Overview:
When you log in to the Sitemason system, you immediately enter the Site Manager, which is the location of your Sitemason tools. The Site Manager organizes your Sitemason tools in groups. Each group can be made into a website, with the contents of the website being the tools in that group. To add a group, click on the Add a Tool button on the right side of the group header.


If you want to make a group of tools into a website, simply click the button "Create Website" and you will be guided through the process. More information on creating a website is detailed in the Site Builder User Guide.

Initially, you will only have the Standard Group. To change the name of a group, click on the group and then choose the "rename" button. Then, type in whatever you would like to call your group.

To configure or edit a tool, click on the name of the tool, which takes you to that tool's configuration and setup page.

Details:
After you log in to Sitemason, you'll notice immediately the yellow Site Manager. Before we wade into what the Site Manager actually is and what it does, let's point out a few basic account steps. First, notice that once you are logged in, you retain the Sitemason website navigation in the top left. Here you can easily and quickly get back to the Sitemason website if you have any questions or Logout of your account.

Next, you'll see that you have links at the top for "View Account Information" and "User Preferences." Under View Account Information you can change your username and contact information as well as subscribe to Sitemason Notices. You can also change your password and view your account activity.


In User Preferences, set the User Level to correspond to how comfortable you consider yourself with Sitemason. You can adjust the Window Size to fit the resolution on your computer and also set Sitemason to ask for a confirmation when deleting an element or tool. The Site Manager's Action allows you to declare if you would rather open a tool in the Edit tab or the starting Setup & Information tab. If you are working with multiple Sitemason accounts, you can enable the transfer of tools by checking Transfer Tools or allow other account editors levels of access by enabling the User Manager. The User Manager also has another purpose for managing visitors to your site and password protecting pages, but we will get into that in another section.


The Mail/SMTP Preferences section is very important if you intend on having any of your Sitemason tools send emails through your website. For example, if you are using a Custom Form to collect site visitors who want to contact you through a form, that form will need the ability to send an email from the website to your email address. In order to have that capability, you will need to add the settings for your OUTGOING email server. If you are a Sitemason email customer, then your settings will be as follows:

SMTP Server/Hostname: smtp.sitemasonmail.com
SMTP Username: your FULL email address
SMTP Password: your email password
Test Email Address: your full email address again. This will send you an email if the SMTP settings work correctly.

Now that we know our way around Sitemason a little bit, let's make a website. To turn your Standard Group into a website, either simply hit the Create Website button or the Add New Website link underneath the Site Manager tab. You will then be prompted to setup your site as a Sitemason Simple Configuration or Sitemason Standard Configuration. You should always select Sitemason STANDARD Configuration, unless directed otherwise by Sitemason staff. You will then scroll down and select one of the templates listed and click Submit at the bottom of the page.

If you are working on creating a website within Sitemason than you are most likely working in conjunction with Sitemason staff or a web designer to build a custom template. After the first time the template is setup and created in your Sitemason account, it will from then on be available in the list of available templates to choose from. If you don't see it immediately available, simply click the Submit button with any template selected, and then go into the Choose Template tab of the Site Builder to find your template and designate it for use.

After you click the Submit button, you'll be returned to your Site Manager and you will notice that your yellow Standard Group bar will then turn into that of a blue Site Builder bar and you will notice that the Site Builder now has a URL. By default, Sitemason assigns a URL which will most likely not match your domain. In the Site Builder, you will learn how to change your domain and the numerous otherfunctions of the Site Builder.