EverWeb’s Web Page List: All You Need To Know – Part I

The Web Page List is aone of the fundamental part of EverWeb‘s user interface. It’s where the pages of your site are listed and managed. There are lots of useful things to know about the Web Page List, as well as some good to know tips on how to get the best out of this EverWeb feature. In this post we’ll be looking at the basic features of the Web Page List to get you up and running…

Web Page List Basics
As the name implies, the Web Page List is a list of the pages of your site. It runs down the left hand side of EverWeb’s UI and is split in to two main sections. In the top section, directly below the Toolbar, is the section where you can add Master pages to your website project. A Master page is like a boiler template that you can attach to the regular pages of your site. In your Master page you typically add things that you want to see on all of your pages, e.g. company name and logo, page background images or colors, small print items such as legal and copyright notices that you’ll be placing in the footer of the page.

Below the Master Page section of the Web Page List, is the regular page section. This is where the pages that you add to your site are listed. It’s also the place where you organize and manage your site’s page

When you first create your website, the first thing that you do is to add a page to your website project. The Web Page List displays the page in the left hand column of EverWeb’s UI.

Adding pages to your site is simple, just use the Add Page button to add a page. This is also where you can add a blog if you want. Just check to see that the theme template you decide to use has a blog page. If not, just use the Blank, or Blank Responsive, theme and add its blog page.

To add a Master page, you’ll need to click on the ‘New Master Page’ button in the Master page section. Name the page appropriately. Usually websites will only use one or two Master pages, but your milage may vary…

You can easily rearrange the pages in the regular page list section if desired, just drag and drop the page you want to move to its new location. You probably will move pages around if you are using EverWeb’s Navigation Menu widget to create your site’s navigation. This is because the widget uses the page order of the Web Page List to create the links to those pages you include in your navigation.

Note that you can only move pages around in the regular page section of the Web Page List. You can’t change the order of pages in the Master Page section. However, you can move pages in to, or out of, the Master Page section. Again, just drag and drop the page you want from one section to the other. When you do this, you’ll notice that a copy is made in the target location, so the original is kept. If you do not want to keep the source page delete it after you have copied the page.

If you have EverWeb 4.2 or higher, you can also drag and drop pages from one project to another. This is a great time saver if you want to recycle your ideas for future website projects.

Deleting pages is also very simple, just click on the page name you want to delete in the Web Page List, then hit the backspace or delete key on your keyboard. You will be asked to confirm your deletion. We recommend that you do not disable this message. It’s always best to confirm the page you’re wanting to delete, in oder to avoid any mistakes.

The last of the basic Web Page List functions is renaming pages. You can easily do this by double clicking on the name of the page you want to rename in the Web Page List. Edit the current page name as desired then press Enter when done. Alternatively, you can also select the page in the Web Page List then use the ‘File Name’ field in the Page Settings tab of the Inspector Window to change the page name. The change you make to the Name field will immediately update the Web Page List page name.

Directories and Folders
We typically use the words directory and folder interchangeably. EverWeb usually refers to this type of page as a directory page. You can create one just by clicking on the Add Directory button in the Toolbar. A page with a folder icon will appear in the Web Page List.

The primary function of this type of page is to organise your pages better – useful if you have many pages in your site. The second function of this type of page is that it is used to create a directory structure for your navigation.

Usually the directory page itself will not be an actively page as such but just a label for listing pages beneath it in your navigation. To ‘deactivate’ the directory page, choose the directory page you have added then check the Redirect to first child page box in the Page Settings tab of the Inspector Window.

You can create a directory structure within your directory page by drag and dropping regular pages a little to the right and under the directory page. You’ll see a guide line appear when you do this. When you drop the page in place it will be indented a little in relation to the directory page itself. Alternatively, click on the directory page, then use the Add Page button to create a page within the directory structure.

Moving pages in and out of a directory is also easy, again, just drag and drop pages within the directory to where you want them located.

Directory pages can also be nested, but note that when using the Navigation Menu widget, only one level of nesting is allowed.

Advanced Topics…
EverWeb’s Web Page List is a straightforward feature, but includes some great time saving features. In our next instalment, we’ll be looking at some more advanced Web Page List features!