Adding/Editing Special Pages to your site:
Path, from the left navigation menu: ['Customization' section] > Special Pages
Special Pages are those pages within the site which, whilst mandatory, have fully customizable body copy. The Home page, Download page and Special Offers page are all examples of Special Pages, and they are linked to by the tabbed header menu throughout the site, shown below:
Fig. 2.5.4.1: The tabbed header menu showing the majority of the 'Special Pages'
To customize the Special Pages throughout the site you need to load the Special Pages menu, by selecting the 'Special Pages' menu option from the left navigation menu, within the 'Customization' section.
Fig. 2.5.4.2: The "Special Pages" link for reviewing / changing your site's 'Special Page' content:
This will load the Special Pages menu, shown below:
Fig. 2.5.4.3: The "Special Pages" screen from which you select Special Pages for modification:
Running quickly through each of the headings you can see on the Special Pages screen, the below descriptions give a very brief introduction to each of the different types of information listed about the different custom pages on your screen.
Page
These are the names of the Special Pages which are displayed on your site, and that you can edit via this screen
Page Heading
These are the Page Headings that have been specified for each of the Special Pages. These headings can be edited using the edit feature (below).
Versions
This value tells you whether or not there are any additional versions of each of the Special Pages. Different versions can be created of each of the Special Pages to allow you to keep your pages fresh and targeted. Your new versions of a Special page can be set to appear over a particular date range (so you can effectively 'schedule' customized versions of your Special Pages to tie into seasonal events, such as Thanksgiving, Summer Holidays, etc.).
Tip: Why not create several versions of your homepage, one for each of a range of seasonal promotions: Thanksgiving, Easter, Superbowl, Summer, 4th July, etc., and schedule these pages to appear over the couple of weeks leading up to the event. Your site will appear fresh and topical to its customers.
Edit
The edit link takes you to the editing page for the Special Page in question.
The Special Pages Edit Screen:
Once you have decided which page you wish to edit, simply click the edit link for the Special Page in question and you will be taken to the following page:
Fig. 2.5.4.4: The "Special Pages Editing Screen" using which you may modify the content of your site's Special Pages:
On the page that you see when you selected the edit link, you will see a list of editable options in the center of the page. Below these options are a number of save/cancel/preview buttons too. Each of the elements on the page will be discussed below, to help your understanding of the types of changes you can make here.
Filename (no ext)
This text field contains the name of the html file (without the .html extension) for the Special Page you are currently editing. This filename cannot be edited as these Special Pages are hard-coded into your site. Changing the names of these Special Pages would of course break the hard-coded links and cause your site to function improperly.
Link Text
If you specify, within the Footer Links menu (or Custom Nav Bar) option in the Partner Admin System, that you would like a link to one of your Special Pages, the text you enter in this field will become the text for the link itself. For example, if in this field you type "MY HOME PAGE" then when you come to editing your Footer Links, and you specify that you would like a link to this particular Special Page on the Footer, the link will appear with the text "MY HOME PAGE". Exactly as you specified here.
Page Header
The text at the top of the body copy on this particular Special page (the 'heading' text) is editable here.
Description
The description box is for your use both as a personal reference and also for picking up dynamically within your site's meta tags. If you use the {PageDescription} token within your site's meta data, the description you have entered in this text box will be inserted in place of the token. This can of course help (or hinder) your page rankings for this page, and so should be optimized for relevant keywords.
Text
This is the actual body text for the Special Page that you're currently editing. The input box here is in HTML format - you should not simply enter unformatted text here as it will cause problems when viewing your page. You have three options as regards inserting your desired HTML into this field, namely;
1) Edit the HTML code directly, by clicking the 'source' button in the edit area, and then entering your HTML code in the window that appears.
2) Use the in-built WYSIWYG Editor (more on which below)
3) Use a third party HTML authoring application, then copy & paste your finished HTML into the HTML edit box, again loaded by clicking the 'source' button.
This versatile feature enables you to get a really custom look and feel about the major editorial sections of your site - you can even incorporate graphics into your page (although you will have to use absolute http:// paths to your graphics as they will need to be located on your own, personal web space, off the Spoken Network System - not a problem so long as they are small enough not to slow the page-load).
WYSIWYG editor
To make editing your HTML as easy and intuitive as possible, we've included a 'what you see is what you get' HTML page editor for you to use - right off the page! This gives you a really simple view of exactly how your page text will appear, without having to get into the HTML coding side of things:
Fig. 2.5.4.5: The "WYSIWYG" editor, for editing the text on your Special Pages:
This inbuilt HTML editor is designed to give you straightforward control over the layout of the main text in the Special Page you're currently editing. The editor is designed to be intuitive to anyone who is familiar with standard word processing editing options, but for those who are not, you can access a special help page entirely on the features of the editor window, the page that follows this one, entitled: "WYSIWYG Editor".
Create another Version (link)
If you would like to create a whole new version of this page (perhaps you want to create a temporary, 'seasonal' home page to replace the standard version over a particular date range) you may do so by clicking this link. A completely new copy of the Special Page you are currently working on will appear, ready for editing and saving.
As well as creating a customized version of the particular Special Page, you can schedule this page to appear on your site (in place of the default Special Page from which this copy is taken) between a start and end-date of your choice.
In the text input box entitled "Start Date" you should enter the date upon which the new version of this Special Page should appear (and temporarily replace the default Special Page).
Similarly, in the text input box labeled "End Date" you should specify the date upon which you would like the new version of this Special Page to be removed (and so reverting back to the default version of the Special Page).
Saving, Canceling and Submitting your Special Page changes
As was mentioned earlier in this section, there are two buttons at the bottom of the Special Pages Editing Screen. Their functions are as follows:
"Cancel" Button: This button allows you to return to list of Special Pages without saving any changes you may have just made to your Special Page. You can effectively abandon your changes by clicking the "Cancel" button. Only clicking the "Save Changes" button (details of which are below) will you commit your changes.
"Save Changes" Button: This button saves any changes you might have made in this session to the Special Page you are editing. On clicking this button, as well as saving your changes, the system will redirect you back to the list of Special Pages, ready for you to make your next editing selection.
Tip:
It is highly recommended that you take a moment to check your editing over carefully, BEFORE committing changes to the 'live' site by clicking the "Save Changes" button (although you can of course edit the site again, and recommit additional changes, should you need to correct an error).