Page Cloud Website Builder Guide

Introduction

Page Cloud is a very intuitive drag-and-drop website builder.  What makes it unique is that you can actually drag URLs for images, videos, and more onto the page, and it will automatically integrate the content associated with that URL.  It has several beautiful templates that you can formulate your page around, or you can create a completely new one.  With complete freedom of content addition, you can easily create any site you dream up.

Figure 1:  Payment plans

Figure 1:  Payment plans

There is no free version of Page Cloud, and there is only one plan option (with two means by which to pay for it).  Page Cloud includes hosting, an unlimited number of pages, email support, a mobile optimised web page, a page layout importer, and support to add a custom domain.  If you pay monthly, it costs $24 per month.  However, if you choose to pay annually, it costs only $20 per month (or, $240 for the year), and includes a free domain.

Getting Started

To begin creating a website, go to app.pagecloud.com and choose “Get Started”.  First, you’ll be asked to sign up for a 14 day free trial using your name and email address.  Next, it will ask you to choose a temporary name for your website.  It will have the subdomain yoursitename.pagecloud.com.  Then, you’ll be asked to choose a pre-built design from which to build your website.  Each theme gives you the option to create your website using that page, preview an example of this web page, or use the arrows below to scroll between sample pages using this theme.  If you scroll to the bottom, you can also choose to create a blank website.  Then, you’re taken to your dashboard.

Figure 2:  Page Cloud Dashboard

Figure 2:  Page Cloud Dashboard

  1. View a list of all of the sites you have created.
  2. Access Page Cloud support articles or chat with the Customer Experience Team.
  3. From here, you can use the link to return to your dashboard, view your profile, change your password, and input billing information. You can also view your “bookmarklets”, which are to be dragged to your bookmarks bar to easily access different Page Cloud commands (such as login, logout, and create a new page).
  4. View a list of your pages.
  5. Click here to view purchase options for a custom domain.
  6. Toggle between viewing previews of your various pages, and viewing a list of your pages.
  7. Create a new page. When you make a new page, you can choose to add one from your theme, or from any other theme available.  Each theme has a different variety of page templates.
  8. Edit the page shown above.
  9. View a live version of your page as others will view it.
  10. Create a duplicate of this page.

Once you’ve chosen to view your home page or create a new one, you’re ready to get started with the page editor.

Page Editor

When you view a page, you’ll be taken to the page editor.

Figure 3:  Page editor

Figure 3:  Page editor

  1. Add media to your page. You can either drag/paste an image or a video link onto your page, or you can choose this panel to upload images and videos from your computer.  When you have an object selected, this panel will change to allow you to modify that object.
  2. This lets you change aspects of your page like the width, the minimum height, the window fill color and/or background image, and the SEO settings (the title, description, and keywords). It also lets you modify head and body tags, add or edit a page script, and reset mobile mode.
  3. This shows how many objects you currently have selected for modification.
  4. Add a rectangle shape to your page, which you can then modify using the side panel.
  5. Add a circle shape to your page, which you can then modify using the side panel.
  6. Add a text box to your page, which you can then modify using the side panel.
  7. View various tutorials on things that you can add to your page.
  8. Share your page on Twitter, Facebook, or with a link.
  9. View useful shortcuts for Page Cloud.
  10. Access support articles or the chat with the Customer Experience Team.
  11. Save the website.
  12. View a live version of your page.
  13. Logout of Page Cloud.

Media Options

Image

When you add an image to your page (either from the web or from your computer), you get the following editor:

Figure 4:  Image Editor

Figure 4:  Image Editor

  1. Drag any of the circles around the border to equally enlarge all parts of your image.
  2. Click here to move your image up or down your page. You can also click on the image and drag to accomplish this.
  3. This icon allows you to replace the image with another from your computer.
  4. Manage the style of the image. You can chose a fill colour, a border style (along with colour and width), a border radius (how rounded the border is), if the image has a shadow, and the opacity of the image.
  5. Make your image into a link. You can choose if you want to link to a page on your site, a website, or an email.  You can then choose if the link is opened in a new window, the top window, a parent window, or the same window.
  6. Arrange your image on the page. If multiple objects are selected, you can choose to “group” or “ungroup” them.  The selected image can be sent to the back or front of various items selected using this panel. You can choose the image’s alignment on the page from here (left, centre, right, top, middle, or bottom).  You can also choose to lock the image in its location on the page until you choose to unlock it, and if you wish to have the image showing or hidden.  Finally, you can determine the image’s size, if you wish to maintain the aspect ratio of the image, and the image’s pixel position on the page.
  7. This lets you choose if you want the image to stretch to fill the browser width, if you want it to be a fixed header (scrolls with the user as they scroll the page), and if you want an image zoom when someone scrolls over the image or simply when the page is loaded.
  8. This lets you choose the image’s title and alt text. You can choose to reset the image back to its original state before any modifications made on Page Cloud.  You can choose if this image is a background image for your page, and if so its position on the page, if it is repeated to fill space, and the size (fill the area, cover the area, contain the image, or stretch).  You can choose if the image is background fixed, which means that it doesn’t move when the user moves around the page.  Finally, you can modify the image’s ID and class, which should only be used if you plan on modifying the page’s HTML.
  9. This brings up the “Add Media” page discussed earlier.
  10. This brings up the “Page” properties discussed earlier.

Video

You can add a video to your page by uploading it from your computer, or by pasting in a video URL.  It has very similar editor options to images, but you also get a video tab where you can modify various aspects of the video.  Under video, you can choose if the video auto-plays when the page loads, if the video is on a loop, if the video controls are displayed, if the video can be made full screen, and if the video is muted.  You can also choose to make the video a “poster video” or a “background video”.

Figure 5:  Video Editor

Figure 5:  Video Editor

Square

This creates a square on your page.  This can be used to do things like create buttons or headers.  It has the same editor options as an image.

Figure 6:  Square Example

Figure 6:  Square Example

Circle

This creates a circle on your page.  It is identical to a square, but already has the corner radii set.

Figure 7:  Circle Example

Figure 7:  Circle Example

Text Box

This adds a box of text to your page.  Although you get similar editor options on the side of your page, you can also see most of your text options above the box.

Figure 8:  Text options.

Figure 8:  Text options.

  1. Bold the text.
  2. Italicize the text.
  3. Underline the text.
  4. Strike through the text.
  5. Create a numbered list.
  6. Create a bulleted list.
  7. Decrease indent.
  8. Increase indent.
  9. Create a quote.
  10. Align left.
  11. Align Center.
  12. Align right.
  13. Justify text.
  14. Undo last change.
  15. Redo last change.
  16. Open the find function.
  17. Open the replace function.
  18. Modify the text box’s source code.
  19. Add a link.
  20. Remove a link.
  21. Add in a table.
  22. Insert a horizontal line.
  23. Insert a special character.
  24. Remove any formatting on the text.
  25. Modify the space between lines.
  26. Modify the space between letters.
  27. Modify the font weight (how bold it appears).
  28. Modify the style of the font (highlight, shadow, glow, label, in-line quote, cite, code, no wrap, Capitalize, lowercase, UPPERCASE, or insert).
  29. Choose to format font to normal or headings 1 through 6.
  30. Choose a font.
  31. Choose a font size.
  32. Choose the font color.
  33. Choose the text background color.
  34. Modify your block of text here.

Social Media

You can integrate social media on your page by pasting URLs for various profiles onto Page Cloud, and it’ll automatically create a helpful button to promote social media pages on your site.

Twitter:  Pasting a Twitter profile URL adds a Twitter follow button to your page.

Pinterest:  Pasting a Pinterest board or pin URL adds them to your page.

Instagram:  Pasting an Instagram image will display it onto your page, along with the accompanying “follow” button associated with the image for the Instagram profile that posted the image.

Facebook:  Pasting a Facebook page will add a like button that allows visitors to like that page on your site.

Eventbrite:  Pasting an Eventbrite ticket purchase page link will permit visitors to purchase tickets to your event directly on your page.

Google Maps:  Pasting a Google Maps link with a particular business at the center will permit visitors to view the location of that business on a map on your page.  This can be used if you own a business and want to show its location on your page.

Google Analytics

This lets you add a Google Analytics code to your page so you can track website visitors.  To do so, obtain the code you have reserved for Page Cloud, and then paste it anywhere on your page.  You should see a “Google Analytics added” message at the bottom of the screen to confirm that your addition was successful.

Figure 9:  Confirmation message.

Figure 9:  Confirmation message.

iFrames

Using iFrames, you can add any widget you desire onto your page.  One good place to find widgets is Wufoo, although they can be found all over the web.  You’ll need to copy an “iFrame embed code” and paste it onto your web page to obtain a working version of that widget.

Google Fonts

To add additional fonts onto your page, you’ll need to find your font of interest on Google fonts.  Then, locate the URL google.com/fonts/specimen/fontname and paste it onto your page.  From now on, your font will be available to use on your page.

Attachments

In order to add a downloadable attachment to your page, drag the file of interest onto your page.  Then, it will automatically create a “download” button for that item.  To add multiple files to the same download, drag more files to the same “download” button, and all will be grouped into one downloadable item.  You can edit the appearance of the button using the properties menu.

Figure 10:  Download link example.

Figure 10:  Download link example.

Conclusions

Page Cloud is a fantastic website that allows full customisation and freedom for designing your page, as well as a variety of beautiful templates.  However, it does lack a lot of the built in widgets that other sites include (such as forms, a store, and a useable menu), and need to be added via outside widget providers.  Overall, Page Cloud is a very easy to use drag-and-drop website builder, but requires extensive modifications to achieve the functionality of other websites.