Welcome to Getting Started!
The following will introduce you to the SimpleUpdates interface and show you how to quickly get a website up and running.
To log in, enter your email address and password.
Once you have logged in, you will see a bar stretching across the top of your screen, as well as a bar along the left-hand side of your screen. If you click on the three lines in the upper left-hand corner (these three lines are called a “hamburger”), this will expand the menu on the left of your screen so that the text descriptions are visible for each of the menu items, in addition to their icon.
This is what the menu looks like before and after you expand it:
The menu items are below:
- Dashboard is a general overview of the site visitor statistics.
- Pages gives you the entire list of pages comprising your site.
- Blog enables you to create blogs and blog posts.
- Events brings up calendar-related capabilities.
- Forms allows you to work with forms on your site.
- Galleries is where you can upload photos from your computer to use on your site.
- Media displays statistics, and enables you to upload media and adjust podcast settings.
- Store allows you to set up "for sale" items on your website.
- Themes takes you to all the themes available to view and select.
- Users is the tool for managing access to site-editing capabilities.
- Settings allows you to change a variety of settings for your site.
You will also notice that the blue boxes are the areas where you can type in your website's text.
Admin Menu
The Admin Menu is gives you access to control your website. It is always available when you are logged in. You can collapse it to just icons with the "hamburger" icon in the upper left.
1. Dashboard
Pictured here is the website dashboard. This page is a welcome and overview area of your website. Check here for system messages and alerts for items that may need your attention.
2. Pages
Pages is list of all the content pages of the site. Page titles link to the public view, and edit button will take you directly to edit a page.
When editing a page, you simply click in an editable region (outlined with a blue border) and type. Drag and Drop and image or several images, and they embed on the page. Pasting a video URL into a page pops up an embedded video player. Selecting text yields context-sensitive options.
Blocks can be added to any section of the edit area. The image to the right is a sample of the blocks that can be inserted.
Page history offers unlimited roll back. Auto save is automatic and you can return to your work at any time before publishing. Pages can be activated or deactivated by date, as well as protected by password or user level.
3. Blog
The Blog is a list of posts that are ordered by date rather than by topic hierarchy.
Items 4-8 are collection items. All website resources need to be inserted on pages, and this makes the blog or collection items available to be public visitor. In many cases you can insert these as a page type which places the collection in your site map (such as store or media), or onto a part of a page (such as gallery or a list instance. The page permissions extend into the collection items.
4. Events
Event details can be stored and displayed via the Calendar page type or content block. You can sync your calendar to Google or other iCal friendly calendars.
5. Forms
Forms allow you to get responses from the public. The image on the left shows form fields that can be added to a form. Analytics and export of form data is available. Cost items can be collected on form submit.
6. Galleries
Photo Galleries are easy to add to your site. Simply drag and drop a collection of photos to the editor window. The gallery images automatically upload. You can place a caption on each image, reorder the images, choose the gallery display mode and insert it to your page. From the Admin Menu, you can select and manage any gallery on the site.
7. Media
The Media collection will hold and syndicate media content as stand alone programs or in a series. You can upload media to your website or link to media already on another provider. There is the ability to add supporting files for each media item such as audio files, PDFs, or other materials.
Live streaming has been integrated into the media app. If your live stream is active, the media app will display the live stream at the top of the media list automatically. Media stats including live streaming stats are available on the media dashboard.
Click here for more information on media setup.
8. Store
An online store is available with the ability to hold products, images and product variations. We have apps for shipping, sales tax, and secure credit card check out which deposits funds directly to your bank via one of several payment gateway options.
9. Themes
Themes provide the website with mobile friendly and updated designs. The layouts inside a theme can be selected using the visual template picker on the advanced tab during a page edit.
10. Users
User management allows unlimited users. Four user levels are supported: administrators, contributors, viewers, and correspondents. Only the first three of these user levels (administrators, contributors, viewers) are able to login to the website. User session are persistent across browsing sessions.
11. Settings
Settings allow site configuration via a simple set of edit tools. You can also integrate with other internet services such as social media, email newsletter providers, statistics providers, and more.