Sanja's dashboard

Hello janetjones

Welcome to Yola, we're glad you joined us! We would like to give you all the information you need to help you build your site. We strive to make Yola as easy to use as possible, and we are here to help you over the initial learning curve and support you when you need us.

Here are some instructions that may help you to get started after you create your Yola account:

1. A name for your site: This should be simple and easy to remember and should capture what your site is about. Your site name will also appear as your page heading on each page. This name is not the same as your domain name - you will select that when you publish your site.

2. Your website's address: You can choose the website address you would like to have, for example a free subdomain (www.example.yolasite.com) or purchase your own domain (www.example.com). If you would like to skip this option and publish your site later, click on the third option. We have a tutorial that explains how to publish your site on this link: Publishing Your Site.

3. A style for your site: This style will be used on every page of your site and determine the "look and feel" of your pages. Scroll down to browse through the selection of styles. Some styles are available in different colors and have additional customization options, like the ability to change the background or banner image. For more information on the styles available in Yola, see: Yola Style Guide.

4. When you are happy click on the style you would like to use. After a few seconds of loading, your site will be created and you can begin adding content.

5. The "Content" sidebar at the right of your screen contain the widgets that you will use to add content to your site. Widgets allow you to add things such as text (writing) and pictures onto your webpage. You add these to your page by clicking on them with your mouse and then, holding the button of your mouse down, dragging them across the screen. If you are doing it properly a grey image of the widget will move across the page. When the widget is over the page let go of your mouse button. You will then be able to start editing the widgets to add content such as text, images and videos. What is a Widget?.

6. If you want to make a new page click on "New Page" (the third button from the right above your page), you will be asked to give the new page a name, then you can add content to it using the widgets.

7. When you are happy with your site click "Publish" if you have not already done so and you will be taken through the steps to publish your site. Your site will be live as soon as you publish it. If you had already selected your web address when you created your site, simply click the yellow "Update My Site" button.

8. If you want to make changes to your site after you have published it, it's very easy to do, just log in to your account and open your site. You will be able to make all the changes you want. Don't forget to update (repubish) your site at the end of each session.

For detailed, step-by-step instructions please search our help topics or check the tutorials.

My suggestion is that you start creating your site using our help topics and tutorials as a guide. Then, if you run into any particular problem, you are welcome to email us at support@yola.com or continue asking your questions on this forum and we will do our best to help you.

I noticed you were asking about tags. Are you referring to blog tags?

Tag refers to a keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information (a picture, a geographic map, a blog entry, a video clip etc.,), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based classification and search of information (wikipedia)

Please let us know if you have further questions.

Yes.. try clearing your cache and your cookies. You can also try a different browser to see if you're able to pull up your site. Please let us know if you still have trouble with this. – Sanja, on December 16, 2009 17:44

Hello Katie

I have just responded to your email in support. I'll post my answer here too. :)

The reason why you are being offered the upgrade to Yola Pro is that the file you are attempting to upload is larger than 15MB. If you are using a Yola Free account then a limit of 15MB applies to each individual file that you upload. If you need to upload files larger than 15MB you have the option to upgrade to a Yola Pro account, which allows you to upload files of up to 100MB and gives you 5GIG of total storage for your site. If you decide not to upgrade, you will need to select a file of 15MB or less.

If you have any further questions about upgrading your account, please let us know.

Sorry Donald.. I don't know of a particular tool that does this.

You're welcome! :) – Sanja, on December 16, 2009 03:10

You beat me to it Donald! This was what I was going to say.

AmyP, please let me know if you have any trouble with these instructions. – Sanja, on December 16, 2009 02:32

Hello tanveerahmed2k8

You will need to also create subpages to achieve this effect.

You can avoid having too many pages in your main menu by dividing your site up in to categories and creating sub-pages. Here is a quick overview on how to do this:

1. Create the pages you need. When you create the page untick the "show in navigation" box so that these pages won't be automatically added into your main navigation menu.

2. Now that you have your content, you need to link it all up. You can create the links using the text editor widget.
- drag a text widget onto your page and click to edit it.
- Type the text which you want to be the link to the sub-page.
- Highlight the text, and from the text editor tool bar, click the link button (10th from the left next to the image button).
- Click on the "..." button next to "page". It should give you a list of all the pages you have just created.
- Choose the relevant page and click "OK" and you will have a link to this page.

If you didn't untick the "show in navigation" box and would like to take them out of the menu, simply click on "Edit menu" and drag-and-drop the pages you don't want in the menu into the panel on the right hand side. Do the opposite to include them in the menu again.

For detailed instructions and a working example, please click on the following link: Creating Subpages.

For step #2 - this is where you can add your own style of navigation instead of using word text for links. For example:

I 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I - where each number would link up to a subpage.

I hope that helps you to get started :) Please let us know if you have further questions.

Hi Diane

Yep.. you can definitely use an image if you'd like. This is what the code would look like for the link you would click on to make it jump:

<a href="#Top"><img src="resources/yourimagefile.jpg"></a>

Please let me know if I need to clarify things.

Thanks Donald! He is correct.

The reason this is happening is that your site is published to both a subdomain and your own domain, and in your DNS settings your subdomain is primary, so it redirects automatically to the subdomain. You can change this easily.

Here's how to change the primary domain used on your site:-

1. Login to your account on Yola.
2. On the My Sites page, scroll to the bottom and check the box next to "Enable Advanced Domain Settings".
3. Scroll back up to the top and click on the link "Advanced Domain Settings".
4. A new page will open, and you will see a list of domains assigned to your site. To reassign a domain as "Primary Domain", choose which domain you would like to be the Primary domain and click on "Click to Apply Changes".

This will be the canonical (primary) domain and the one the other domains will redirect to.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any difficulty with these instructions.

Yes.. that's correct Dana. If you're trying to use the code inside your actual blog post, then it will not work. I'm sorry that I don't have better news. – Sanja, on December 16, 2009 01:15

Hello Seaview Flowers

Yes.. you can right-align the "Back To Top". If you have added your code to your text widget using the HTML button on the text tool bar, then you can simply highlight the "Back to Top" link and then select the right alignment.

Otherwise, you can also tweak it by manually adding in the code which would look like this:

<div style="text-align: right"><a href="#Top">Jump to Top</a></div>

I hope that is the information you were after. Please let me know if you have any trouble with this. – Sanja, on December 16, 2009 00:37

I've always loved this feature of yours! Still loving it!

Here's a really great color schemer generator that may help you to get the right shade of red needed for your site: http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html

Thanks for sharing papa! :) – Sanja, on December 15, 2009 19:06

Great to hear John Mc. :) – Sanja, on December 15, 2009 17:29

Great to hear Richard! :) – Sanja, on December 15, 2009 04:25

Hi Richard

You can find your domain name or address in two places:

1. Click on the "Site Manager" tab, you will see your site name in blue letters underneath "Current Site", this is a link to your live site.
2. Click on the down arrow next to the "Update my Site" button and click on "Publishing Settings", your URL will be in dialogue box that opens.

Please let me know if you are still unable to find it. – Sanja, on December 15, 2009 04:15

Hi Randy

Can you let me know what script you're interested in trying out? I can try to set something up but it may take a few days for me to get to it. I hope that's okay.

You're very welcome. :) – Sanja, on December 15, 2009 03:41

Hello Richard

You select your website address when you publish it. Have you done this yet? If not, here are the instructions:

When you publish a site you have an option to publish to a free subdomain or to purchase a first level (dot com) domain. Click on the yellow "Publish My Site" button. A dialog box will open up and you can either:

1. You can buy your own domain by selecting "Get a custom domain", enter your desired domain name in the box provided and availability will be checked. Follow the prompts of registering your domain and purchasing it with either PayPal or a credit card. Once you purchase the domain we will take care of setting up everything for you and your site will be up and running in under 48 hours.
2. You can publish to a free subdomain by clicking on "Get a Yola subdomain", filling in the first box and follow the prompts to publish your site.

If you have a domain you have purchased elsewhere, please click here for a tutorial on how to set it up to point to your Yola website: [Publish to a domain you already own ](http://www.yola.com/customer-support/....

If you ever need to check what your website address is, you can do this by clicking on the drop down arrow next to the yellow "Update my Site" button. Then click on "Publishing Settings". A dialog box will open up that will show you your website address.

Please let me know if this does not answer your question.

Hi Amy

Yes.. it does refresh in your site builder. My apologies for neglecting to mention this. What you can do is as your page is loading up, you should be able to select a different page to edit and you will remain in your site builder. If you're finding you're not having enough time to navigate, you can increase the seconds. Then, when you have finished editing your website, you can decrease the number of seconds again.

You can also go to a particular page from your "my sites" page. You'll see beside your site icon, a list of pages you have recently opened. Click on one of the pages that you want to edit and you should be able to resume editing.

I hope this makes sense!