Sagamore PTA Google Sites notes
In November 2013, Dave Barker started experimenting with Google Sites for future use by the Sagamore Hills PTA, leveraging the free Sagamore Hills PTA Google account.
Conclusion
We're thinking of not using Google Sites, and going with Wordpress instead.
See the comments around the 2014-03 Website Discussion, like:
My Google Sites experiment has not blown me away. Possible advantages that did not materialize were:
- Simplified individual logins (wrecked by how Google Drive assigns file ownership)
- Google Drive integration (a bit clunky and distracts from real web content)
Though it is nice for an organization like ours (and the corporate intranets Google Sites mainly serves) that there's really no maintenance. Unlike Wordpress (I think), which does require at least some administering---like updating and upgrading (at least for security, if not because of forced obsolescence)---which is unnecessary with Google Sites. But, like John mentioned, we can probably scrape together enough Wordpress expertise for our needs.
Editing
- Follow the "Sign in" link at the bottom of the page
- Sign in with
sagamorehillspta@sagamorehillspta.org
Refer to Google Sites Help
Styling
Styling (theme'ing, skin'ing) Google sites is fairly limited. There's no access to the underlying code (css). Basic customization is available under Manage Site → Themes, Colors, and Fonts.
Major style elements, such as line-height and content width, are defined in the selected Base theme, so it's important to see what they bring.
Dave Barker took a survey of Google Sites base themes Nov 2013, and chose the base theme, Micro Light, because it's almost full width, and has a nice line-height (1.5).
Permissions
The site is public viewable and editable by sagamorehillspta@sagamorehillspta.org (site permission details).