Lay out a better Web page

When visitors come to your Web site, you should make sure that they have a great experience and want to come back. A good way to do that is by customizing the site to make it work for your specific business and the needs of your customers. "One size fits all" is not always the best approach here, so take advantage of the features Microsoft Office Live Small Business offers to personalize your site.

A good place to start is by choosing an effective layout for your pages. A good layout gets your message across to customers, both existing and potential, and makes it easy for them to find the information that they want. After you organize the layout of your pages, you can modify each page even further by using customized tables and special modules. What are you waiting for? Let's get started.

 Note   If you partially redirected a domain name to your Office Live Small Business account: Before you can make changes to your Web site after partial redirection, you must change the primary domain to your free Office Live Small Business domain that ends in .officelive.com. For more information, see Make changes to your Web site after partial redirection.

• Customize the page layout

• Change the width of a zone

• Use tables to organize information

• Use modules to enhance a page

Customize the page layout

The layout of a Web page — that is, the organization of content zones on that page — is an important aspect of the overall professionalism of the page and the site.

You can choose from a number of page layouts in Page Editor, and you can also resize zones within a page, giving you many options to arrange content exactly how you want it to appear.

To customize the layout of a Web page, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Office Live Small Business. On the Office Live Small Business Home page, at the top, click Web Site. Page Manager appears.
2. In Page Manager, click Edit next to the page that you want to change. The Page Editor appears.
3. In Page Editor, click Layout, and then click the format that you want.

   

4. When you change the layout of an existing page, any content that is already on the page is rearranged into the new layout. Move the information on the page around as needed to fit into the zones. You can also change the width of zones to fit your content.

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Change the width of a zone

Zones are areas in your page layout where you can place content. In Page Editor, a zone is indicated by a dotted line, and it contains a double-arrow in each upper corner. You can use these arrows to change the width of the zone.

1. On the Office Live Small Business Home page, at the top, click Web Site.
2. In Page Manager, next to the page that you want to modify, click Edit.
3. To change the width of a zone, click the arrow in one of the upper corners, and drag the arrow until the zone is the width you want.

The height of the zone is determined by the content. To insert blank space into a zone, place your cursor in the zone, and then press ENTER.

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Use tables to organize information

Tables can be a great way to present information clearly, which your site visitors will appreciate. A table can contain text, images, or links. To add a table to a Web page, do the following:

1. Sign in to Office Live Small Business. On the Office Live Small Business Home page, at the top, click Web Site.
2. In Page Manager, click Edit next to the page that you want to add a table to. The Page Editor appears.
3. Place your cursor in the spot on the page where you want to insert the table, and then click Table.

   

4. In the Create Table dialog box, select a table type, color scheme, and the number of columns and rows that you want, and then click OK.

Modify your table

When your table is in place, there are many ways to customize that table to suit your needs. You can easily change the number of columns or rows, for example, or make sure that nearby text wraps around the table exactly the way you want.

To add or remove columns or rows, right-click the table cell that you want to change, and then select one of the following:

• Delete column   Deletes the column for that cell (including all rows in the column).
• Delete row   Deletes the row for that cell (including all columns in the row).
• Insert column   Inserts a column to the left of the selected cell.
• Insert row   Inserts a row above the selected cell.

To wrap text around the table, right-click the table, and then select one of the following:

• Float left   Left-justifies the table.
• Float right   Right-justifies the table.
• No text wrapping   Prevents text from wrapping around the table. Instead, text will appear above or below the table.

To delete a table, click the outside border of the table to select it, and then press DELETE.

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Use modules to enhance a page

A module is essentially a mini-application that you can add to a Web page to gain specialized functionality on that page. For example, you can add real-time weather reports, driving directions to your business, and HTML code. This section describes how to add a map and driving directions to a page. For more information about adding HTML, see Inserting HTML code into your Web site.

To add a map and directions to your business, do the following:

1. On the Office Live Small Business Home page, at the top, click Web Site.
2. In the list of Web pages, click Edit next to the page where you want to add the map or directions. The page opens in edit mode.
3. Place the cursor in the zone where you want to add the map or driving directions.
4. On the taskbar, click Module, and then click Map & directions.

   

5. On the Location tab, enter your location information.
6. On the Display Options tab, specify whether you want to display a map, give driving directions, or show an address on your Web site, and then click OK.

 Note   You can edit the information at any time by right-clicking in the module and then clicking Properties.

With these simple changes, you can customize your Web site and make it more appealing to your visitors, increasing the likelihood that they will return.

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