Digital Narratives Guide
This guide will define the fields and components currently available within the narrative content type.
Overview
The form for the narrative is composed of two main sections: Page Header and Main Content. In addition to these two main sections, there is a field for controlling the moderation state of the narrative (e.g., draft, needs review, published, etc.) and a field for briefly describing revisions.
Page Header
The Page Header section has five fields: Narrative Title, Subtitle, Authored by, Featured Media, and Background color.
Narrative Title
The title or headline of the narrative.
Subtitle
The subtitle is where you can put a lead or brief summary of the narrative. Because the content entered into the subtitle may be used in content teasers or content galleries throughout the site, use no more than 25 words for a subtitle.
Authored by
Also known as the byline, this field is for entering authors of the narrative. This field supports multiple authors.
To enter an author, type the author's first and last name. To enter multiple authors, separate names with commas. If the author already exists in the site, the name will appear in a dropdown menu.
Featured Media
Featured media is an image that represents the narrative. This image is used as the narrative's thumbnail in content teasers and content galleries. Featured media has four fields: Media, Display Options, Caption, and Credit/Citation.
Note
The aspect ratio (the relationship between the image's width and height) for featured media is set to 16:9.
Display Options
Currently there are two display options for featured media: full-width and partial width. The full-width option sets the featured media image to display full-width to each edge of the screen above the Narrative Title, Authored by, and Subtitle when viewed on mobile devices (<768px) and behind the Narrative Title, Authored by, and Subtitle when viewed on tablet sized screens or larger (>768px). The partial width option sets the featured media image to display below the Narrative Title, Authored by, and Subtitle on all screen sizes.
Note
For low resolution images, or images that appear pixelated, select Partial width as the display option for your featured media.
Caption
The caption field is for entering a caption to describe the featured media.
Credit/Citation
The credit/citation field is for providing a citation for the featured media.
Background color
If no featured media image is included with the narrative, a background color will be applied behind the Narrative Title, Authored by, and Subtitle.
Note
No image will be associated with the narrative in content teasers and content galleries until an image is added.
Main Content
The Main Content section of the narrative form uses a content creation set-up based on the Paragraphs module. The paragraph types available in this section include: Heading, Text, Media, Media Carousel, Content Reference, Aside, Breakout, and Double.
Heading
Heading provides a plain text box to enter a second-level heading (Heading 2, or also known as h2).
Text
Text provides a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) text box for entering text. The text formats available are Simple, Basic HTML, and iframe.
Simple
The Simple text format supports the following, which are available in the text editor's toolbar:
- Bold
- Italic
- Superscript
- Subscript
- Remove text formatting
- Create and remove links
- Create anchor links
- View source (View HTML)
Basic HTML
The Basic HTML text format supports the following, which are available in the text editor's toolbar:
- Bold
- Italic
- Superscript
- Subscript
- Remove text formatting
- Create and remove links
- Create anchor links
- Unordered lists
- Ordered lists
- Blockquotes
- Paragraph formatting
- View source (View HTML)
iframe
The iframe text format is for embedding StoryMaps and other iframes into the narrative.
Media
Media allows you to add images, videos from sites such as Youtube, and other types of media into your digital narrative. Media has three fields: Media, Caption, and Citation.
Caption
The caption field is for entering a caption to describe the media.
Citation
The citation field is for providing a citation for the media.
Media Carousel
Media carousel allows you to create a carousel of multiple pieces of media, with arrows to view the previous media and the next media.
Note
The aspect ratio (the relationship between the image's width and height) for media included in the media carousel is set to 4:3.
Content Reference
Content reference is for referencing other content that already exists within the site, such as a Timeline or Location, and displaying the referenced content as a teaser within the narrative itself.
Aside
Aside has two fields: Aside content and Display mode. An aside can contain any of the eight paragraph types.
Aside content
<add description here>
Display Mode
There are four display modes for the aside: Align to the left, Align to the right, Display full width, and Display centered. By default, the display mode is set to Align to the right.
Breakout
A breakout can contain any of the eight paragraph types. <add description here>
Background color
<add description here>
Text color
<add description here>
Background image
<add description here>
Double
A double can contain any of the eight paragraph types. <add description here>
Moderation and Revisions
The form has options for designating the moderation state for the narrative. Currently there are five moderation states: Draft, Needs Review, Published (Local Only), Published, and Archived.
By default, when initially creating your narrative, it will begin in the Draft state.
Users with the user role Contributor will have the ability to transition their own narratives between the Draft and Needs Review states only. Users with the role Editor will have the ability to transition narratives between each of the five moderation states.