Getting Started

This is the first in a series of articles that try to explain how the web site works, how you can use it effectively, how you can do things with it to enhance your life with the church, and where we hope to go with the web site in the future.

Who can use the web site?  Anyone with access to a computer and the Internet.  If you have a computer and an account that gives you web access, you can do it.

What if you don't have a computer or account?  You can still use it.  The Sonoma County Public Library has public computers that you can use to access the Internet.

What's on the web site?  The top level menu gives you a good idea.  To give you a little peek, you can find the following: news and events, including a calendar; some sermons in audio format that you can listen to on your computer; the Roseleaf, often before the printed edition is available; photo albums; staff listing; information on the programs of the church; and a contact form if you want to contact us about anything.

This will be a guided tour, so you should be sitting at your computer while you read the rest of this.  Open a browser window (like Internet Explorer)  and navigate to http://www.fumcsantarosa.org which will take you to the home page.  The site has a top-level menu across the top of every page.  You can always get back to the home page by clicking on the photos at the top of every page, or on "FUMC Home."  The home page shows you the top-level menu, a welcome message, a listing of News and Events, and a bottom navigation bar.

Your exercise: go to http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/ourwebsite and read the rest of this chapter.

You can find this article and future articles at http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/ourwebsite.

THE REST OF THIS CHAPTER

Welcome to the web site. 

The top-level menu is the "buttons" that you see just below the photos at the top of every page.  Each button takes you to a major section of the web site.  Click on each and see where you go.  Notice that when you go to a major section, the left menu shows you items in that section.

You can navigate around the web site by clicking on "links."  A link is any spot that, when clicked, will take you to another page on the web site.  On our site, they are brown or green, and change color when you move your mouse pointer on top of them.  The pointer will change shape, usually to a small "hand," to show you that you are on top of a link.

If a menu item has a "twistie" (a little sideways arrow), then there is another menu below that item.  Click on the item to go to that page and expand that part of the menu.

The main part of every page is the large section below the menu bar and to the right of the left menu.  If you go to the bottom of this page, or any page, you will see a "breadcrumb" menu that shows you how the page fits into the overall structure of the web site.  Click on any link in the breadcrumbs to go to that part of the web site.  It's a quick way to go back up the menu tree.

Where can you find the content that I listed above?

• News and Events: There is a short version on the right side of the home page.  You can get the whole listing at the top level menu item, "What's Happening."
• Calendar: Once you click on What's Happening, the left menu shows the "Calendar" as a link.  Note that there is also a direct URL for the calendar.  Like all of our URLs, it is the URL of the church site (http://www.fumcsantarosa.org) followed by the  page URL.  In this case, it is "calendar," so the entire URL is http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/calendar.  You can click on the link in this sentence to also go to the calendar.  A "URL" is the web address of a page  and you enter it in the address bar at the top of the browser window.  If you look at that window, you will see the address of this page, http://www.fumcsantarosa.org/ourwebsite.  We plan to expand the calendar from its current main news and events to be a complete calendar for the church.
• Sermons: They are listed under the following menu path: What We Do > Worship > Sermons and Services.  A "menu path" is a set of menu choices you make.  To follow this page, click on "What We Do," then "Worship," then "Sermons and Services."
• Photo albums: They can be found at What's Happening > Our Albums.
• Roseleaf: Issues can be found at What's Happening > Newsletter.
• Staff listing: can be found at Who We Are > Pastors and Staff.
• Church Programs: Can you guess?  Try What We Do and explore them.
• Contact form: Click on Contact in the upper right, or Contact Us in the lower left.  Your comments on the web site are welcomed and encouraged.

Speaking of the menu tree, click on Site Map at the bottom left of any page.  The Site Map shows you the overall organization of the web site.  It can provide a way for you to find some place on the web site that you have visited but can't remember exactly how you got there.  Try it!

At the bottom of each page, you also see links to the Contact Us page, and Login and Register links.

We will explain more about the five major sections in the next article, "How the site is organized."