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Things To Know and Do First
First Things Checklist:
Optimize your browser for Office Live
Sign up for your free website
Accessing your OL account
Set your pop-up blocker
Activate advanced design features
Make a test page
Users and permissions
How to change your domain name
A special caution about using MS Word
Optimize Your Browser for Office Live
From Internet Explorer's main menu:
» Tools » Internet Options » Security Tab: Move the slider to "Medium"
» Tools » Internet Options » Privacy Tab: Move the slider to "Medium"
» Tools » Internet Options » Browsing History » Settings: » ● Every time I visit the webpage
Other browsers will provide for similar options.
Sign Up For a Free Website
Sign up for a free website at smallbusiness.officelive.com. If you are outside of the US, click on Change in the upper-right corner of the page before proceeding. Be ready with an active email address. This will become the Windows Live ID to sign into your website account. Some users recommend opening a Hotmail account to use as a log-in ID. Give it the user name that matches your site's domain name. If you wish to create additional sites later, use this same sign-up signup process for each one. You must use a unique Windows Live ID for each. See the Important note below regarding domain names.
Accessing Your Office Live Small Business Account
The "Powered by" links at the bottom of your site's pages provide a handy portal to your site account.
» Microsoft Office Live » Sign in
Set Your Pop-Up Blocker
After you log into your office live account, set your pop-up blocker (PUB) to allow pop-ups. How to do this will vary depending on which one you are using. For the Google toolbar PUB, simply click on it. Also, be sure you have only one PUB running. Check your browser "Tools" and any anti-malware you may be using. Image Gallery functions and other editing pages may be intercepted by PUB's.
Activate Advanced Design Features
The instructions on this site presume this has been done. From your site account home page, click on Web Site in the top navigation to open the Page Manager. Note the Site Actions drop down near the top of the page:
Click on Site Actions » Activate Advanced Design Features. This site action will make several additional design and editing options available.
Make a Test Page
The first page you should work with is a test page. From your home page » Website » New Page. Give it the title "Test Page" and a secret web address like "test98105." Remove the check mark for "Show this page in the navigation bar." Use it to poke around the menu tools and try them out. Boldly go where you've never been before. Add a weather module, horizontal line, insert an image and so on. Try making a table and see how that works. This will give you valuable experience and a good feel for how the tools behave. Curiosity and exploring are the best routes to mastery of the OL tools. Now, when you are ready to create some real content for your pages, do it on a test page first. This way, if you mess up or damage a page, it won't matter. Just delete it and start over. When you complete a segment, copy and paste it to its final location.
Users and Permissions
There are three "user" levels for an Office Live account:
Owner - All account privileges are available
Administrator - Fewer privileges than Owner
Editor - The fewest privileges
The Windows Live ID email address used for logging in identifies the level of permissions available to the user. Only the "Owner" can assign privileges to an email address. From the site account home page, click on Account Management » Users & Permissions. Note: If you log into the account with a domain email address, you may not edit the website unless Editor or Administrator privileges are assigned to the address by the Owner. Also, only the Owner may create email addresses. To log in as the Owner, use the WLID email address that was used to create the website account.
How to Change Your Domain Name
You can change your starter domain name, the one with four parts (e.g. mysite.web.officelive.com). This is called a fourth level domain name. To rename it, it must be the primary name for your site.
From the home page: » Manage Domains » Rename. First, be sure to read the section » Rename your free Office Live Domain.
For a hobby site, a fourth level domain name is adequate. If you mean business, however, or intend to have any significant web presence, a Custom Domain Name is essential. This also allows for website-specific email addresses. You can sign up for a domain name from within your Office Live account or acquire one through another registrar and redirect it to your site. From your Office Live home page click on Manage domains » Buy a new domain. To redirect a domain name to Office Live, check the OL Community Wikis.
Important: If you add an additional domain name to a site account, it will direct to that site. This process does not create another independent website.
A Special Caution About Using Microsoft Word
DO NOT COPY AND PASTE FORMATTED WORD TEXT TO YOUR WEBSITE. It contains embedded code that will damage a web page and freeze your browser. Sometimes the damage is fatal and your only recourse will be to delete the page and start over. If you destroy your home page, follow the instructions in "Special Rules for the Home Page." You can use Word to compose text, but DO NO FORMATTING OF ANY KIND, and even then try it first on your test page. Some recommend first pasting the Word text to Notepad, then copy it from Notepad to your site. This will strip out all of the formatting code.