Compatibility:

WebSite X5 Evo and Pro

A Website is a structured collection of pages. It is important to have a clear strategy when planning this structure so that your website Pages will be logically connected with each other and visitors will be able to navigate your website easily.


A well-structured site means the visitors will not get lost while looking through it, and will always know where they are: they must be able to find the information they are looking for quickly. A badly-structured site confuses and frustrates the visitors and, in the worst case, leads to them abandoning the site altogether.


The Sitemap Creation window on Step 3 is where you plan your website's structure in WebSite X5. You can add all your pages and organize them in different levels. Once you have defined the structure of the Map, you can proceed to add the contents of the pages. Click repeatedly on the Next button to open the pages in the same order they have been added to the Map. Alternatively, you can use the Map to open the Program's window where you can work directly on a particular page: double-click on the item in the Map or select it and click on the Edit or the Next button.

 

The Sitemap Creation window

Most of the space in the Sitemap Creation window is taken up by the website Map tree, which is a schematic representation of the website Map you are creating.


Starting from an empty Template, a basic map is shown by default. It has a Menu folder that contains the Home page and 3 other pages. You can use the available commands to add Levels, Pages and Separators to create the website Map you want.


If you add a built-in search engine (see Search Object), a Entry page, a Blog, a Members' Area (you only need one page set as a Locked page) or a Shopping cart, a folder called Special Pages will be added to your Map and it will include the following items: Search, Entry page, Blog, Login and Shopping Cart.


As well as showing the Map's tree structure, other useful information is given for the pages you add, such as the Page Title and the 'Description' Tag. This information is taken from the settings defined in the Page Properties window, which you will have previously filled in.


The Toolbar above the Map offers the necessary commands to work on the pages already inserted.


The commands available in the toolbar are the following:

  • Cut - Copy - Paste: to perform these actions with Pages within the same Project or from a Project to another.
  • Expand - Contract:  to expand or contract the selected Level, so to display or hide the subpages.
  • Hidden: to hide a Page or a level from the Navigation Menu. All the Pages of a hidden Level will consequently be hidden too. Use Hidden Pages as insight pages and don't forget to link them from another page, so to make it possible to access them.
  • Locked: to set the selected Page as "locked" and define the groups or Users that can access it. For more information, see: How to create a members' area and define access to it
  • Under Construction:  to set a Page which isn't complete yet as "under construction". These Pages are displayed in the local preview but won't be exported online. On the online website, the Pages that have been set as under construction and the relative menu entries won't be displayed.
  • Page 404: to set the selected Page as Page 404. You can create a single Page 404 per project. Special, Locked or Under Construction Pages cannot be used as Page 404.
  • Properties:  to open the window where you can define the properties for the selected Page or Level.
  • Edit: to create the selected Page and complete it with contents. 


The commands available in the Toolbar on the right side of the window allow you to create the Sitemap (see: How to create the website Map).


Finally, some of the most popular commands are reported in a contextual menu too which you can open by right-clicking on the Sitemap directly. Moreover, the context menu also reports the following command: 

  • Set as Home Page: to set the selected Page (except Page 404, Locked Pages and Under Construction Pages) as new project Home Page. A dialog box asks if you want all the links to be redirected to the new Home Page. If you proceed, the new Page is set as new Home Page: it has the same name and position on the Sitemap as before, but it is identified with the icon used for the Home Page. The old Home Page also keeps the same name and position and is identified with the icon used for standard pages.
#tip - More information available on: How to set a Page as new project Home Page


How to create the website Map

Creating and designing the website Map in WebSite X5 is easy:

  • Use the buttons available on Step 3 - Sitemap Creation:
    • New Level [CTRL + L] to ass a New Level in the menu. Levels aren't pages with their own contents but rather categories that can include and organize pages, so to better structure the navigation menu and make it more easily usable for the visitors. You can add as many levels as you want. 
    • New Page [CTRL + P] to add a New Page within the selected Level.
    • Separator to add a Separator so to visually organize the menu entries. A Separator can be a space or a title, and it is particularly useful if you create a menu with multiple columns. 
  • Carefully choose the names for your pages, levels and separators: these labels will in fact be visible as menu entries and file names. You can change the name of an entry by double-clicking on an entry or selecting it and clicking on Rename [F2].
  • The Sitemap can be modified at any time, moving Pages, Levels and Separators: to do this, select the entry and drag it to the position you want (Drag&Drop), or use the Move up [CTRL + U] / Move down[CTRL + D] buttons.
  • Of course, if you don't need a Page, a Level or a Separator anymore, you can delete it by selecting it and clicking on Remove [DEL].  


Now that you have drawn at least a first draft of the Sitemap as a structure that is still empty of content, you can proceed to the actual creation of each individual Page. As we said, you can simply click repeatedly on the Next button to open the Pages one after the other, in the same order as they are inserted in the Map, or double-click directly on a Page in the Map (or select it and click on the Edit button).