LayerSpace user guide

Chapter 6 - Configuring a website/HubSpace

From 'YOUR WEBSITES' click edit content. To configure your HubSpace click on 'HUBSPACE' from the Spacebar. Configuration options are shown in tabs down the left hand side:

HELP
This is a rundown of what each option is.

TEMPLATE
This allows you to change the template for your website. Available templates will vary depending on your membership level.

PRESETS
This page allows to set a colour scheme easily. The available options have been carefully designed to work in harmony and this is the best place to start when first creating a website.

COLOURS
Here you can change all the colours that make up your website. Body text, image title, image caption and image border are all self explanatory. Link is the colour of links to galleries and text pages, and also the colour of text links in text pages. Link highlight is the colour that links turn when the the mouse is passed over them. Border is used for the border around the whole website (this can vary from template to template). Inner background is the colour behind the actual website and its content. Outer background is the colour around the outside of the content. Base and subtle colours are used for various other graphic details and will vary depending on the template. You may need to do some experimenting to achieve the best results. Social background and border are for changing the appearance of the social networking icon bar if it is used.

CHANGING A COLOUR
Click on 'edit colours' and then pass your mouse over the small coloured square to the right of the colour you wish to change. A spectrum of colours will appear - click the colour you require, then click 'apply changes'. Alternatively if you know the 'hex' colour code for the colour you require, you can enter it in the box next to the '#' symbol.

FONTS
You can set the font used for the main text in text pages, for image captions (and titles) and for links to text pages and galleries. There are several 'web-safe' options which are available on all computers and so your Space will appear the same way. You can set all three fonts at the same time to a preset using the 'edit/set font theme' button.

NAME/LOGO
A logo is the heading that appears on every page of your site and can be either text or an image. To account for different styles of logo, most templates are available as either tall or wide logo versions, so some experimentation is again in order.

CREATING A TEXT LOGO
Click 'edit details' and change the logo type to text if it is not already set. Click on 'apply changes' to set the logo type. You can then click on 'edit details' again to edit the settings.
The details are: HEADING which is the main part of the logo (eg your name), and SUBHEADING which is as you might suppose, a secondary part of the logo (eg 'photographer'). You can set font, size and colour for each of these. Click apply changes and the logo is set.

CREATING AN IMAGE LOGO
Click 'edit details' and change the logo type to 'image' and click 'apply changes'. Then click 'edit details' again. To change the logo image, click on 'change image' and on the next page, click 'Choose file' to select an image from your hard drive to upload. Click 'upload image' and wait for the logo to upload and be processed.

TIPS FOR CREATING LOGO IMAGES
You are advised to make a logo the exact size that it will appear in your website to ensure that any text is legible. For best results it is a good idea to make the background of the logo image the same colour as the background of your website (inner background in the colours).

If you are using text in an image, it is best to save it as either a gif or a png image. If it has a gradient it may work better as either a jpeg or a png image.

Images will be resized if they are bigger than one of the two size formats allowed.
The LayerSpace system will decide automatically which is the appropriate size for the image you upload. Small images will not be enlarged.

For wide templates: 450 pixels wide x 75 pixels high For tall templates: 150 pixels wide x 300 pixels high

These are maximum dimensions.

DETAILS
Borderwidth adjust the size of the border around the main content of a Space (depending on the template). You can hide the border by changing the borderwidth to 0 (zero).
Show image border - when set to yes a keyline border will appear around large images.
Show copyright - if set to yes a copyright symbol will appear at the bottom of the website with the copyright name.
Fullscreen - if set to yes the website will set the viewers window to fill the screen when entering. (this appears with its own tab if editing a Hubspace)
Thumbnails - choose whether the thumbnails are shown as square or proportional.
This is dependent on the template - some templates only use square thumbs, others do not use any thumbs. (Not applicable to a Hubspace).

SHOW HUBSPACE LINK (HUBSPACE ONLY)
When this option is set to yes a link will appear in all websites that are are in a HubSpace Group. HubSpace link text is the text that will be used for this link. It is worth thinking carefully about the wording for this option as it does not work in the same way as a normal 'home' button and so may be confusing for some visitors.

PAGE TITLE
when the website is opened in a browser, the browser window will show this title at the top.

KEYWORDS
These are useful for getting your website listed in search engines. Separate each keyword (or phrase) with a comma when entering them.

DESCRIPTION
This is the phrase or sentence that will appear under the main link in search engine results which find your website. It should be a short sentence describing what your site is about and what it contains.

STATISTICS CODE
You can add the code from your free Google Analytics (or similar) account here to monitor visitors to your website. See www.google.com/analytics for more information.

SOCIAL LINKS
This is a way to add icon links to your social networking pages on Facebook, Twitter etc.
You can choose the position of the icons in the browser window, change background styling and various other settings which are fairly self explanatory.
Colours should be changed in the colours tab.

HOMEPAGE (not available when editing the HubSpace)
This option sets the page that appears when first entering the website. If you want to have a traditional homepage, you can create a text page with a title of 'home' and then set it as your homepage. Or you can choose to show an image from a gallery. Options for images are :
HOMEPAGE - this will show a random image from a special image gallery called homepage. This is accessible (if chosen) by clicking 'IMAGE GALLERIES' from the top grey bar.
ALL - Shows a randomly chosen image from all images in this website.
FIRST - (Default) This shows the first image in the first gallery of this website.

If your website is primarily displaying photographs or other images, you are urged to set your homepage as an image to give more exposure to your image. Choosing a random option means that your website will change when visitors return without you needing to change anything. If ou want to show a single image but not the one that appears first in gallery one, choose homepage and then upload only one image to the homepage gallery.

Choosing a text page as your homepage may be desirable if you want to explain what the website contains - for example a series of images from a new job.

SYNCHRONISE (only available if you have a multi-website price plan)
This is a convenient feature to apply the same styles to several websites at the same time.

First choose the websites you want to change to match the current site.

Then select the options you want to change.

Finally choose whether to set newly created websites to use these settings as the default. This will save time in uploading logo images and changing fonts, colours etc.

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