How to use Clear CMS

Turn on every language your site is shown in. The source language is the one you write in first; the others are versions of the same page.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• What the source language is and why it matters (other languages are made from it).
• How to add or switch off a language, and what happens to existing pages when you do.
• How to change which language is the source.
• Where the language switch appears on the live site.
• How to see which pages are missing a language (the EN/UK badges on the Pages list).

Clear can fill in the other languages for you by machine. Machine text is a first draft, so have someone who speaks the language read it before you rely on it.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Turning auto translate on and off, and choosing between the models (fast, best, cheap).
• What "Translate when creating a language version" does, and what happens when it is off (the source text is copied as is).
• That translated pages stay linked to the source until someone reviews them.
• Why a human should review machine text (names, titles, plurals, tone).
• That the translation key is set up by the web team, never typed into content.

Download a copy of your whole site as a zip file to keep somewhere safe. You can keep working while it downloads.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• The three download choices: whole site, settings and content without photos, settings only.
• What "Include history" adds (drafts, past versions, deleted items).
• Where download progress shows, and that you can keep editing meanwhile.
• What the zip contains and that it can be used to move or restore the site.
• How often we suggest taking a backup.

Technical details for your web team: where the site's content is kept and which address the preview uses. You don't need to change anything here. If your site moves to new storage or a new preview address, we set this up for you.

Things that appear on every page: your logo and name, the menu, contact details, and the header and footer. The strip at the top shows your real site, and changes appear there as you type.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• The Header / Footer tabs and the desktop / phone buttons above the live strip.
• "Only what the header shows" versus "Show all settings".
• That changes save automatically and show on every page.
• Why some changes (menu, logo) take a moment to appear in the strip.
• Where to find words that are not in the header or footer ("Other text", "Advanced").

The thin strip above the header. Switch each item on or off, or hide the whole bar.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• What can appear in the top bar (email, phone, Facebook, language switch), depending on the site.
• Hiding one item versus hiding the whole bar.
• Changing the email address or social link shown there.
• That the language switch follows the languages set in Instance settings.

The top part of every page: logo, site name and the main button. A change here shows on every page at once.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Changing the logo, and what size and shape of image works best.
• Full name versus short name, and where each one is used.
• Editing the header button text and where it links.
• How the header looks on phones.

The links at the top of your site. Drag an item to change the order, or drag it onto another item to tuck it into that item’s dropdown.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Adding a menu item that links to one of your pages or to another website.
• Reordering by dragging, or with the move up / move down buttons.
• Making dropdowns (sub-items) and moving an item back out of one.
• Renaming or removing an item, and opening a link in a new tab.
• How the menu looks on phones (the menu button).

The bottom part of every page: contact details, links and small print. A change here shows on every page at once.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Which footer words and links you can change.
• Where contact details come from (the Contact card) and that they are shared with other pages.
• Share buttons text, and the copyright / small print line.
• Previewing the footer on desktop and phone.

Connect a web address you own (like www.yourname.com) so visitors reach this site there. Nothing changes for visitors until the records below are added where you bought the domain.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• What you need before you start (access to the account where you bought the domain).
• Adding the domain in Clear, with or without "www".
• What happens next, step by step, until the domain is live.
• Removing a domain and what visitors see afterwards.
• That the site keeps working on its clearcms.app address the whole time.

Short settings you copy into the account where you bought your domain (GoDaddy, Namecheap and so on). Click a value to copy it; your web team can do this for you.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• What CNAME and TXT records are, in one sentence each.
• Step-by-step guides for the common providers (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google / Squarespace Domains, Cloudflare).
• Copying the name and value exactly, and common mistakes (adding the domain twice to the name).
• How to hand this over to your web team instead.

Shows how far along the connection is: waiting for DNS, verifying, issuing certificate, then active. It usually takes minutes, sometimes up to a day. Check now asks again straight away.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• What each status means: waiting for DNS, verifying, issuing certificate, active.
• Typical waiting times and when to worry.
• What "Check now" does.
• What the warning messages under a domain mean and how to fix them.

Type someone’s email and they get a link to create an account. If they already have an account, they can edit this site straight away.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Sending an invitation and what the email looks like.
• Signing in with email or a Google account.
• Cancelling an invitation that has not been used.
• What to do if the invitation email does not arrive.

Owners are your web team and look after domains and people. Everyone else on this list can edit pages, content and photos. Removing someone takes away their access but keeps their account.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• The difference between owners and editors.
• What an editor can and cannot change.
• Removing someone, and what happens to their past changes (they stay in History).
• What "via <organisation>" next to a name means.

Your saved changes are not on the live site until you publish. Press Publish now when you are happy with them.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• The difference between saving and publishing.
• What happens when you press Publish now, and how long it takes to show on the live site.
• Sites that rebuild on publish (a few minutes) versus sites that update straight away.
• Checking a change on the live site after publishing.

While you edit, changes are saved as drafts that only you see in the editor. The list below shows everything waiting to go live.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Where drafts are visible (the editor) and where they are not (the live site).
• Reading the Unpublished changes list and opening an item from it.
• Undoing a draft you do not want to publish (History / Restore).
• Several people editing at the same time.

Every save is kept here, newest first. Restore puts a page back the way it was; it adds a new version, so nothing is ever lost.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Reading the list: when, who, and which fields changed.
• Restoring an older version, and that restoring can itself be undone.
• Opening the page or item a version belongs to.
• How long versions are kept.

Folders are where the photo files are kept, like folders on your computer. Browse them to find photos; where a photo appears on the site is chosen on the page itself.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Browsing by folder and the "All" view.
• Uploading into a specific folder.
• How folders differ from galleries and tags.
• Finding unused photos (the Used / Unused filters).

A gallery is a set of photos shown together on a page of your site. One photo can be in several galleries.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Creating a gallery: select photos, then "Add to gallery".
• Changing the order of photos in a gallery.
• Removing a photo from a gallery without deleting the photo.
• Where galleries show on the site.

Tags are labels to help you find photos, like “board” or “2025 gala”. Some are added for you, showing where a photo is used.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Adding and removing your own tags on a photo.
• The automatic tags (where a photo is used, or "unused").
• Filtering the library by tag and combining with search.
• Tags are for finding photos only; they do not change the site.

A short sentence saying what the photo shows. It is read aloud to people who cannot see the image and helps Google understand it.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Why descriptions matter (accessibility, Google, legal requirements in Ontario / AODA).
• How to write a good one, with good and bad examples.
• When to leave it short (logos, decorative images).
• Finding photos with no description (the dashboard warning).
• Descriptions in more than one language.

The blue headline people see in Google results and browser tabs. Keep it under 60 characters and put the most important words first.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• What the title is used for (Google results, browser tabs, bookmarks).
• The 60-character guide and the counter.
• What is used when the field is empty.
• Examples of good titles for a home page, a service page and a news item.

The short text under the title in Google results. One or two sentences, under 160 characters, that make someone want to click.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• What Google does when the description is empty.
• The 160-character guide and the counter.
• Writing one per language.
• The "No Google description" warning on the Pages list.
• The preview under "How it looks when shared".

The picture shown when someone posts this page on Facebook, WhatsApp or in a message. A wide photo works best.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Choosing or changing the share image.
• Best size and shape (wide, about 1200 × 630).
• What is used by default (the main photo, or the site's default image).
• Why a social site may keep showing the old image for a while.

Send visitors from one address to another. Use it when a page moved or was renamed, so old links and Google results still work.

Full guide coming soon. It will cover:
• Sending everyone who opens this page to another page or website.
• Adding old addresses that should lead to this page.
• When to use a redirect (renamed pages, old site addresses after a move).
• Removing a redirect.