Your team section

Most people looking at a church's website want to see a face. The Team page — under Website in the admin sidebar — is where you decide who that is.

It's the one part of your website you write yourself. The name, title, short bio and photo are all yours to set, and you choose the order. (You can also get here from Your website: open About, and the Team row under Staff & leaders says how many people are on your About page.)

This isn't your Directory

Your Directory is who's in your church and what they can do. Team is what your website says. They're deliberately separate, and that's what makes two things possible:

• You can add anyone. A long-serving deacon, a pastor emeritus, a volunteer worship leader — they don't need a Psalmly account. Just type their name.
• You choose how they look. You upload the photo and write the bio, so your site can show a proper headshot and a few lines written for visitors, rather than whatever someone happens to use as their app picture.

Adding someone

Add someone, then either pick a member from the list or type a name for someone without an account. It's one field either way.

If you pick a member, their name, title and bio are filled in as a starting point. From then on it's your copy — editing it here doesn't change their profile, and changes they make to their profile don't change your website.

Choosing what shows in the photo

Your website shows team photos in two different shapes — a circle on your home page and a rounded square on your About page. A tall photo won't fit a square, so something has to be left out, and if nobody says which part matters it comes off the top and bottom. That's how a good headshot ends up showing a collar.

So you get to say. Once a photo is added, you'll see the whole picture with a bright box over part of it. That box is what your website keeps.

Drag the circle onto their face. The two small previews underneath update as you drag, and they're the real shapes your site uses — what you see there is what visitors get. Prefer the keyboard? Tab to the circle and use the arrow keys; hold Shift to move in bigger steps.

Nothing to save. Photos and framing save on their own, right away — that's why the button at the bottom says Save details, which covers the name, title and bio.

A couple of things worth knowing:

• Nothing is cut off the original. You're choosing where to look, not trimming the file, so you can re-frame any time — including years later, or if we change how your website looks.
• Portraits start high. When you add a tall photo we put the focus near the top for you, since that's usually where the face is. Move it wherever you like.
• Recenter puts it back to the middle if you'd rather start again.

Publishing

Adding someone doesn't put them on the internet. Publishing does, and it's a separate step, so you can build the section and get it right before anything goes live.

The first time you publish a person, we'll ask you to confirm. That's on purpose: their photo, name and bio go somewhere anyone — including search engines — can see them.

Ask people before you publish them. That's not something software can do for you, and it matters most for anyone without an account, because they have no way to take themselves off.

Putting them in order

Drag the handle, use the up and down arrows, or focus the handle and press the arrow keys — whichever suits you. The order you set is the order visitors see.

When someone takes themselves off

Anyone with a Psalmly account can remove themselves from Church websites in their own account settings. If someone has, their row says Hidden by them, and there's no switch — you can't put them back, and neither can we. Only they can.

You can still edit their entry, and you can delete it. What you can't do is override their decision.

When someone leaves your church

They come off your website right away, but the entry is kept under Not on your website. Nothing you wrote is lost — if they come back, you can publish them again and they return to the position they had.

A name on its own is fine

Photos and bios are optional and often missing, and a card with just a name looks deliberate, not unfinished. Don't hold the whole section back because you're short one headshot.

Removing someone

Remove from team in their entry deletes the name, title, photo and bio your church wrote. It can't be undone, and it doesn't touch their Psalmly account or their membership — they stay in your Directory exactly as they were.

For how this fits with everything else on your website, see What appears on your website.