Site home FAQ

What do we mean by the 'site home' of Moodle?

The site home is the front page. The link in the navigation is called 'Home'.

When logged in, a user's customised home page is called the 'Dashboard'.

How can I change the look of the site home?

• There are various ways of enhancing your site home without needing access to theme files on the server. First, see the section on tips and tricks in Site home settings.
• If you are using Classic, Boost or other bootstrap-based themes you can then do some cool things with Bootstrap layout elements, as described in the thread LOOK & LEARN: How to add marketing spots as a front page topic.
• See also the simple customisation of the School demo site home in Standard themes.
• You can set a different site home page for guests and logged in users with Conditional activities as described in the thread Show a different page to guests and logged in users.
• You may consider installing a custom theme from the Moodle plugins directory.

How can I add text and a picture to the centre column?

1. In Administration > Site home > Site home settings make sure that 'Include a topic section' is ticked.
2. Enable edit mode.
3. Return to the Site home and click the edit icon at the top of the centre column
4. Click the cog icon to add text and a picture to the Summary
5. Click the 'Save changes' button

How can I change the logo to the site home?

1. In Administration > Site administration > Appearance > Themes click the name of the theme you are using (If you're not sure which theme you are using, you can find out in Administration > Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Theme selector)
2. Enter the URL for your logo. (Note - you must previously have uploaded your logo somewhere online)
3. Click the 'Save changes' button

Note: This setting is only available for certain themes.

How do I get rid of a resource/activity that's appeared in "Site Pages"?

When a resource or activity (like a page, file or forum) is added to the Main menu block on the site home page, it will appear as a site page. To remove this link, turn on the editing on, go to unhide or add the Main menu block and click to delete the item.

How can I prevent activities I made on the site home page being seen in the navigation?

Uncheck the box "Show site home activities in the navigation" in Site administration > Appearance > Navigation.

How can I hide site home blocks from guests but show to logged in users?

See Blocks FAQ

How can I show site home blocks to guests but hide from logged in users?

See Blocks FAQ

I want to limit the number of courses that appear on the site home page

In Site administration > Appearance > Courses, you can change the number of courses to be displayed on one page to a different number. Currently, the default is 20, but you can make it whatever you want. You can also, in the Site home settings, change what is displayed after login to show only categories.

One way of resolving this issue is to replace the course and Category list on the site home page with a HTML block that links off to the various category pages. This keeps your courses off the site home page altogether.

There are a couple of ways to do this, you can have a list of Categories, in a table, or you can use a table full of icons. Depending on your number of categories, say 11 different subject areas and one Administration area creates a table either four columns or four rows. For most people, the orderly nature of a balanced table implies an orderly site that is really welcome, particularly if the images linking to a Category are clear and the alt tag text says what it is linking to.

How do I enable logged-in users to participate in site home page activities?

Either:

1. Go to Administration > Site administration > Users > Permissions > Define roles and edit the 'Authenticated user on frontpage' role
2. Allow capabilities for the site home activities
3. Click the 'Save changes' button

Or:

1. Go to the Site home settings
2. Set the default site home role to student
3. Click the 'Save changes' button

How can I add a page to the site home?

1. With the editing turned on, add the Main menu block if it isn't already present.
2. Click Add and activity or resource and add a Page.

If you wish the page to be hidden but accessible from the top dropdown menu, then:

1. Copy the page's URL.
2. Hide the block.
3. Go to Site administration > Appearance > Themes > Theme settings and add your page URL to the custom menu items box according to the instructions.

Note that if it is possible to install plugins on your Moodle site then you can also use the Static pages plugin.

How can I get rid of the site short name in the navigation bar?

Sometimes if the short and full names of your site are similar, you might wish to hide the short name. You can do this by adding lines to the custom CSS box in the theme settings page.

To hide the short name but keep the space where it used to be, add:

a.brand {visibility:hidden}

To hide the short name and also remove the space where it used to be, add:

.navbar .brand {display: none;}