The Banner Library

Banners are a quick way to create unique, image driven pages, build visual consistency in categories (sections) of your site, or to build powerful landing pages and first impressions. All design products have banners, yet it works differently for each type of product. This support article will offer a general overview to get you started with the banner library, however if you have questions that aren't covered in this article, please contact our support team for an explanation specific to your website.

The images that you use for your banners will likely need to be able to be cropped wide, without losing the visual impact. It can be difficult to find images that work well for this. Detail shots or very wide shorts with lots of negative space work best. We also have a free image gallery, with many images designed for this purpose. 

Getting Started with the Banner Library

You can find the Banner Library under the "Tool Databases" tab. 

This screen will list any banners that you currently have in your banner library. Our release team typically adds at least one sample banner for your site before releasing the site to you, so you will see those banners listed in your banner library. 

Adding a New Banner

To add a new banner, click on the "Add Banner" button. 

• Title: Make this a name that will make your banner easily memorable when you see it in Site Manager. For example, if it's a photo of your girls' basketball team, you could call it "Girl's Basketball", or if you plan to use the photo on all of your Athletics category, you could call it "Athletics".
• Image: Click on Choose File to select the image that you'd like to upload.
• Downsize/Crop: We strongly recommend that you choose "crop". Downsizing the image will distort the image.
• Alt Text: This is text that appears when you hover over the image, or if the image is unavailable for some reason, it will appear in place of it.
• Banner Web Address: If you want the banner to be a link. Example: you have a banner for a special event that you are placing on all pages, and you want it to link to the page dedicated to that event.
• Default Banner: Check this box if you want this to be the default banner for your website.
• Login Banner: Check this box if you want this banner to appear on the Faculty and/or Members Login page.
• Page Category: If you want to have a page or pages chose a random banner, you can assign the banner to a category. On the page, you will select "Random Banner From This Page's Category". 
• Usemap: This is where you can enter code to make clickable hotspots on your banner graphic. This is an advanced setting that we do not recommend if you are not familiar with this purpose.

Once you have completed these settings, click "Add". You will be taken to a screen to crop the banner. If the image is too large and you cannot see the entire thing to crop, zoom your browser out to see it (Ctrl and - on a PC or Cmd and - on a Mac).

Applying the Banner to Pages

There are two ways to apply banners to pages. You can do it in the page properties, but we recommend applying the banners within the Banner Library, particularly if you need to apply a banner to multiple pages.

Applying Banners Within the Banner Library

1. Hover over Tool Databases, click on Banner Library.
2. Click on "Apply to Pages" next to the banner that you want to add to your page(s). 
3. Check the category where you'd like to apply the banner. If you want the banner to be applied to all pages in that category, leave them all checked. Otherwise, uncheck any pages that you don't want this banner applied to. 
4. For Faculty Groups, if you want a banner automatically applied to Faculty pages in a certain group where the faculty member has not already attached a banner, you can check the box for that faculty group here.
5. Click "Apply Banner".

Applying or Removing a Banner Within the Page Properties

This is an alternative option to applying a banner within the banner library and works best if you only need to apply a banner to one page.

1. Under Navigation Builder, click on the category where the page is located, and then the page name.
2. Click on the "Properties" tab. 
3. Click on the "Options" tab. 
4. Next to "Banner Graphic:", choose the banner that you'd like to apply to this page. Click "View" if you would like to view the banner to confirm that it is the correct one. If you want to remove the banner entirely, choose the blank line. 
5. Click "Save".