How to order subpages in Google Sites?

Question

I have a section in my Google site that consists of a main page (part of the top navigation) and several subpages. On the main page I want to show a list of the subpages using the "list of subpages" gadget.

Is there a way to have a custom ordering of the subpages so that this ordering is reflected in the gadget? Alternatively, can I have the subpages in descending order (of page title or url) in both navigation and gadget?

What I've learned so far: I can have my navigation organized either manually or automatically. The former doesn't help, because it seems that the gadget doesn't care about my manual order. And the latter seems to organize subpages alphabetically ascending. However, the subpages each refer to a point in time and I need to have the newest page first. I thought about using prefixes to the page title (like "2014-1" or "1.", "2."), but I don't think there is a prefix system that gives the desired order without renaming all my subpages each time I insert a new one (which will happen regularly).

Answer 1

I don't know the ordering sequence for Google Sites but the basic principle I would suggest is to build in a lot of 'redundancy' from the start, but for convenience in a compact form. Say you have three pages to start with, then something like:

  E5 M5 V5

and if 26 pages you might use the entire alphabet. The numbers would allow you to slot in five extra pages before each number within each letter, and four after before disrupting the order. Even then, if only three pages you could just change the letters to insert more in the correct location, so once you have reached say E0,E1,E2,E3,E4 and E5, then the next before E0 might be C5. If you have thousands of pages, you could use two digits instead of one.

If you have no idea where a subsequent page may be inserted, aim for around the middle of any remaining gap, but if you can guess that most further additions will be after, aim towards a low available number (or early letter) and towards a high number (or later letter) if your guess is before the latest addition.

At some point a major renaming exercise may still be required but with some forethought that might not be for a very long time. If part of the range gets crowded it may be possible to rename that part but still leave the rest unchanged.

Answer 2

Google Sites doesn't include a feature to set a page order that is site wide. The order is set on each component, if this is available.

The list page gadget doesn't include a way to set a custom order for pages so pages are ordered alphabetically. The straightforward solution is to add the links manually to the page so we will be able to add them in order that we want.

It's worth to not that we could use copy and paste or Google Apps Script to add several links at a time.

Another solution is to use the Announcements template. From Create a page

Announcements: Use to create a page for announcements, blog posts, or other updates arranged from newest to oldest.