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4. Setting Up Your Site Basics

 Setting Up Your Site Basics
===========================

Updated 14 hours ago · 4 min read

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Before you start creating projects and content, there are a few site-wide settings worth checking. This article walks through the key configuration areas, navigation menus, logos, your home page, community registration, categories, and participation defaults, so your site is ready for your team and community.

Your site navigation
--------------------

![The public site header, showing the Projects, Events and Regions navigation and the Login link](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/A2wQrNBArLbOgpQJcWUQbuGIatPp9sFnjL46XTJp.png)

Your public site has two navigation menus: the **Main navigation** (header) and the **Footer navigation**. These control the links your community sees when browsing your site.

To update your navigation menus:

1. Click **Settings** in the left-hand menu.
2. Under **Structure**, click **Menus**.
3. Click **Main navigation** or **Footer navigation**.![The Settings menu, with Menus listed under the Structure heading](/storage/OSnARisgJxVjJJn1ChuveRd1srHKCWgA0u1rpEYt.png)
4. Click **+ Add link** to add a new menu item.

    1. Provide a **Title** and **URL**. For internal pages, use a relative path (e.g. `/page/about-us`).![The menu link form, with Title, URL and Icon fields and a visibility toggle](/storage/tSCaBKzosjoRAVkXyJFY8wt5WNGiGpCyOK8SU5bD.png)
    2. Drag items to reorder![The Main navigation menu, listing its links with the Add link button](/storage/qTethvMfM7Kj5NgdRFDGe3OZgvfHfNDeqL4lk1w2.png)
5. Click **Save**.

### Creating navigation drop-downs

![A navigation drop-down, showing child pages grouped under a parent item](/storage/Q77rzZVaoLhcYTjR3LIagzwfFabW9w06pERJ4Y9s.png)

You can create links under each other by dragging one beneath another to create dropdown menus.

For a full guide including linking existing pages, removing items, and reordering, see [Edit the site menu](/articles/9176561415567-Edit-the-site-menu).

Logos
-----

Your site logos are managed in Appearance settings. There are three image slots to be aware of:

- **Main logo**: displays in your site header and in email templates.
- **Footer logo**: displays in your site footer.
- **Icon**: displays as the favicon in the browser tab.

![The Appearance settings, showing the Main logo, Footer logo and Icon upload slots](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/3dLRGv72fZGUXNPSBsYF47YiHzMZbhVWSwOxHVYV.png)

To update a logo:

1. Click **Settings** in the left-hand menu.
2. Under **Configuration**, click **Appearance**.
3. Scroll down to the **Frontend footer** section.
4. Click **+ Add Image** to upload a new one.
5. Click **Save**.

For best results, logos should be PNG or SVG format and no larger than 400 px wide. See the [Image Dimensions Cheat Sheet](/articles/10194106560527-Image-Dimensions-Cheat-Sheet) for recommended sizes across all image types.

For more on styling your site including colour palettes, fonts, and layout styles, see [Guide to Site Styling and Appearance](/articles/13614903662479-Guide-to-Site-Styling-and-Appearance).

Assigning a home page
---------------------

Your home page is a site page that has been assigned as the default landing page.

![The Home page setting under Structure, used to choose which page is the site's landing page](/storage/jdWl96DFpE2hSHTCbDU4mJOOstjA9qSpvJjmovRR.png)

To choose which page displays as your home page:

1. Click **Settings** in the left-hand menu.
2. Under **Structure**, click **Home page**.
3. Select a page from the **Home page** dropdown.
4. Click **Save**.

For details on editing your home page content, see [Editing the site home page](/articles/9176489815567-Editing-the-site-home-page).

Community profiles
------------------

![The community profile form, with optional demographic fields such as gender, year of birth and language](/storage/J3f486dDlgODseqH8Qx1ME7VDAwTQRL9ZMzXgPHv.png)

For community members that register on your site, you can collect additional demographic information by enabling optional profile fields.

To configure registration profile fields:

1. Click **Settings** in the left-hand menu.
2. Under **People**, click **User settings**.
3. Scroll down to **Show additional profile fields**.
4. Tick the fields you want to collect: **Language**, **Gender**, **Year of birth**, **Postcode**, or **Education**.
5. Click **Save**.

This data helps you understand who is participating and can be used for reporting and segmentation.

For a full guide on customising the registration form including adding custom text above and below the form, see [How to configure user sign-up text and profile fields](/articles/12078016018959-How-to-configure-user-sign-up-text-and-profile-fields).

Categories (tags and regions)
-----------------------------

![A project on the public site, showing its summary and Open for feedback status](/storage/IvHXpzADCst4s3IXXqebMyVlnmo8YcyS8iSjt434.png)

Categories organise your projects by topic (**Tags**) or location (**Regions**). Setting these up before creating projects makes your content easier to discover and helps connect related consultations.

![The Categories page under Content settings](/storage/EPul4nH9gHagM5LLtW6JRU0ja9Fa7PwwqI43Yq80.png)

To view and add categories:

1. Click **Settings** in the left-hand menu.
2. Under **Content**, click **Categories**.
3. Click **Region** or **Tag**.
4. Click the **+** button to add a new category.
5. Fill in the **Title**, **Summary**, and optional **Body** content.
6. Click **Save**.

Categories can also function as their own pages with content blocks, and community members can follow categories to receive notifications about new projects.

For a full guide on creating, editing, and using categories in projects, see [Manage site categories (regions and tags)](/articles/9176480859023-Manage-site-categories-regions-and-tags).

Participation settings
----------------------

![The Participation settings page, showing the default confirmation message options](/storage/RdNsQRX3ps5Ld1R3YDzI49ixWEf3gZEUnnLOkupP.png)

Before creating participation tools, there are two site-wide defaults worth setting under **Settings &gt; Configuration &gt; Participation**.

1. Click **Settings** in the left-hand menu.
2. Under **Configuration**, click **Participation**.

### Default confirmation message

This is the message displayed to community members after they submit a response to any participation tool. You can customise the text using the rich text editor.

### Default submission moderation

![The Participation settings page, with the Default submission moderation field traced and displaying the applied option, Automatic moderation, below the Default confirmation message editor.](https://engage.knowledge.civ.io/storage/ixNKH3fUHZKDq1Suln2BceVAeFffEELtPOD2FaI2.png)

This controls how public responses to participation tools (such as idea boards and Q&amp;A boards) are handled before they appear on your site. Under **Default submission moderation**, choose from:

- **Automatic moderation**: submissions are reviewed by automated moderation and published or rejected automatically.
- **Manual moderation**: submissions require manual review before publishing.
- **Publish immediately**: submissions go live straight away with no review.

The dropdown shows the option that is in force. When you open the list, it offers the options you are not already using, so the one in force is not repeated there.

Click **Save** when done.

Both defaults can be overridden on individual tools when you create or edit them.

For more on reviewing and managing submissions, see [View, moderate, and export participation tool submissions](/articles/9184083413647-View-moderate-and-export-participation-tool-submissions).

What's next?
------------

Your site structure is now configured. Continue to the next article to learn about creating and editing content on your site pages.

**Next:** [3. Creating Site Pages](/articles/getting-started-article-3)

 Next in this series 

 [  3. Creating Site Pages    ](/articles/getting-started-article-3) 

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  [ 1 Getting Around Civio Engage ](/articles/understanding-civio-engage) [ 2 Setting Up Your Site Basics ](/articles/setting-up-your-site-basics) [ 3 Creating Site Pages ](/articles/getting-started-article-3) [ 4 Setting Up Your Team ](/articles/article-4-setting-up-your-team) [ 5 Creating Your First Project ](/articles/article-5-creating-your-first-project) [ 6 The Content Workflow ](/articles/getting-started-article-6)  [ See all 9 →](https://nginx.deploy-lagoon-production.civio-engage-docs.dh1.amazee.io/articles)

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