TUTORIAL

This page is a how-to guide for creating new pages on this squarespace.

START HERE:

  1. Access the administrative squarespace page by navigating to https://jules-odendahljames-seq8.squarespace.com/
  2. Log in to land on the main administrative page.
  3. Before doing anything, open the administrative side panel by clicking on the arrow in the upper left hand corner of the page.
  4. Click PAGES and identify the two categories of pages: TOP NAVIGATION and NOT LINKED. The TOP NAV pages are the ones that always appear at the top of your site.
    • Note there is no HOME page. This is intentional. You have a SPLASH page which users only see if they directly type julesodendahljames.com into their browser. The splash page is purely decorative, with minimal content. and once users have found the site, we want to get them closer to content, not farther.
    • Ignore the TEST and READ ME pages. The TUTORIAL page is the one you are reading now.
    • Under TOP NAV, you'll see four pages. SCHOLARSHIP, TEACHING, and CV are simple, straightforward pages. Organization of content on those pages may be advanced, but they should remain more constant in structure as time goes on. You can leave those alone, unless you want to add notes to your CV, add courses to TEACHING, or add research notes to SCHOLARSHIP.
    • PRODUCTIONS is a hub-page for all the works you've been a part of. Note the folder of pages under NOT LINKED that says Public Production Pages. This contains each of the sub-pages that users navigate to via the PRODUCTIONS hub-page. Click on this page to see the gallery of production photos, all with captions, for the works you've done. You cannot edit this gallery directly from this page; see the following for an explanation:
    • Look at the gallery under NOT LINKED entitled Productions (for admin only); the icon is a series of pictures. Click on this page and ignore what comes up on the right-hand-side page preview. This will not be an actual page that users will see. This is merely where the teaser photos that automatically appear on the PRODUCTIONS page are stored. Understand that there are two instances of each production: One photo-and-caption combo occurs in the Productions (for admin only) gallery, while a separate page for that production exists in the folder of pages entitled Public Production Pages. The two items – the gallery photo and the complete page – are linked. I will explain how to create that link between the two items later.

ADDING A PRODUCTION:

Step 1 - Create the public production page, the stand-alone page containing the play description, the most important media, and links to any additional media. This is the most important and most difficult step, because it involves fiddling with the actual design of the page.

  1. Navigate to the admin panel on the left side. Click Add Page, and a new page should automatically appear in the Public Production Pages folder. If it doesn't, don't worry about it. The folder's only function is to add clarity for the administrator.
  2. Immediately click the settings icon (the gear) that appears when you hover over the new page on the admin panel. The Configure Page box will appear to your right. Make sure the Navigation Title, Page Title, and URL SLUG all match the name of the production (for multiple word titles of works, replace spaces in the url slug with "-"). Look to the Configure box of already completed production pages for an example.
  3. Click Save on the Configure box and then navigate to this new page by clicking on its name on the admin panel.
  4. Now you must add content to the page. Follow these instructions to create a simple, but effective page:
    1. Hover the mouse to the center of the new page and find the "Edit" button for the "Page Content" element of the page. Click Edit. An option to "Write here..." appears. Click in this box.
    2. The convention I set in place is to use HEADER 2 size font for the title of the work and your role, like this:

      • TITLE - ROLE YOU PLAYED, OTHER ROLE

    3. On a new line, the description of the work follows. This text is in NORMAL size font:

      • Normal size font for the description.

    4. Add supplementary media one by one – a video, an image, a carousel of images, etc. – by clicking on the lower black line that appears when you hover your mouse near the end of the description text. Google individual tutorials for adding each of those elements if you get stuck. I recommend only using carousel for displaying a bunch of images at once. Slideshow, Grid, and Stacked are more fiddly and frankly I just don't think they look as good for this kind of site. PDFs are complicated; it involves handcoding HTML. Ask me about this if you want to add them yourself.
    5. The result will be a linear collection of objects arranged from top to bottom. You can reorganize elements by dragging them around the page in "edit" mode for the page content, put two things side by side, e.g. But boy this is a fiddly process. It is worth it to neaten up everything, but I recommend doing this only if you have the time to make it look really really good.

Step 2 - Create a corresponding gallery element in the Productions (for admin only) gallery.

  1. Navigate to this gallery by clicking on it's icon in the left-hand side admin panel under PAGES. Only look to the left hand panel. The right-hand page preview is irrelevant here.
  2. Click on the plus sign to add a new element to this gallery, and choose Image. A box should appear to EDIT IMAGE.
  3. Upload the teaser photo for the production by clicking on the left-hand box for Add an image.
  4. Title the image as the name of the production.
  5. Under the Description ("write here...") write your role(s), separated by commas.
  6. Navigate to "Options" at the top of the page.
  7. Click on the dropdown for "Clickthrough URL" and click on the sub-page for "Content." Scroll down to find the button for the corresponding production. There are a lot of pages on this site, so it might mean scrolling past 30 other pages. Click on that page and make sure it's selected (black with white text).
  8. Click SAVE & PUBLISH on the bottom of this EDIT IMAGE box.
  9. Navigate back to PAGES and check by clicking on the PRODUCTION page to see that your new photo and caption appear on the hub-page.

Phew! You did it!