Get Started With Websites

• Site Name

• Staging URL

• Site Status - Determines what state your site will be in:

  • Live - Site is publicly accessible.

  • Staging - Accessible through the URL but won't be picked up by crawlers or search engines.

  • Offline - Only available once logged into Blackbaud's school website solution. .

Note: When a website is first created, the staging URL is automatically created for you and cannot be edited manually. The site name that you enter is then autopopulated into the Staging URL.

In addition, a micro site, also known as a mini site, can be created which provides another location for your users to go for additional information not found within your main site. These mini sites can be utilized for various topics and themes like summer school details, extracurricular activities, or created to be event specific.

The creation process is exactly the same as it is when you create a new site in Blackbaud's school website solution, though you can add existing styles and master layouts through the Import process.

Editors or platform managers who'd like to see what the website looks like while it is still in development can use View site. This view represents a WYSIWYG or What You See Is What You Get style view, where logged in users with access are able to view the website as it is currently created. Pages can be visited and edited without the requirement to go back or exit out completely thanks to the option to edit the page, style, or page settings.

Additional best practices and tips for commonly asked questions with websites can be found here.

Pages and menus are the lifeblood of most websites. They are able to not only provide meaningful content, but the navigation necessary to find it. After a menu has been created, you can add content to it through pages and page layouts. Page layouts allow you to completely customize the look and feel of the page through different Content types that can be dragged on to the page.

More information on Pages & menus can be found here.

For improved site consistency, Master layouts can be used to make several pages look the same. For example, if you want each page to have the same headers, footers, menus, banner photos, page titles, breadcrumb trails (or other navigation), or background styles you would create a master layout with those elements

Keep in mind that once an element has been added to a master layout, it can not be changed on the page level.

Additional details for Master layouts can be read here.

Detail pages allow you to design and style a common page that is then used to display more information for each content type when an item is selected. Essentially, when the reader selects that item, the full page is displayed along with the complete content.

Detail pages information can be read in full here.

Panels, such as mega menus, add more content to specific menu options. Additional content types can be added to a normal menu, allowing for things like photos, and links to be added to a page.

More information on Panels can be found here.

Styles control every visual instance on your website. Through Styles, you can modify a variety of different visual options which include options such as Font size, Background color, Font family, and Alignment to name a few.

More detailed information on Styles can be seen here.

Fonts and images help give your website a unique look and feel for the end user. Schools can choose to use the standard font families within the K-12 "Blackbaud's Education Management" products, or opt to use Google enabled fonts instead.

Images are also maintained here as well as certain users can add, edit, or delete all images used within the website.

Additional Fonts & images details can be found here.

The Log gives administrators a high level overview of the changes that have recently been applied to the site or its content. Details include everything from content titles changed, what state things are in, and a time stamp of when the updates were made. In addition, the last user to make changes to each item is also stored here.

More information on the Log can be found here.

This is where administrators and page managers update general site options which include the site name, site URL, and whether or not the site is live for the public to access. Search Engine Optimization options can also be configured here as well.

For additional information on Site Settings, visit the dedicated page here.