MyFandoms.com Fan Sites Help

Templates

You can select from any of our carefully created templates for your Fan Site. We are constantly adding new templates. We discuss templates a little more in the Creating A New Site section.

Fan Site Editor General Navigation

We have created a main and sub navigation structure for Fan Sites so you can always get to where you need to be when creating and maintaining your Fan Sites.

Fan Sites Navigation:

Creating A New Fan Site

Step 1.) On the main Fan Sites page, click "Create A New Fan Site"

Step 2.) Browse for and select the template you would like to use.

Step 3.) Fill in the required information about your site. This includes:

1. Name of the site

The name of the site should be a short few word title of your fan site as it relates to the Fandom and Category you select. For instance, if you selected the Television Fandom and MacGyver for your Category, you might name your site, "The MacGyver Fan Site".

2. A short descripion

The description you enter here should contain a simple but yet detailed summary of what this site is for or about. This description does not ever get displayed in your site, but does get included when user's search by keyword on the browse/search fan sites page. So, a possible description for "The MacGyver Fan Site" could be,

MacGyver - the only person on the planet who can make a nuclear reactor out of a paperclip and quarter. Who could ever deny that Macgyver deserves a fan site because of this! Give Macgyver a piece of paper and bar of soap, and watch out! He'll find a way out of any situation.

3. Fandom & Category

You can also scroll down the page to preview the template you selected. If you want to switch templates, just go back to the previous page and select a new one.

Step 4.) Submit your form and you will be provided confirmation of your site's creation. At this point, you do not have any pages created. Your site will be inactive until you create your first page for your Fan Site.

Step 5.) Click "Edit Your Fan Sites" to continue. This will take you to your "My Sites" page where you can begin to edit the content of your site.

 

The Site Page/Content Manager

The Site Page/Content Manager (a.k.a. PAGES/CONTENT) provides you with the necessary tools to create and maintain the pages for your Fan Site.

Site Header Image

The header image for your site is the image that spans across the entire width of your site at the very top. When you first created a new site, you are provided the default header image which matches the template you selected. The dimensions of this header image are very important and you should take care in making sure that if you choose to overwrite it with your own, that the dimensions of your own image are the same.

This is a scaled down representation of the default header image we provide:

110px
750px

The dimensions of the header image are : 750 pixels wide and 110 pixels high (750x110). Currently, we do not restrict you from uploading a header image that does not match these dimensions. Images that extend behond the width and height of the preset dimensions, the image will get cut off.

 

Adding A New Page

Adding a new page is very easy! Just fill in the three fields and click the "Create New Page" button.

1. Page Filename - this is the name of the html file that will be used to reference your page with on the server. This is also used to request the page in the url that points to the pages of your site. We will automatically place the .html at the end of the filename for you!
   
   Note: most people name their very first page index (which will become index.html)
   
   
2. Page Title - this will be displayed on your page in the header area just under the name of your site. This title should be short but yet descriptive about the page you are creating. For instance, if I created my first page which is my homepage, I could use a page title like, "Home Page" or "Welcome!"
   
   
3. Page Description - this is an equivalent to a meta description used on the web which helps search engines, indexers, and people know a little more about the page they are viewing or indexing. The description should be long enough that it contains enough information about the page that users will be able to find this page when searching Fan Sites.

Example:

 

Creating/Editing Content For A Page

"Your Site's Pages" section of the "PAGES/CONTENT" page lists all of the pages you have created. This section allows you to:

1. Update the Title and Description of the page
   1. Change the title and/or Description
   2. Click "Update"
      
2. Preview the page.
   
   The preview button will open a smaller window and will display the page with all of the saved settings applied. The page will also be in your template you selected when you created the site.
   
   
3. Delete the page. You will be prompted to confirm that you want to delete the page. NOTE: THIS CANNOT BE UNDONE ONCE YOU CONFIRM AND THE PAGE IS DELETED!
   
   
4. Edit Content - this is the most important feature!!! Click this button and you will be taken to the content editor for this page. This is where you add and/or change the content of the page.

The Page Content Editor

The content editor provides you with three sections where you can enter content

1. Main Body Content - this is the actual main content area of the page.
2. Focus Area - the focus area is the square region between your vertical navigation, the ad box on the right side of the page, and just under the main header area at the top. Typically, you will use this area to provide spotlight on special news, an important photo, or other content that can be contained within this fixed square region. Use this area to get your viewers' attention!
3. Sub Body Content/News Flash - This content will go directly under your vertical navigation. This is as wide as the vertical navigation is and is most often used to list news or other content that can fit within this narrow region. Often, the content here will have links to other pages in your Fan Site, or will link to other sections of the current page.

The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor provided for each area is rather complex and provids a full range of features. So much so, that we just cannot provide a tutorial here. The best way to learn to use the WYSIWYG editor is to use it! So, create as many fan sites and pages as you need to get your WYSIWYG skills honed to perfection! ;-)

 

Note About Images In Your Content

Your WYSIWYG editor provides the ability to add images to your content. We have partnered with Photobucket to provide you with the most flexible way to not only manage your images, but to insert them into the content of your fan sites.

When you click the image icon, you will be presented with a dialog window that will contain the photobucket interface for your image repository. You may be prompted to login to Photobucket on some occasions.

 

Horizontal Navigation

You are allowed to have up to 5 horizontal navigation links on your site. You do not have to have any horizontal navigation links if you do not want them. As a matter of fact, having any navigation on your site is optional.

All you have to do is enter in the display text for the navigation link and select the page that the link points to. Click the "Update Horizontal Navigation" button and your horizontal navigation menu is automatically created!

Your horizontal navigation will look something like:

Vertical Navigation

You are allowed to have up to 10 vertical navigation links on your site. You do not have to have vertical naigation links if you do not want them.

All you have to do is enter in the display text for the navigation link and select the page that the link points to. Click the "Upgrade Vertical Navigation" button and your vertical navigation menu is automatically created!

Your vertical navigation will look something like:

Site & Page Preview and Live View

When you select to preview a page or site, the page you are presented will contain all elements that you have already configured and saved for your site and/or page.

If you are in preview mode, any area that you have not created content for will be populated with descriptive text to make it obvious that you have not created content for htat area.

You will always know when you are in preview mode by the highlighted area of the preview page that looks like:

Live View provides you with a view of your site and/or page as a user would see it. If there are areas of the page(s) that don't have content created, those areas will be blank.

Customizing Your Site's Fonts & Colors

There are two ways you can edit the fonts and styles for your Fan Site.

1. Click on "Fonts/Syles" button on your "My Sites" page for the site you want to edit

, OR

2. Click on "STYLE EDITOR" When you are in the "PAGES/CONTENT" section of your site editor.

Once you are in your site's Style Editor, you have two options.

1. Basic Editor
   
2. Advanced Editor

Basic Editor - this editor provides you with a very simple form where you can define the standard font style for your pages as well as the colors for the most common elements of a page (i.e. links, content text, ...). For all color selections, you can choose from a pre-listed set of popular/basic colors, or you can click on the color square next to the color text field and use the advanced color selector.

Advanced Editor - The advanced editor allows experienced users to create their own css style and paste it into the css field. If you use the advanced editor, your basic settings, if any, will be NOT BE USED.

When you are done, you can click the "Update Site Style Definitions" button to save your settings.

Note: after you update your settings, don't forget to preview your site (as long as you have created at least one page) to make sure your settings look good.