In order to practice and experiment with web parts and lists, we encourage you to create your own "sandbox" site and play! Anyone with a login and password can create a site in this special area.
Go to Personal Sites (there is also a link from the home page) and click "Create". Scroll to the bottom of the list and click "Sites and Workspaces".
Provide a title, which will appear at the top of the page and in the list of sites. Description is optional, but will help explain the site in the list and will appear at the top of your page. The URL should be short and easy to remember, and can be the same as the title or different. The title can be changed later, but the URL can not. Select "Unique Permissions" to be the owner and administrator of this site. You could choose "same permissions as parent site" if you wanted other administrators to help with your site.
Click "Create". The system asks you to select a template. The Team Site template is the basic and most flexible. The template "Personal website" was created by the administrator for people to share news and photos, and contains a content area, so scroll down the list until you see it and click to choose it.
Other templates on the list are for meeting and document collaboration, and the administrator has uploaded additional templates for Board of Directors, Room Reservations, and Help Desk functionality on campus.
Congratulations, you now have a personal website! Click on "Site Settings" at the top menu and lets review your options:
Administration
Manage Users: if you would like to invite someone to contribute or design your site, click here to add them to your site. The system can generate an email to them automatically that they have been granted authority. Be aware that you must enter their system user name in the same format as the login screen: stfrancis_int\username
Manage Sites: if your site contained sub sites, this area allows you to view and modify them in a similar way to the list management screen.
Configure Site and Workspace creation: If you wanted to grant a group of people authority to create sites in your area.
Go to Site Administration: These are advanced features that are discussed in Site Administration . The one tool in this area you will need is the "Delete This Site"; please use that link when you are finished experimenting in your sandbox.
Customization
Change Site Title and Description: here you can modify the values you entered when you created the site. You can always change the title, but the address remains the same.
Apply theme to site: Click on this link and change the colors of your site. Click on a theme name to the right, and view the thumbnail to the left until you find a color scheme you like. Additional themes can be installed by the administrator. You can also use Front Page 2003 to modify your theme if you are familiar with the tool.
Modify Site Content: This is the same as using the "Modify Page" that we discussed previously.
Manage My Information
Update my information: a fairly useless form for changing your name and email address as it appears on the website.
My Alerts on this site: if you have registered to receive an email when content changes, this menu allows you to review and modify your alert settings.
View information about site users: view a list of all users who have participated in or have been added to this Web site.