Creating own contents

So that you can display your own contents such as images, videos or texts on your website, you will of course have to be logged in. As soon as you are logged in a menu bar with coloured icons will be displayed on top of your website.

There are two types of icons. On the left you will find an icon that shows downward. These icons open a submenu with a large array of options and only once you click on one of the options, will a dialogue open with settings. The icons on the right are labelled and open the relevant dialogue immediately.

The menu bar is there so that you can edit your website. With it you can select a new design, fonts, colours and change design images, adjust the background and much more. You can fade out lines and centrally adjust the basic look of the single sections (that contain the content). If you would like for the background colour to always be transparent for the sections and/or that a thin grey line is placed after every section then you define that action via a dialogue which you can access via the above menu bar.

In addition you can also create new pages via the menu bar, define search terms, set your website to maintenance mode, and define passwords for protected pages and much more. Soon you will also be able to maintain your blog, your guest book entries and much more via a dialogue. The above image of the menu bar is only a snapshot as new functions, such as the blog, require new additional icons.

If you go over the content of your website with the mouse, then the above small toolbar will appear and the relevant section will be selected and framed. Every page of your homepage consists out of any desired amount of sections that are set up underneath each other. Each section can take up any specific content and display it. The toolbar has 5 small icons to edit your contents i.e. sections. You edit the selected section with the pen (1). If you click on the pen a dialogue with various options will open. With the second icon, the plus sign (2) you can setup a new content. A dialogue with a variety of various types (texts, headlines, images, galleries, lines, video and much more) will open. The quantity of types depends on the version. Select a content type, for example a headline. A dialogue with two options will appear. You can now edit the content of the selected content, so you can enter the text of the headline or you simply save the content first. In this case a empty section will be saved with a descriptive text. With the third icon, the red cross (3), you can delete the selected descriptive text. But be careful, once you have deleted it, it cannot be restored. That is why you will receive a warning first. The last two icons (4+5) are there to move individual sections from top to bottom. With that the small toolbar offers you everything that you need in order to edit, create, move or delete contents. And always there where you need it at the given point in time.

Before we show you what contents you can place, here a brief overview for your to understand how a new page can be setup on your new homepage. To keep it simple we displayed the ID numbers of the individual elements. You have columns and sections. Usually each page4 page has exactly one column (1) in which your contents (2-4) are placed one after the other. A so-called section is used to place your contents. You will recognize the section when you go over it with your mouse, because a line is shown around the entire section (3). In addition to the section the toolbar, as described above, will also be displayed. You can place any desired amount of sections underneath each other and each section can contain any desired content. In our picture you will first see an image content (the blue text in a special font), then a text content that has a small image in it (3). Next, the headline (4) and then another image (5), followed by another headline.

With the premium version you can create pages that have two or three columns. Through that you will have even more options. You can of course place any desired amount of contents underneath each other in every column.

Info: we purposely built a container, the so-called section “around each content”. Through that it is possible to not only edit content with its own background colour, border or desired distance to a border but one can also design all sections centrally. The section itself is designed via an additional tab, the “design panel”. The centralised control to for example have a line placed under each section is activated via the option “design options”, where a tab “content elements” is available that looks identical to the design panel.

You will use this type very often. You can simply place text or insert and image to the left or the right of a text with it. If you would like to integrate more than just an image in your text, then you can either simply break up the text into several parts and place it one after the other and then insert an image in every text section or you can use hidden functions from the editor. How that works can be read on our homepage.

Only with the premium version. The editor to place texts is substantially more extensive with the purchased version. You can even create block-sets, spreadsheets, change the writing direction and use far more font sizes. It’s worth it to consider the purchased version because of the editor alone.

Preferably you should create headings with the content type header. You have two format templates for your headings. The layout is centrally controlled via the design. With that you can format all headings at once with one single mouse click.

You can create spreadsheets with the spreadsheet-content. It is quick and easy. Simply create a new content and call up the dialogue for editing. Enter the amount of columns and lines and fill it with content. Important: please always use the return button to confirm entries so that the entered content is transferred. Those who have the premium version can also use the text editor for that and also has a lot more possibilities to design a spreadsheet.

The image-content allows placing images exactly as you want it on your page. You can of course create as many image sections as you want to on your page, but there is only one image per section. That has the advantage that you can do a lot with that image. You can adjust the size of the placed image and even distort it. You can link it, furnish it with an image caption and/or insert an invisible alternative text so that Google knows what type of image you have published. You can freely place the image on your page by being able to set the distance of the left of the image. You can of course also place a border around the image. For quality reasons, we recommend uploading the images in the size that you want to place it in. Although it is so simple to change the size of an image with just a mouse click.

You would like to display your images in a slideshow? Then the content created in Flash might be the right thing for you. As with the gallery, you can combine as many images into a slideshow as you like in one go through the administration. Please always leave all images that you are using in the image archive as only links are created to the original images. If you delete the original, then page4 may not be able to display the images on your website anymore. If you are using a lot of images then you should consider the purchased version. With it you can for example distribute 100 images or more in one folder on your computer and then create a slideshow or gallery on your website and upload them in one go and link them to a slideshow. In that way you will save a lot of time in comparison to the free version because there you can only upload 3 images at once.

You would like to display your images as a gallery? As with the slideshow you can combine as many images into a gallery as you like in one go. Otherwise the same applies with the images as with the slideshow. The max image size that will be displayed is 1000 pixels wide or high. Images that are larger will automatically be reduced by the system, in all other instances they will be displayed 1:1. With a gallery it is important to know that the max size of a displayed image is always dependent on the size of your browser on your monitor. If you only have a small browser window open, the gallery will check it and adjust the display to that size.

If you would like to separate the contents on your website through lines, then the line-content will assist you with that. The good thing here is that you have many liberties to use the line as a decorative element. If you would like it quick and simple, then you simply make use of the standard settings and create a new line within seconds. Or you don’t make use of the extra content and simply use the option to place a line after every section. To do so, you only have to edit the section and go to the last tab, activate your own settings and then define where you would like to have the lines and what the spacing should be used.

You do not upload videos directly onto your own page4 website but simply use a video portal such as YouTube, MyVideo, Google Video or Clipfish. (Depending on your country, the one or the other portal may not be reachable). After you have uploaded your videos, you can use the content “external video” to directly play the video on your page4 website. It’s real simple. Create the content, open it and copy the relevant link from the corresponding portal into the content. Save and play. The good part about this: as your videos are definitely being shown in a portal you also automatically increase the amount of your visitors.

With the content “YouTube video” you can integrate YouTube videos that you selected yourself. And these videos will be shown for as long as they are available on YouTube. If you would like to show a different video then you will of course have to change it. We go down a different road with special YouTube content. You do integrate a certain video permanently, but you rather subscribe to a video with a specific characteristic. It could be for example “the most popular” video. Or the one with “the most discussions”. You select the option and YouTube will deliver the video automatically. Most videos stay on your website for a fairly long time (as long as the characteristic applies). Others change daily. So something is always happening automatically on your website.

With the XHTML-content you get an interface to place any desired code between the body tags of your website. As you have no access to our server you can naturally only invite code that runs directly or you will have to upload your data on an external service and then link it with the source text. If you would like to access uploaded images you simply enter a slash and the name of the image as the link. For the image “my-dog.jpg” it would look like this "/my-dog.jpg". The image should then be displayed. If not, check the name of the image as some characters may have had to be converted during the upload.

You can display foreign or your own images from FlickR on your website with the FlickR content. It takes only seconds and is a great deal of fun. Simply create content, edit it and click on what you would like to display. You can provide a username or simply the “image of the day”. On the second tab you define the desired options, for example the amount of images that should be invited. Save it and look forward to having new images on your website every day. The full screen views of the images are controlled by FlickR and cannot be adjusted.

Many pages offer the opportunity to subscribe to an RSS-feed. If you integrate such a feed on your website, then you will automatically receive the latest reports on your website. With the new blog that will be released at the beginning of the year you will be able to distribute your own feed, so that friends will always be notified when something new is happening on your website. In comparison to other web-building-blocks, page4 offers you a large variety on prepared feeds that you can subscribe to with just one mouse click. The option to enter your own feeds manually will of course remain. You can also integrate the RSS feed content as many times as you like on your website.

There are no special pages with page4. You can therefore place your guestbook on any given page. Just by its own or amongst other content. You can currently create a guestbook (if you create several guestbook’s, then all of them will have the same content). From spring 2011 however it will be possible to make use of several guestbook’s and the administration of the entries will be possible in just one dialogue and we will of course expand the outfit. So look forward to it now already.

It is often sensible to offer the visitors of your website to get in touch with you without having to give them your e-mail address or without the visitors having to make use of an e-mail program. And for that you have a contact form that you can customise to your liking. You can create as many forms as you like and link each one with a different e-mail address, real simple and real easy. All options can be found on clearly structured tabs and all you have to do is edit the relevant content. We will also be reworking the contact form in spring. If you would like substantially more, then there are services for free and some that you have to pay for which you will be able to integrate them with the assistance of the XHTML-content.

The sitemap, an overview of all of your pages will only be used once sometime or the other. Because it is up to you though where you would like to display it or if at all, we also created a simple content just for that. Select and save. Finished, possibly just edit the colours so that the page names are also readable. Pages that are invisible or have no navigational point will not be displayed. The pages from your blogs will also not be displayed, as the blog has its own navigation. As mentioned, the blog will be available soon.

Only with the premium version. The content to offer files for download is really easy to use. Create a new content, edit it and upload individual files (PDF, Doc, images, etc). Mark them, save, finished. The uploaded files cannot be overwritten. So if you would like to offer a new file for download, then you will have to delete the old content and replace it with a new content.

Only with the premium version. The content to play Flash files is also very easy to use. Create a new content, edit it and upload individual Flash files with the format “swf”. Save, finished. The uploaded files cannot be overwritten. So if you would like to play a new file, then simply delete the old content and replace it with a new content.

With the “Note-content” you can quickly and easily place texts into the sidebar. You enter a heading, a sub header and your text and if desired, also a date. Save, finished. Optimal for smaller messages.

'Just as on your main page, you can quickly and easily publish images on the sidebar. Apart from the fact that there is not a lot of space on the side bar, all options are available to you.

With the slideshow you can invite as many images as you like and display them with various transitional effects.

You can also integrate HTML and JavaScript with the XHTML section into your sidebar. Due to security reasons, the code will be deactivated during the admin-mode.

Design and sort the contents in the sidebar through lines. Really simple and any design with the line-content.

There is a counter available for the sidebar that also offers various options.

You would like to display the messages from a Twitter-account on your website? Simply make use of the Twitter-content on the sidebar.

With this you can display an entire calendar or simply just the time.