COLI Guide: Google Sites

Google Sites is a simple, versatile website building toolset that’s part of Google Drive. It doesn't have all the features of other major web development tools, but it's simpler and easier to learn. Google Sites are similar to Google Docs in that teams can easily collaborate on the same site. This page offers some tutorials and other resources for quickly getting started in Google Sites.

Getting Started: A Simple, Single-page Google Site Get started by building a simple, single-page Google Site. Google Sites is organic to Google Drive, so you can find and organize your sites there.	Click for full-screen view
Adding Pages and a Menu Adding pages to a Google Site is quick, but if you plan to build a site with consistent format across pages, considering building template pages, first. If you have more than one page Google automatically adds and maintains a site menu. You have options as to what and how that menu displays pages and links.	Click for full-screen view
Adding or Embedding Content in your Google Drive You can add various forms of content housed in your Google Drive to your Google Site, within embed windows. For example, your site visitors can view a Slide deck, or fill out a form.	Click for full-screen view
Creating Buttons Google Sites now includes a fast and easy way to add buttons into your Google Sites pages. Buttons are useful because they look cleaner than URL's and Links and look nicer overall as well. You can use buttons to link to other websites, other content in your Google Drive, and so on.	Click for a full-screen view
Using Google Drawings to Create Custom Buttons Google Slides has an on-board button maker that makes simple clickable buttons. That's great, but using Google Drawings, you can create fancier or personalized buttons, and install them as images or graphics. This tutorial shows how. Simply install them as images, and then connect them to a hyperlink.	Click for full-screen view
Create Clickable Graphics or Diagrams You can create clickable diagrams to display text or graphics. This can replace simply bulleted lists of text. With some imagination you can probably find other uses for this, and make your Google Site more interactive.	Click for full-screen view
Adding Alt-Text to Images Alt-Text is short for "alternative text" and is typically used with images on webpages. Alt-Text is important because it provides students with contextual information about the image, especially if the image is broken or the student is using a screenreader. Additionally, you can provide more immediate contextual information with an Image Caption.	Transcript

Back to Google Drive and Related Apps: Faculty & Staff Resources

Getting Started: A Simple, Single-page Google Site

Adding Pages and a Menu

Adding or Embedding Content in your Google Drive

Creating Buttons

Using Google Drawings to Create Custom Buttons

Create Clickable Graphics or Diagrams

Adding Alt-Text to Images