B. Basic Configuration

Whether you run one site or several, there are some basic things you should do right now. Here's what I do right off the bat; the advantage to doing it in the "root" database is that when I make copies for my other sites this has already been done. I'd give you a link to something on the Drupal site, but I never found anything like this.

1. Go to Administer>>User management>>Roles and create an "administrator" role.
2. Go to Administer>>User management>>Users and create a user entry for yourself. This allows you to test the site by changing your role to meet your needs.
3. Go to Administer>>User management>>Access control and allow the "administrator" role to do everything.
4. While you're there, go ahead and set what the "authenticated users" (logged in) and "anonymous user" (not logged in) can do, such as using your contact form. This is not engraved in stone; you can change it any time you want.
5. Go to the Administer>>Site configuration>>Site information page and, near the bottom, set the "Default front page" to "node." As long as you're on this page, set basic defaults for the other fields. I don't know about everyone, but I don't like, when I visit a site, being called "Anonymous" so I change the designation to "Visitor."
6. If there are any modules (core or contributed) that you use on all sites, go ahead and enable them now ((Administer>>Site building>>Modules). For example, you will probably use "Page" on all sites, and maybe "Story." I am finding more and more uses for "Book."

I do recommend turning on (enabling) the "Path" core module so you can use "normal" names for your pages.

If you want to use the contact form to email anyone from the site, be sure to enable the "Contact" module.

7. The same goes for themes.

There are a few things I recommend that you do in all your databases, so this is a good time to do it:

• Turn on "CLEAN URLS" to make your site more user friendly. Go to Administer>>Site configuration>>Clean URLs. At the bottom of the verbiage there is a link to run the "Clean URLs Test." If it passes, then the "Enable" radio button will un-dim. Click on that. (If the URLs stop working for some reason here are instructions to unset clean URLs.)
• In order for me to create any kind of content, I go to Administer>>Site configuration>>Input formats and set "Full HTML" as the default until I get the site ready to go live. Then I still allow administrators (like my other ID) to use that format. Do this now and you will avoid a very common problem with building your site.
• I don't like having "Promoted to front page" as a default for content, so I go to Administer>>Content management>>Content types and turn that off - in each format.
• While you're there, decide on your default comment mode. Go to Administer>>Content management>>Comments>>Settings and set the comments to be entered on a "separate page" and make sure that "Preview comment" is set to "Required."
• Now, let's turn on the Contact form so your users can send you a message. Go to Administer>>Site building>>Menus and locate the "Contact" item. Click on the "enable" link. Remember that later on you will want to go to Administer>>Site building>>Contact form and finish setting that up.