The Design tab is where you control how the intranet appears to users, both in terms of the visuals and the navigation. Appearance matters because users will be faced with their intranet on a daily basis, and design will help the intranet resonate with your employees.
In This Article
Site Theme
There are two ways of editing your site theme. The quickest is the Theme icon in the Toolbar for simple changes to your Home Site theme. Learn more about the 'Simple Theme Editor' in the Admin Toolbar article.
The second way to edit themes is the Advanced Theme Editor, linked from the Design Tab, which gives more detailed controls for all intranet sites (i.e. not just the home site). There are so many options in Advanced Theme Editor that it needed its own article, so when you're ready for design details, check out Design Tab: Advanced Theme Editor.
Global Navigation
When you click Global Navigation you're shown a large + beside your top navigation, which allows you to add a Single Link, Single Menu, or Mega Menu, as shown below. You can also hover over any existing menu item and see options to edit it. At the bottom of your screen, either click Save Menu or Discard Changes to exit the edit mode.
This is actually the long way to get to your Global Navigation. Any time you want to make changes to this area, just click the edit pencil on the right side of your menu bar, and you'll immediately be in the the editing function. Learn more about how to create navigation.
Home Page Design
When you click the link Home Page Design you'll be taken to editing mode of your site Home Page, where you can edit the widgets and other aspects of your Home Page. Learn more about the Home Page.
Browser Title
This is a quick and simple intranet edit. What do you want for the title displayed on a browser's title bar and on browser tabs? On the Design tab, click Browser Title, add your title, and click Save to finalize your choice.
Breadcrumbs
Just as in Hansel and Gretel, breadcrumbs are the trail your site users can follow to help know where there are in the intranet site. Each level in the breadcrumbs is a link to a previous level in the intranet structure, for quick navigation.
When you click Breadcrumbs on the Design tab, the checkbox shows whether breadcrumbs are currently displayed; click Save button if you've made a change. Once enabled, pages will display the navigation above the main page content (see below).
Global Site Layout
In this area you can make global design decisions about site width, frame layouts, and layout dimensions. If you're looking to significantly alter the size of any of page elements, we would suggest trying the changes in your test environment first, to avoid potential impact on users; learn more about creating a test intranet environment.
The three sections below are provided as tabs under Global Site Layout. Note that recommended options are provided as the defaults.
Global Layout
Global Layout allows Admins to adjust sizes and layout for the header, top navigation menu, left column, right column, and other spacing on a page. The affected intranet areas are shown in the example image below.
All dimensions are provided in pixels; note that the right column can be sized in either pixels or as a percentage of the page. In addition to choosing the height or width of the areas shown below, you also have the option to adjust the amount of spacing between the elements on the page. 0
Global Width
This page sets the intranet to a fixed pixel width, which will take on the size of your browser window. Our recommendation is to use the fixed width option as a best practice in designing your site, to avoid potential design challenges.
Widget Layout
This setting adjusts the pixel spacing between each widgets in a row, and between rows of widgets as outlined in green in the example image below. Learn more about widgets.
Sitewide Icons
Sitewide Icons include the Favorite Icon (i.e. favicon), which displays in the browser next to the intranet URL. If you don't add one, your site will use the default favicon, as shown above in the Browser Title image. If you'd like to customize a favicon to reflect your brand, Google "create favicon" and you'll see how easily it can be done.
In this area, you're also given the option of adding your own icons for other intranet functions.