Horizontal navigation, site footer, and more in Google Sites

One of the most requested Google Sites features is horizontal navigation, which is why we’re happy to announce that it’s finally here along with a few other cool features.

Horizontal navigation
You can now add horizontal navigation to your site’s layout in one of three different flavors: boxes, tabs, and links.





If you want to customize the look and feel of the horizontal navigation, you can set the background, link and hover properties via More actions > Manage site >Colors and Fonts.

If you’ve been craving horizontal navigation, you can get started by going to More actions > Manage site > Site layout > Change site layout.

Global footer
You can now set your site to have a global footer that displays across all pages on the site via More actions > Manage site > Site layout > Change site layout. Use this to add additional navigation and more.

Open embedded Google Docs faster
We’ve added quick links to Google Docs embedded to Google Sites making it easier for collaborators to open embedded documents.


Deleted items
We also added a “Deleted items” section to site management making it easier to get to deleted pages and attachments. Deleted items can be recovered up to 30 days after they have been deleted, after which they will be permanently removed. You can recover items directly from this page, or choose to permanently delete them manually.

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences with these new features!

Posted by: Jennifer King, Software Engineering Intern, Google Sites

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Collect audience input with Google Sites & Moderator

Google Moderator helps anyone find the best input from their audiences, whether it’s suggestions on how to stop the oil spill, debate questions at the Copenhagen climate change conference, or questions for Katy Perry. Starting today, you can use Moderator inside your Google Sites as well. For example, if you have a restaurant site, you can embed Google Moderator on your suggestions page to get input from your restaurant patrons. Here’s how:

1. Create a series at Google Moderator.

2. Start editing a page in your Google Site, and go to Insert and then More gadgets. Click on Featured and select Google Moderator at the bottom.


3. Click Select and then you’ll see the settings screen below. Copy and paste the URL from the series you created into the Moderator URL box, and make sure to check the Include a scrollbar on gadget when necessary option.

4. Click OK, save the page, and you’re all set! Your visitors will be able to start submitting and voting on suggestions immediately.

If you want to learn more about Google Moderator, check out the Google Public Sector Blog. You can also embed Moderator on other web sites, your YouTube channel or in your own applications with our API.

Posted by: Eric Hysen, Software Engineering Intern

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Apply template themes to existing sites in Google Sites

With new site templates being created every day, there are times when you find the theme you want after you have already created your site. Based on your feedback, we added the ability to apply a site template’s theme to any existing site. To choose from the 100s of themes in the public theme gallery, select Browse the theme gallery from the Themes page (Manage site -> Themes), and start browsing.

Try it out and let us know what you think on the forums.

Posted by: Eric Zhang, Software Engineer

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Make money with Google Sites and Google AdSense

If you have a public site built on Google Sites, you might be interested in earning revenue with Google AdSense. AdSense allows website publishers such as yourself to show targeted ads on their sites and earn revenue from their traffic. It also helps visitors find things they may be interested in based on the content of those sites. Over 1 million publishers use AdSense to monetize the content on the sites they’ve worked so hard to build.

AdSense shows ads relevant to the content of the site and you can easily customize the look and feel of the ads to match your site. For example, if your site is about fashion, you may show ads for shoe designers or clothing stores. If a page on your site is about cars, you may see ads for car dealerships or auto shops on that page. Using filters, you can control the content of the ads you display by choosing to block categories of ads or even specific advertisers.

With the free suite of powerful AdSense reporting tools, you can pull detailed reports that will help you track your revenue and identify opportunities to earn more money. You can see earnings by day, page, domain or specific ad unit and can also use Google Analytics to see the source of your traffic and earnings.

Adding AdSense to your Google Site is easy. Just follow these steps:

1. Click the More actions drop-down menu at the top right of your site, and select Manage site.
   
   


2. Click Monetize on the left side of the page.
3. Click the Monetize this site button.
   
   
   
4. Create a new AdSense account or use an existing account. Follow the instructions, depending on the radio button you select.

Once you've enabled AdSense, go to any of your site's pages in the edit mode, click Insert, and select AdSense to insert ads within your page. You can also choose to have ads displayed in your global sidebar.

To learn even more about Google AdSense, come take our tour.

Posted by: Courtney Yamada, AdSense Team

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Tips & Tricks: Embedding Google Docs in Google Sites

Embedding a Google document, spreadsheet, presentation, or form in a Google site can help you easily publish and share information in one central location. Embedding is different from simply copying and pasting information into a site because if you make a change to any of your embedded documents while using Google Docs, the changes will be reflected on your site.

Embedding a form
Let’s say I’m planning a wedding and I’d like to create a Google site as a centralized place for my guests to RSVP and gather all of the information they need. First, I need to create my site. I visit sites.google.com and click Create site.


After choosing one of the many wedding site templates, I’m ready to begin personalizing it. I’d like to include the RSVP form on my wedding site because even though I sent paper invitations, embedding a form in my site makes collecting RSVPs easier and more streamlined. When guests visit the site to RSVP, they can also find out more about the bride and groom, the registry, and event details, among other things.

To collect RSVPs, I’ll want to create a form in Google Docs. Once I do this, I go back to my site and create a new page on my wedding site where I want to embed the RSVP form.

I can add a title or any additional text to the page I’ve just created. Next, I go to the Insert menu and select Spreadsheet form. I’d like to select the RSVP form I’ve just created to embed on this page of my site.

My guests can now visit my site to RSVP to the wedding and simultaneously get all of the information they need about the ceremony and reception.

Embedding other types of Google Docs
You can embed any Google document, spreadsheet or presentation in a Google site using the Insert menu. On my wedding site, for example, I can embed a Google document outlining travel and accommodation for wedding guests or a fun slide presentation about how the bride and groom met. Embedding Google Docs in a Google site helps you easily deliver information to your friends, family, colleagues or students in a centralized and organized way.

Posted by: Julia Harter, Consumer Operations Associate

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Spotlight: Google Sites templates

In November, we launched site templates, making it easier to get started when creating a Google site. We've enjoyed watching the gallery grow. We have been particularly impressed by some of the recent templates created by Over the Top Marketing, including the Mom's club, travel journal, wine club, PTA, daycare center, bible study, and home project site templates.



SADA Systems has also created some great templates to help businesses get started on common sites, including project tracking workspace, client engagement, crisis management, team site, training, extranet, and intranet site templates.




To get started with a new site click on the "use this template" button in the header of any template, or browse our gallery for more templates at sites.google.com.

Posted by: Scott Johnston, Product Manager, Google Sites

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Web browser support for Docs and Sites

The web continues to evolve at lightning speed, and using an up to date browser enables you to use the very latest web apps. If you're having problems, it could well be because you're using a very old browser. So we'd like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to update their browsers as soon as possible. There are many choices:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+
Mozilla Firefox 3.0+
Google Chrome 4.0+
Safari 3.0+

Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We're also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites on March 1st. So while you'll still be able to access these Google applications, newer features may not be available and some features may even stop working. You can learn more about web browsers and check what version you're currently using at http://www.WhatBrowser.org, a site created by Google.

Posted by: Rajen Sheth, Google Apps Senior Product Manager

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Google Docs and Sites: 2009 in Review

As the new year begins, we wanted to reflect on 2009 and highlight our favorite additions to Google Docs and Sites. We've shed the beta label and added more than 45 new features including:

• Shared folders to simplify collaboration with friends and colleagues
  
• The Google Docs viewer, making it easy to view more files in your browser
  
• Templates, automatic and hierarchical navigation, monetization, maps, and photos in Google Sites
  
• Opening up the Public Template Gallery so everyone can share their templates with the world
  
• Logic branching, new themes, and more in Google forms
  
• Improved translation features in documents, spreadsheets and Google Sites
  
• Spreadsheet editing on mobile devices and sheet protection
  
• An easier way to give us your feedback and feature requests
  
• Improved consistency and better sharing emails across Google Docs
  
• Improvements to presentations, including co-editor presence, tables and better object control with drawings
  
• Features for the busy student just in time for back to school

We hope you enjoyed the 2009 additions to Google Docs and look forward to bringing you lots more in 2010.

On behalf of the entire Google Docs team, Happy New Year!

Posted by: Peter Harbison, Product Marketing Manager

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Automatic site translation and more in Google Sites

Just in time for the holidays, we've added three new additions to Google Sites. First, we've integrated Google Sites with the Google Translate element. Now, visitors to your Google Site with a different language setting than your site can hit the translate button on the bottom right of the page to translate the whole site to the language of their choice. Try it out for yourself.

Before:


After:

Second, PDFs attached to pages and file cabinets can now be previewed in the Google Docs viewer. As we've mentioned before here and here, the Google Docs viewer is a good alternative to downloading a file.

Lastly, you can set a default location for a page template. This makes it simpler for you to keep the pages of your site organized. For example, if you have a recipe template in your family site, set /recipes/ as default location for pages created from that template so all your recipes show up together within your site.

We hope you enjoy these new additions to Google Sites.

Posted by: Russ Vrolyk, Software Engineer, Google Sites

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Get started with Google Sites templates

Google Sites makes creating and sharing a website easy. It is powerful enough for a company intranet, yet simple enough for a family website. Today, we’re happy to simplify the site creation process even further with the introduction of the Google Sites template gallery. When you select a template from the new Sites template gallery, your new site will come setup with custom page layouts, links for navigating to each page, embedded gadgets, themes and much more.

The public template gallery is open for anyone to contribute templates, and we look forward to seeing what you create and submit. Do you have a great wedding site that you think other couples would use or have you built a club website that everyone loves? Follow these steps to submit your template to the gallery:

1. Open up the site you want to add to the gallery. Note: the site must be published and you must be an owner to submit the site.
2. Select ‘More actions’, ‘Manage site,’ ‘General’, and chose ‘Publish this site as a template.’
3. Choose a template name, a category, enter a description and click ‘Submit template.’
4. Your site template will appear in the gallery for everyone to see within hours.

We started the gallery with some initial templates, which cover a variety of uses. For example, if you're building a site for your club or association, you can get started with this template:


Or, if you're a teacher, try out the classroom template:


If you're a restaurant looking to create a website, there are restaurant templates available:


You can also use Google Sites at work to manage projects internally. Take a look at our project wiki template:


There are also pre-built templates designed specifically for families, weddings, schools, internal profiles, churches, and much more. To see all the available templates, choose "Browse the gallery for more" when creating a new Google Site. For an overview of Google Sites templates, check out this video:



If you're using Google Apps, read more about how businesses are working more efficiently with Google Sites. If you have any feedback on site templates, please let us know on the forums.

Posted by: Scott Johnston, Senior Product Manager, Google Sites

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