The Tentmaker guide
On this page
This guide is for the people who look after a church website: pastors, office staff and volunteers. You do not need to know anything about computers beyond using a web browser. If you are a developer, start with the main README instead.
Tentmaker is the tool your church uses to edit its website. You sign in, change a page, look at a preview, and press Publish. Nobody has to touch code.
Start here Link to this section: Start here
- Getting started: signing in, the left menu, what Live and Draft mean, how publishing works.
- Starting a new site: the sign-up page, the Welcome screen and the Setup checklist.
- Editing pages: the page editor, step by step.
- Blocks: every block you can put on a page, in one short paragraph each.
Pick your role Link to this section: Pick your role
Every person on the team is an Owner, a Manager or an Editor. The members and roles page says what each can do. Each role also has a one-page quick reference you can print.
- Quick reference for an Editor
- Quick reference for a Manager
- Quick reference for an Owner
- For the pastor: your safety net
Every screen, and where it is explained Link to this section: Every screen, and where it is explained
Words in bold in this guide are the exact words you will see on the screen. The names below are the labels in the left menu, or the titles at the top of a screen.
| Screen | Where to read about it |
|---|---|
| Overview | Getting started, and the Setup checklist on it: Starting a new site |
| Pages | Editing pages |
| Blog | Events and the blog |
| Events | Events and the blog |
| Staff | Staff and missionaries |
| Missionaries | Staff and missionaries |
| Media | Media |
| Videos | Media |
| Menu | The menu |
| Sidebar | The site-wide sidebar |
| Shared blocks | Editing pages |
| Look and feel | Settings and branding |
| Templates | Templates |
| Custom CSS | Custom CSS and embeds |
| Embeds | Custom CSS and embeds |
| Redirects | Redirects |
| Domain | Domain |
| Members | Members and roles |
| Activity | For the pastor |
| Download my site | Download my site |
| Modules | Modules |
| Settings | Settings and branding |
When something goes wrong Link to this section: When something goes wrong
- Common problems and what they mean: every message the screens show, grouped, with what to do.
- Glossary: the few words that are not everyday English.
What this guide will not promise Link to this section: What this guide will not promise
Some things are planned but not built yet. This guide only mentions them when the project's own plans list them, and it marks them as coming later. If a feature is not described here, assume it does not exist. The project's honest list of limits is in Known limits.
A note on how this guide is kept true Link to this section: A note on how this guide is kept true
A test in the project reads this guide. It checks that every name in bold exists in the real screens, that the left menu labels are all covered, that there are no long dashes, and that every link works. If a screen is renamed, the test fails until the guide is fixed.