Quick How To Guide

Here are some quick how to's on designing, creating, and managing your own website with Ultimate Web Builder software!  There are notes and tips on the UWB Admin Panel pages too, and you can also get more in depth tutorials on the User Manual section and the Video Tutorials page.

Designing Your Website

Question: How can you create a new stylesheet for your website?
Answer: From your website Admin Panel top menu bar, go to Configure Site > Styles Manager > Add Stylesheet.  Fill in the form there, following the instructions on the page, and then click the "Add" button at the bottom of the page.

Question: How can you create a different website design for different webpages?
Answer:You can do this by creating different stylesheets (Configure Site > Styles Manager > Add Stylesheet) and then assigning them to the different pages.  You can assign a stylesheet to a page by going to Pages > List Pages > click the edit button for the page you want to edit.  On this page, scroll down to the Stylesheet field, and choose the Stylesheet you want associated to this page from the drop down menu.  

Question: How can you edit a stylesheet?
Answer: To edit the default stylesheet you can go to Configure Site > Styles Manager.  To edit a specific stylesheet, you can go to it from the menu Configure Site > Styles Manager > List Stylesheets > click the edit button for the stylesheet you want to edit.  Make the edits you want, and then then click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the form.  Make sure to refresh your webpage to view the changes.

Question: How can you add a background image to your website?
Answer: You can do this from the add/edit stylesheet page (Configure Site > Styles Manager for the default stylesheet, or Configure Site > Styles Manager > List Stylesheets > click the edit button for the stylesheet you want to edit).  To add a background image to your website, on this stylesheet page navigate to the page section you want to add teh background image too, i.e. for the whole website page go to the "Page Body" section.  Then just click on the "Choose File" button there to browse and choose your image file.  Don't forget to click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

Question: How can you set a fixed width for the whole website?
Answer: Go to your stylesheet, (Configure Site > Styles Manager for the default stylesheet, or Configure Site > Styles Manager > List Stylesheets > click the edit button for the stylesheet you want to edit).  Scroll downt the page a little bit to the "Page Content" section.  On the "Width" field, notice the description underneath, "Fill in for set width".  So, just fill in the number of pixels you want for the width here.  For example, 935.

Question: How can you set the page width to 100%, without a fixed width?
Answer: Go to your stylesheet, (Configure Site > Styles Manager for the default stylesheet, or Configure Site > Styles Manager > List Stylesheets > click the edit button for the stylesheet you want to edit).  The way the formatting works is that each page section has an outer wrapper, and a content section.  If you want the whole website to expand to 100% fo the computer screen, without a fixed width, you would delete the width pixel (px) value for each content section.  Or, if you want a fixed width for each individual content section individually, but would like each page section wrapper to extend to 100% of the computer screen, you would remove just the width pixel (px) value for the Page Content section.  The Page Content section encompasses your full website page content space.

Question: How can you switch the location of your website menu bar from the horizontal top position, to the side left position?
Answer: Go to your stylesheet, (Configure Site > Styles Manager for the default stylesheet, or Configure Site > Styles Manager > List Stylesheets > click the edit button for the stylesheet you want to edit).  There, click on the "Menu" link to jump to the menu section, or just scroll down the page a little.  Go to the "Menu Tabs Position" field.  You can choose your website navigation menu position here, from the drop down menu.  Choose "Side Left" to move the menu bar to the side left of the page.  After making the changes that you want, click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

Creating Your Website: Pages

Question: How can you add a page to your website?
Answer: Go to Pages > Add Page. Fill in the form them, and there and then click the "Add Page" button at the bottom of the page.

Question: How can you edit a page on your website?
Answer: Go to Pages > List Pages > click the edit button for the page you want to edit.  Make the changes you want, and then click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the page to save your updates.  Make sure to refresh your webpage to view the changes.

Question: How can you create a drop down menu?
Answer: The drop down menu can get created automatically for you when you place a page under a "Parent Page", rather than "Top Level".  Go to Pages > List Pages > Add Page for a new page, or Pages > List Pages > click the edit button for the page you want to edit.  At the top of this page there is a field "Parent Page" - choose the page you want this page to be under, from the field drop down menu there.  If you want the pages to be in the menu bar, make sure you have chosen "Menu Tabs" as the "Link Position" here (towards the middle of this page).

Question: How can you change the order of your webpages in the menu bar?
Answer: Go to Pages > Update Page Ordering.  Make the page ordering changes you want there, and click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the page to save your updates.  Make sure to refresh your webpage to view the changes.

Question: How can you make a page appear in the menu or in the footer links, or neither?
Answer: Go to Pages > List Pages > Add Page for a new page, or Pages > List Pages > click the edit button for the page you want to edit.  Scroll down towards the middle of the page to the "Link Position" field.  Choose the link position your want from this field drop down menu.  You can choose from "Menu Tabs", "Footer Links", and "Other".  You would choose other if you don't want the page to display in the menu bar or the footer links, and perhaps want to link to it from within your pages.

Question: How can you create a text link to another page, directly in your page content?
Answer: Go to Pages > List Pages > Add Page for a new page, or Pages > List Pages > click the edit button for the page you want to edit.  Scroll down the page to the "Content" section, i.e. the Page Editor Box.  Type in the text for the link you want, in this box, where you want it.  Then highlight the text, and click on the create link icon, which is the one that looks like a silver linked chain (if you mouseover the icon after highlighting your text, it will say "Insert/Edit Link").  This will pop-up a window.  Fill in the Link URL for the text, and click the "Insert" button.  You can fill in the Title field too if you want a title to appear when the user mouseovers the text.  To make the link open to a new page, change the "Target" - from the "Target" field drop down menu here, choose "Open in New Window", instead of "Open in This Window".

Question: How can you create an image link to another page, directly in your page content?
Answer: Same instructions as above, except insert an image instead of typing the text, then click on the image to highlight it, and click on the Insert Link icon.  To insert an image, check Photos section questions below.

Creating Your Website: Photos

Question: How can you embed a photo to your webpage?
Answer: You can choose to embed a photo via an image URL, or embed a photo you have uploaded to your website via the Admin Panel.  

To upload a photo directly to your website, go to Photos > Upload Photo.  On this form, at the top there is a field and a field named "Add To Photo Category" "or Add Inline To Page".  In this instance, you want to fill in the field for the latter, and from the Add Inline to Page field menu, choose the page you want to add to.  Enter in a Name for the photo, and then upload your photo either by clicking "Choose File" for the Photo Field, or skip this and click on the Batch Upload button at the bottom of the page (versus the "Add Photo" button).  After you have uploaded your photo(s), go to your page, Pages > List Pages > click the edit button for the page you want to edit. Scroll down to the "Content" section.  On the left side of the Page Editor Box is a list of the "Inline Photos" you have uploaded.  You can copy/paste the photos into your page editor box from here.

Alternatively, to embed a photo via an image URL, click on the Image icon in the Page Editor box here.  Enter in the Image URL.  You can also enter in an Image Description here, which is good for SEO (search engine optimization).  Fill in the Image Title field if you want it to get displayed when the user mouses over the image. 

Question: How can you add photos to the "Photo" section of a Page Format?
Answer: To add photos to the "Photo" section of a Page Format, you upload the photos to a "Photo Category". The process is: (1) Create the Page, (2) Create the Photo Category and assign it to the Page, and, (3) Upload photos to the Photo Category.  To create a Photo Category, go to Photos > Add Category.  Fill in the form there and then click on the "Add Category" button on the bottom of the page.  Then to upload the photos, go to Photos > Add Photo.  On this form, at the top there is a field and a field named "Add To Photo Category" "or Add Inline To Page".  In this instance, you want to fill in the field for the former, and from the Add To Photo Category field menu, choose the category you want to add to.  Enter in a Name for the photo, and then upload your photo either by clicking "Choose File" for the Photo Field, or skip this and click on the Batch Upload button at the bottom of the page (versus the "Add Photo" button).  After you have uploaded your photo(s), go to the page you have assigned the photo category to, refresh the webpage and find your photos there!

Question: How can you switch a photo from an Inline Photo to a Category Photo?
Answer: Go to Pages > List Photos.  This page lists the Category Photos.  You can switch to the Inline Photos by clicking on the tab link on the top of this page.  On each page, you can click the edit button for each photo to edit it accordingly, or you can checkmark the box for each photo you want to switch to another category or page to do a batch update.  At the top of this page there is a drop down menu to Move Selected Photos To a Photo Category, and to a Page.  Choose the Photo Category or Page you want to switch the photo(s) to, and then click on the "Move" link there.

Question: How can you create/edit a photo gallery or slideshow?
Answer: A photo gallery or slideshow is created automatically for you when you upload photos to an Active Photo Category, which is assigned to an Active Page.  You can edit the photo gallery/slideshow features by going to Photos > List Categories > click the edit button for the page you want to edit.

Creating Your Website: Social Interaction

Question: How can you add a contact form to your website?
Answer: The really easy way: First, go to Configure Site > Templates and under "General Setup" click on the "Run General" button. This will create an About page, Contact form page, Mailing List page, Terms Of Service page, and Privacy Policy page. If you don't want these pages, you can manually create your contact forum page. Go to Configure Site > Basic Setup > Contact Form, to edit the fields you want in your contact form, and customize the settings - do this step to customize your contact form if you chose to use the Templates app to create your contact form page.  To create the contact form page manually, go to Pages > List Pages > Add Page for a new page, or Pages > List Pages > click the edit button for the page you want to edit.  Scroll down the page to the "Include Contact Form On Page" section, and choose "Yes" from the drop down menu for this field.  Next, copy the Placeholder Text provided here, and paste it in the Page Editor Content Box above, placing the contact form where you want it on the page.  Finally, just click the button at the bottom of the page to Add your page, or Save your page updates.  

You can get more customization options for your contact form by using the Forms Builder App.  Check out the tutorial on this here.

Question: How can you add a mailing list to your website?
Answer: The really easy way: First, go to Configure Site > Templates and under "General Setup" click on the "Run General" button. This will create an About page, Contact form page, Mailing List page, Terms Of Service page, and Privacy Policy page. If you don't want these pages, you can manually create your mailing list page. Go to Configure Site > Basic Setup > Mailing List Form, to edit the fields you want in your mailing list form, and customize the settings - do this step to customize your mailing list form if you chose to use the Templates app to create your mailing list page.  To create the mailing list page manually, go to Pages > List Pages > Add Page for a new page, or Pages > List Pages > click the edit button for the page you want to edit.  Scroll down the page to the "Include Mailing List Form On Page" section, and choose "Yes" ffrom the drop down menu for this field.  Next, copy the Placeholder Text provided here, and paste it in the Page Editor Box above, placing the mailing list form where you want it on the page.  Finally, just click the button at the bottom of the page to Add your page, or Save your page updates.  

Question: How can you create/send html mailers to your mailing list?
Answer: Go to Mailing List > Compose Mailer.  Choose who you want to send the mailer to, and create the mailer using the Page Editor Box there - it does the html coding for you.

Managing Your Website: SEO for Traffic

Question: How can you do SEO (search engine optimization) for your website, to increase traffic to your website?
Answer: Go to Configure Site > Basic Setup > SEO.  Fill in the fields here, then click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the page to save your updates.  Also, you can choose your Page Title, Description, and Keywords on each individual page, Pages > List Pages > Add Page for a new page, or Pages > List Pages > click the edit button for the page you want to edit.  Good page content also matters...get more SEO tips on this article, "How To Get Your Website On The First Page of Google".