Google Apps: The Missing Manual

Chapter 9. One-Click Web Design with Page Creator

If you’ve ever wanted to create your own Web page, but were intimidated by the thought of having to learn HTML (the language of Web pages), Page Creator is for you. Google’s Page Creator lets you quickly create a professional-looking Web page and publish it to the Web with a single click—no HTML know-how required.

Page Creator is still under development, and isn’t yet in a league with some other Web page creators, like the ones offered by Yahoo, PageBreeze, and Doteasy. So why try Page Creator? For one thing, you can manage it from your Google Account. Page Creator also has some nice features, like autosaving so you don’t lose any changes. And if you’ve never created a Web site before, the very simplicity of Page Creator makes it super easy to learn. Plus, creating and publishing Web sites with Page Creator is free—it costs you nothing, zilch, nada—and you just can’t argue with that.

Big Changes Brewing at Google

In mid-2008, Google effectively pulled the plug on Page Creator, announcing it would no longer accept new sign-ups for Page Creator accounts. That’s because Google made Google Sites (Chapter 12) available to everyone—not just people who use an organization’s Google Apps account. Opening Google Sites to the world (for free) was a good thing, and if you’re just getting started with your Web site, head over to http://sites.google.com—and jump ahead to Chapter 12—to get started.

But what if you already use Page Creator to create ...