This is for moderate-to-advanced users of Google Sites and/or Blackboard.
If you want to better control how your page looks, you can use a separate HTML editor available at csbits.com. Begin by setting up whatever layout you like, then copy the layout and paste it into csbits.com. Use their HTML editor to modify the look, then copy and paste it back into Google Sites or Blackboard. This was put together by some former students in Poway, and shared with me by Stacey Campo of PUSD.