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.


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 for laying out the website Map are on the right side of the window.

How to create the website Map

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

  • In the window of Step 3 - Sitemap Creation use the New Level, New Page and Separator buttons to add new levels, pages and separators to your Map.
  • Name the items in the Map carefully: these names appear in the navigation menu and as file names. If you want to change a name, click twice on it or use the Rename button.
  • You can edit the Map at any time, moving Pages, Levels and Separators to different places: select the item you want to move and drag it to a new position, or you can use the Move up / Move down buttons.


Remember that the levels in WebSite X5 are categories and not real pages with content. You can think about them as "containers for  pages".


Separators don't have content either. They are used to visually organize the navigation menu.