Working with the components of a Digital article in Content Station Aurora

When looking at the way an article is set up, you can see that it consists of different parts: it will have a header, maybe a sub header, multiple paragraphs, perhaps one or more images with or without captions, and so on.

In a Digital article, each of these parts is represented by a 'component'. You will construct your story by adding all those components that your story needs using the Digital editor.

In this article here, we describe how to work with the components when they have been added to a Digital article.

Notes:  The information below describes the default set of components in Content Station. Since Content Station 11.18, your system administrator can hide one or more of these components, add new components, change the way components appear in the Component window, and the way they are styled. The components in your installation of Content Station may therefore be different than what is shown here. When in doubt, contact your system administrator. For detailed information about each component, see The components of a Digital article in Content Station Aurora.

When working with components, you can:

• Add or remove components
• Rearrange components
• Change components
• Control how a component should look and behave
• Copy and paste components

Adding components

To add a component, hover your mouse over an area between two existing components where you want to add the new component. Click the orange plus sign that appears. A Component window is shown containing various components, grouped by type. Find the component that you want to use and click it to add it to the article.

Figure: Adding a Slideshow component to the story.

Removing components

To remove a component, hover the mouse over the component and click the Trash Can icon.

Rearranging components

To move a component to a different position, click and hold it and then drag it to the position where you want to place it.

Changing components

Sometimes a component of a certain type needs to be changed to a different type.

Examples: When working on an article and pressing Enter, a new component is created — in most cases a body component. However, you want the new component to be of a different type such as a subtitle or a quote. The Digital article that you are working on was converted from a print article. To make it ready for publishing it digitally, some components need to be changed to a different type.

Step 1. Select the component or (when possible) place the cursor inside the component.

Step 2. Do one of the following:

• Access the Properties panel and from the Change Component list, choose a different component.
• Use a keyboard shortcut (requires Content Station 11.28 or higher). The available keyboard shortcuts are shown in the Change Component list in the Properties panel.

Note: The Change Component list in the Properties panel shows different components to choose from depending on the component type that you want to change. Keyboard shortcuts are defined by the system administrator as part of configuring Component Sets.

Figure: The Change Component option in the Properties panel.

Controlling how a component should look and behave

Using the properties of a component, you can control how a component should look and how it should behave.

Properties that can be controlled include the order in which images in a slideshow appear, the alignment of an image, the style to apply, line spacing , and so on.

Setting the properties

To set the properties for a component, select it and click the Properties icon in the toolbar on the right.

Figure: A slideshow and its properties.

Applying a Style variant to a component

Info: This feature requires Content Station 11.5 or higher.

When a particular component for a particular output always needs to be styled in a particular way, a Style variant can be created for it.

A Style variant is a collection of style settings that are stored for repeated use. This makes it possible to apply these settings in one single action instead of having to set these manually.

To apply a Style variant to a component, simply choose it from the Style variant list in the Properties panel for that component.

Editing Interactive components

Info: This feature requires Content Station 11.6 or higher.

An Interactive component displays content that is hosted on the Internet somewhere, such as a Google Map, a video, a poll, a quiz, and so on, and also allows this content to be customized in the Digital editor.

Example: A basic Google Map could be made available to which one or more locations can be added, the map settings changed, and so on.

To edit an Interactive component, access the Properties for the component and under 'Configuration', click 'Edit'.

A window will appear in which you can change the settings for that component.

Adding parallax scrolling to components

Info: This feature is only available for publishing to Apple News. The described option only appears when an Apple News channel has been set up.

Parallax scrolling can be added to each component in the Story. When enabled, it makes the component move at a different speed than the scroll speed of the Story itself, thereby creating an illusion of depth.

The pace at which the component moves can also be defined.

Enabling parallax scrolling and setting the pace can be done in the Apple News settings of the Properties panel for a component.

Figure: The Parallax scrolling options in the Apple News settings.

Note: To preview the parallax scrolling effect, publish the Story to Apple News and view it on a device.

Copying and pasting components

Info: This feature requires Content Station 11.36 or higher.

When working on an article, it is very possible that the content that needs to be added already exists in a different article. Think of a slide show, an image with a caption, a quote, a particular paragraph of text, and so on.

This content can be added by copying the component from the source article and pasting it into the article that is being edited.

Copying components

The tools for copying components are available in the previews of a Digital article:

• The fullscreen preview, accessed by pressing the Spacebar for a selected article, or by right-clicking an article and choosing Preview.
• The Device preview, accessed by clicking Preview in the Digital editor.

Tip: Open the preview of the source article in another tab of the Web browser to easily switch between the preview and the article that is edited.

Step 1. Hover the mouse pointer over the component that you want to copy and click the plus-sign that appears.

The component is added to the selection, as indicated by the orange border and the check-mark.

A toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen showing the number of selected components as well as buttons for copying and clearing the selection.

Note: For a component that contains other components (such as a Slideshow component or a Product component), only the main component itself can be selected; it is not possible to select individual components within that main component.

Example: For a Slideshow component, only the whole slideshow itself can be selected, not an individual image within it.

Step 2. (Optional) Add additional components to the selection or remove components from the selection by clicking or Shift+clicking other components.

Step 3. Click Copy selection.

Pasting components

In the Digital editor, hover the mouse pointer between the components where the copied components should be added and click the Paste icon.

The selected components are pasted.

Troubleshooting

• The Paste icon is not visible, even though components have been copied. This happens when:
• Trying to paste inside a Container component and the selection also contains a Container component. Adding a Container inside a Container is not supported.

• The selection contains a component that is not part of the Component Set of the article in which the components are pasted.

Example: When a slide show is copied and the Component Set of the article in which you want to paste the component does not allow slide show components, the Paste icon is not available. When in doubt, check with your system administrator.

Document history

• 17 April 2019: Added section 'Copying and pasting components'.