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• 1 2015-08-07T21:15:18-07:00 New Ways to Navigate 33 Scalar 2.0: What's New plain 2015-08-10T23:07:37-07:00 Scalar books are often comprised of complex structures. Scalar 2 was designed to help readers better orient themselves within these structures, including upgraded navigation systems accessed via the new Scalar header.

  New Header Navigation

  The header incorporates an interactive table of contents allowing users to explore a book without ever leaving the current page. At the top-left of the header bar, you'll find a series of navigation icons. Rolling over the menu icon reveals the book's table of contents, which, as in the old interface, acts as a kind of main menu for the book (and, just as in Scalar 1, authors are free to add whatever content they wish to this menu). Clicking on the title of a page within the table of contents will navigate the reader to that page. Additionally, clicking on the arrow just to the right of a page title will reveal the information tab for that page. If a page in the menu is also a path, tag, comment, or annotation, its information tab will also show its related items, which can themselves be similarly explored. In this way, the table of contents gives readers an interactive, global view of a book's structure.

  New Visualization Options

  The new interface also comes equipped with a more nuanced and customizable set of global visualizations. Easily accessible via the new header, readers now need only roll over the compass icon and then choose their desired visualization format. Once there, readers can limit, or otherwise define, which sets of objects and relationships within the Scalar book as a whole they’d like to see and in what graphical format. More specifically, readers can choose the "Format" for the visualization, that is, how the connections between content are visualized (choices include: Grid, Tree, Radial and Force-directed); the type of content to be visualized (choices include: All content, Table of contents, All pages, All paths, All tags, All annotations, All media, All comments, or Current page); and the type of connections to be visualized (choices include: All relationships, Parents and children or No relationships).

  A More Robust Index

  Finally, the new interface includes an expanded index. Users will find the index icon  at the bottom of the table of contents accessed from the menu icon  in the header. The new index contains a hyperlinked catalog of all content in the current book, divided for the reader's convenience into tabbed categories (Paths, Pages, Media, Tags, Annotations and Comments).
• 1 2014-10-01T16:38:31-07:00 Getting to Know the Interface 32 Introduction to Scalar's interface elements. plain 2015-05-28T15:10:29-07:00

  Framing the top of every page is Scalar's header bar which gives you access to utilities for navigating and editing (if you’re logged in and have editing privileges). If the header bar is currently hidden, scroll towards the top of the page to make it appear.

  At the top right of the header bar, you'll see a suite of utilities for editing pages and media. These utilities include the following:

  1. Search. Allows you to search for content contained in the current Scalar.
  2. Help. Brings up the Scalar help menu.
  3. New. Create a new page.
  4. Edit. Edit the current page.
  5. Import. Reveals a dropdown menu allowing you to import/upload media.
  6. Delete. Delete the current page.
  7. Dashboard. Brings you to the Scalar dashboard.
  8. User Account. Reveals a dropdown menu allowing you to sign in/out and access the "My account" tab in the Scalar dashboard.

  In addition, if you're on a media page the annotation icon will appear in the toolbar as well, just after the edit icon.

  Navigation

  At the top-left of the header bar, you'll find a series of navigation icons. Rolling over the menu icon reveals the book's main menu, which acts as a kind of table of contents for the book. (To learn how to add items to the Main Menu for your own book, visit the dashboard section). Clicking on the title of a page within the main menu will navigate the reader to that page. Clicking on the arrow just to the right of a page title will reveal the information tab for that page. If a page in the menu is also a path, its information tab will contain a submenu listing the pages in that path. Thus, by revealing the paths contained within main menu items, and (if they exist) sub-paths within those paths, the main menu can give readers an interactive, global view of a book's path structure.