Comparing a story between Publication Channels using the Publication Channel Overview in Content Station 9

In a multi-channel publishing environment, a story is published to different Publication Channels such as print and Web, or to different Editions within a Print Publication Channel.

Because of the differences in the way a story is published to each output method, the content and structure of a story may vary.

Example: A story may use a 'head' - 'intro' - 'body' structure in a Publication Channel for print while the Publication Channel for Web may only use 'head' and 'body' components for the same story. In case the wording needs to be slightly different — such as in a header — different article components containing slightly different content can be used. Instances of overset text or underset text may also require the need to use different (but partly similar) article components.

It is important therefore to see how the story is published to each Publication Channel. This can be done by using the Publication Channel Overview.

The Publication Channel Overview

The Publication Channel Overview shows each Publication Channel to which a story has been assigned and the article components of that story within each channel. This way, the article components can be compared and checked for any differences or similarities, and changed when needed.

Figure: The Publication Channel Overview, showing the article structure and content of a story that is published to 3 different Publication Channels.

See a demonstration of the Publication Channel Overview in this short video:

Accessing the Publication Channel Overview

To access the Publication Channel Overview, click the Publication Channel Overview button in the Publication Channel panel of a Dossier:

Figure: The Publication Channel Overview button (A) in the Publication Channel pane of a Dossier.

The Publication Channel Overview window appears on top of Content Station.

Tip: (Content Station AIR only) Drag the window onto a second monitor. When editing an article component, you can keep track of the text editor as well as the Publication Channel Overview window.

Each Publication Channel is displayed in its own column, showing the article components that have been assigned to that Publication Channel from top to bottom.

Updating the Publication Channel Overview window

Do one of the following:

• Click the Refresh button in the Dossier
• Press Ctrl+R (Windows) or Cmd+R (Mac OS)

Verifying re-used article components

For any component that is used in more than one Publication Channel, an icon is shown together with the number of times that the article component is re-used across the Publication Channels for the story.

Figure: The components of the Publication Channel Overview. Here the Publication Channel for Facebook is shown. It contains only one article component ('intro'), which is used in one other Publication Channel for the same story as indicated by the 'Re-used' icon in the top-right corner.

Example: A value of '1' means that the article component is used in the current Publication Channel as well as in 1 other Publication Channel.

The following figure is the same as the one above but here the re-used article components have been highlighted for demonstration purposes.

Figure: For demonstration purposes, the article components that are used in more than one Publication Channel have been highlighted.

Note the following:

• An article component 'intro' (highlighted in green) is used in the Publication Channels for Facebook (the first column) and for Drupal (the third column).
  The Re-used icon shows a value of '1'.
• An article component 'body' (highlighted in orange) is used in the Publication Channels for print (the second column) and for Drupal (the third column).
  The Re-used icon shows a value of '1'.
• An article component 'intro' is also used in the Publication Channel for print (the second column) but the wording of the text is different. A different article component has been used compared to the 'intro' component in the other 2 Publication Channels.

Editing article components

To edit an article component — for example to quickly fix a spelling mistake — click the pencil icon or the name of the article component.

The article component is brought into view in the editor, ready for editing.

Troubleshooting

Some of the article components contain images but these images don't appear in the Publication Channel Overview

Showing images is currently not supported in the Publication Channel Overview.