How to add a folder (subdirectory) to a google site

[Rickyhow]

I am setting up a multilingual website in Google Sites.

My plan is to create a subfolder for each additional language.
www.example.com - default english
www.example.com/fr/ - french

Questions

1. How exactly do I create the language specific subfolder?
2. How do I create separate sitemaps for each country sub-folder to
see how Google is indexing those URLs?

[Rob Herron]

Question 1.

The main page of your site is your "Home" page.  Add a page under your Home page for each additional language page you want.  There is an "Add Page" button at the top right-hand side of the screen.  Your website will be structured something like this:

Home (example.com)
.
.
...Spanish (example.com/sp)
.
.
...French (example.com/fr)
.
.
...German (example.com/de)
.
.
...etc.

Something like that.

I'm not sure I understand Question 2.  Are you asking how you personally can see how the pages of the website are structured?  If so More/Manage Site/Pages will show you that.  Is that what you're talking about?

On Saturday, March 31, 2012 1:19:10 PM UTC-4, Rickyhow wrote:

I am setting up a multilingual website in Google Sites.

My plan is to create a subfolder for each additional language.
www.example.com - default english
www.example.com/fr/ - french
 

[Richard Howlett]

Hi Rob,

Thanks - I have created a sub-page under home named fr. 

My question is regarding site navigation. I only want to see the French pages in the navigation when looking at a French page, and by the same token only English pages when looking at an English page.

Is there a way to have the side navigation bar reflect the language?

Cheers,

-Richard

[Rob Herron]

Not with the site navigation bar, at least not that I am aware of.  But you could use a sidebar and manually make a navigation panel by embedding links to the pages you want.  It would look similar to the default site navigation except it would give you the flexibility to have links to pages a,b,c from one page, and links to pages x, y, z from another page.  When you use the default site nav it is the same for all pages on your site.

There is a video on my site that shows how to link to content.  You'll be doing something slightly different but watch it and you'll get the idea:

https://sites.google.com/a/richland2.org/howtomakeagooglesite/home/linkingtocontent

Watch from about 1:30 on.  The difference -- when the link to dialog box pops open, select "Sites page" and do not check to have the page open in a new window.  This will function exactly like a nav bar but you can make it page specific.

[Richard Howlett]

Thanks Rob.

I must be missing something. I watched your video but that showed how to embed a link in the page. I'm trying to change the contents of the sidebar. It seems the sidebar is global and cannot be made specific to the needs of any single page.

 Can one site have multiple site maps? Could I associate a site map with a page template? That way I would select the French page template and it would include the french sitemap (ie. a sitemap for pages in example.com/fr).

[Rob Herron]

Click edit page button.  Click layout on the menu.  Select the layout for the page that you like, and make sure you pick one that has a sidebar.  There is a layout with a left sidebar, one with a right sidebar, and one with both.

Sorry if I was unclear.  You want to change the layout of a page.  In that sidebar column create your navigation links.

[Richard Howlett]

Hi Rob,

I have edited the sidebar and entered a text box with links - not a problem.

The problem is that I want to only see links to English pages when on an English page, not the links to French pages as well. The opposite for French pages...

No matter which page I edit the sidebar on the results show in all the pages the sidebar appears.

How can I selectively control the content of the sidebar depending on the page being viewed?

Thanks,

-Richard

[Rob Herron]

Click More/Manage Site/Site Layout/Change Site Layout.  Un-check the sidebar.  You DO NOT want to use this kind of sidebar.  It will appear on every page on your site.

Go to English page.  Click Edit Page/Layout and select a page layout that has a sidebar.  This will be page-specific.  This kind of sidebar will not appear across all of the pages on your site, just this single page.  In this sidebar put links to whatever pages you want.

Repeat on the French page, with links to whatever pages you want.

You will end up with a unique sidebar on the main English page and a unique sidebar on the main French page.

[Richard Howlett]

I get it finally - thanks for your patience Rob. Works fine now.

Best regards,

-Richard