creation you want to embed on a Google Sites page. Let’s follow these steps:

1. Locate the embed code on the source site (e.g. Padlet, YouTube, Sway, Vimeo).
2. Copy the embed code.
3. Open the Google Sites page.
4. Click on the Insert when in Page Edit mode.
5. Click on the Embed option, which now features a place to paste the website address (URL) or embed code.
6. Paste the embed code from the source site.

You can see the steps outlined in the animated GIF shown above. Want to embed Twitter? Read this blog post.

Note: View the examples embedded on a new Google Sites page.

Tip #5 –  Adding Images

Adding pictures and images to a Google Sites page remains easy. You need only take advantage of the following options:

What you may not realize is that copy-and-paste works well, too. When working with Chrome or Firefox browsers, you can right-click and then copy-and-paste an image from anywhere on a web page (for example, from this list of twenty-five copyright-free image sites). Or you can rely on a screen capture tool such as Greenshot, NGWIN’s PicPick (my favorite on Windows), or OneNote app’s screen clipper. I often use PicPick (which allows for editing, adding text, and many other features) when saving an image to my computer, while using OneNote to capture part of the screen to my computer’s clipboard.

The former approach involves the Upload option, while the latter relies on the Ctrl-V (Paste) command. All images are stored in your Google Drive and associated with your Sites website. Of course, you can always just place images in your Google Drive or search Google:

My recommendation is to get PicPick. It’s an all-purpose image capture/editing tool for Windows that will save you some time preparing images for placement on a Sites page.

Tip #6 – Migrating from Classic to New Sites

Don’t let this tip title get your hopes up…yet. As of the time this blog entry was written, Google had not yet announced an easy way to migrate your “classic” Google Sites to the new Google Sites. The most recent update I’ve seen is dated from May 2, 2017 with an update of December 20, 2017. In this blog entry, Google states the following:

In Q1 2018, we’ll launch an admin preview of features in the classic Sites that will help site owners migrate their content to the new Sites. Later in 2018, we’ll open up these features for site owners and provide a management dashboard to G Suite admins that will enable them to effectively manage the migration process.

With over ten classic Sites, I am waiting to see how migration will take place. In the meantime, you can take several steps to copy-and-paste content over on your own. Some suggestions:

• Make sure your Gmail account has editor rights in both classic and new Sites.
• Copy-and-paste of text, images, and embedded content works much better now than it did a few months ago. Google makes every effort to bring images over.
• Take the opportunity to dump old content.

Of course, that last bullet may not apply if you have a website that is an archive site. For now, we will have to wait until Google makes the migration tool available.

WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Interested in learning more about the new Google Sites? Here are four more time-saving features that have popped up:

• Click the button to get a link to the published page. This is a time-saver, saving you from having to select “Publish” and then going back to “View Published Site.” Now, you just click on the button () at the top right-hand side of the page. This will give you the link to the published page.
• Click and copy entire blocks. With one click, you can select a block of content, copy and then paste it to another page in the Sites website or another Sites altogether.
• Rather than use the Embed option, simply press Ctrl-V on Windows (or Command-V on a Mac) to paste a website address. This works quite well with the embedding of Google Docs, Slides, and YouTube videos.
• Speaking of YouTube videos, you can right-click on a YouTube video at a certain time, then copy-and-paste that video with the designated start time into your Sites page. Viewers will see the video start when you want rather than at the beginning, a feature often missed when embedding videos in Google Slides.

The new Google Sites is shaping up to be quite versatile. Unlike some of the competing products, you can depend on the web page address to stay static rather than change after Google Sites performs an update. I hope Microsoft OneNote developers are reading this.