This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Scalar 2 User's Guide

Scalar Header Bar

This page is referenced by:

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.
Embedding Third Party Material into a Scalar Page The best way to embed a map, timeline or any other third party platform into a Scalar page is by using an iframe tag (read more about iframes here).
Here's how to do it.
Click in your in your Scalar header bar to create a new page, or navigate to an existing page in which you'd like to insert a third party material and click to edit that page.

Click the "Source" tab at the top of the page editor.

Find the url where the map, timeline or other material resides.

Paste the code below into the html editor, being sure to insert the url you have inside the quotation marks after src=. Also be sure to include http:// at the beginning of the url you're using. (See below for seeting the paramaters for "frameborder," "height" and "width.")

<iframe src="[your url]" frameborder="0" height="650" width="100%"></iframe>

Using your own url, your code should then look something like this:

<iframe src="http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/embed/137152/4308693385" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="650" ></iframe

Under "Layout," select "Blank Slate."

Click "Save."

Frameborder defines the width of the border around the material inside the iframe; a frameborder of 0 means there is no frame; a frameborder of N (frameborder="N") will place a border N pixels wide around the material.

Width sets the width of the material displayed. Width can be set to pixels or percentages. Setting the width to 100% (as in the example above) allows the iframe to expand to the maximum width allowed inside the main content area of a Scalar page.

Height sets the height of the material displayed. In the example above, we've set the height to 650 pixels.
QuickStart: Adding media to a page 19 How to add media links to a Scalar page. plain 2015-05-29T14:50:53-07:00
These steps will add a media link to a page; the placement and size of the resulting media player depends in part on the page's default view. To insert media at a specific position on the page, see Adding inline media to a page. Note that before adding media to a page you will need to have already imported the media into Scalar.
1. Sign in to your Scalar account.
2. Click in your Scalar header bar to create a new page, or navigate to an existing page and click to edit that page.
3. Select the text you want to link to the media.
4. Click and select the media you want to link.
5. Using the media reference options select the following display preferences:
  1. Size. Choices include “Small” (206px wide), “Medium” (412px wide), “Large” (620px wide), “Full” (maximum wide of the page), and “Native” (the original size of the media up to the maximum width of the page).
  2. Alignment. Choices include "Left" (aligned left), "Center" (aligned center), and "Right" (aligned right).
  3. Caption. Choices include "Description" (the description for the media object will be displayed), "Title" (the title of the media object will be displayed), "Title and description" (the title and description for the media object will be displayed), and "None" (neither title nor description will be displayed).
6. Next to "Default layout," select the layout you want for this page (only Basic, Image Header and Google Maps views support linked media).
7. Click "Save."
For more details, see Adding Media and Links.
QuickStart: Adding inline annotated media to a page 11 plain 2016-08-20T20:24:20-07:00
These steps will embed a media player cued to an annotation in a page at a specific point. To insert a annotation link instead (less precise, but more flexible in that the default view for the page helps determine the placement and size of the resulting media player), see Adding annotated media to a page. Note that before adding an annotation to a page you will need to have already created the annotation in Scalar.
1. Sign in to your Scalar account.
2. Click in your Scalar header bar to create a new page, or navigate to an existing page and click to edit that page.
3. Select the text you want to link to the annotated media.
4. Click and select the media with the annotations you want to link.
5. Using the media reference options to select the following display preferences:
  1. Size. Choices include “Small” (206px wide), “Medium” (412px wide), “Large” (620px wide), “Full” (maximum wide of the page), and “Native” (the original size of the media up to the maximum width of the page).
  2. Alignment. Choices include "Left" (aligned left), "Center" (aligned center), and "Right" (aligned right).
  3. Caption. Choices include "Description" (the description for the media object will be displayed), "Title" (the title of the media object will be displayed), "Title and description" (the title and description for the media object will be displayed), and "None" (neither title nor description will be displayed).
6. Next to "Annotations" select which annotations associated with the media object will display. Clicking the eye icon next to “Annotation Title,” at the top of the menu, will alternately select and de-select all annotations in the list.
7. Next to “Featured annotation,” choose which of the annotations selected in the previous step will be "Featured," that is, which will display its content on page load.
8. Click "Save."
For more details, see Adding Media and Links.
QuickStart: Adding inline media to a page 10 How to embed media directly into a Scalar page. plain 2015-05-29T14:55:18-07:00
Following these steps will embed a media player in a page at a specific point. To insert a media link instead (less precise, but more flexible in that the default view for the page helps determine the placement and size of the resulting media player), see Adding media to a page. Note that before adding media to a page you will need to have already imported the media into Scalar.
1. Sign in to your Scalar account.
2. Click in your Scalar header bar to create a new page, or navigate to an existing page and click to edit that page.
3. Place the insertion point at the point in the page where you want to embed the media.
4. Click and select the media you want to embed.
5. Using the media reference options select the following display preferences:
  1. Size. Choices include “Small” (206px wide), “Medium” (412px wide), “Large” (620px wide), “Full” (maximum wide of the page), and “Native” (the original size of the media up to the maximum width of the page).
  2. Alignment. Choices include "Left" (aligned left), "Center" (aligned center), and "Right" (aligned right).
  3. Caption. Choices include "Description" (the description for the media object will be displayed), "Title" (the title of the media object will be displayed), "Title and description" (the title and description for the media object will be displayed), and "None" (neither title nor description will be displayed).
6. Click "Save."
For more details, see Adding Media and Links.
QuickStart: Adding annotated media to a page 9 How to add an annotated media file to a Scalar page. plain 2016-08-20T19:50:29-07:00
These steps will add an annotation link to a page which will cue up its related content; the placement and size of the resulting media player depends in part on the page's default view. To insert annotated media at a specific position on the page, see Adding inline annotated media to a page. Note that before adding an annotation to a page you will need to have already created the annotation in Scalar.
1. Sign in to your Scalar account.
2. Click in your Scalar header bar to create a new page, or navigate to an existing page and click to edit that page.
3. Select the text you want to link to the annotated media.
4. Click and select the media with the annotations you want to link.
5. Using the media reference options to select the following display preferences:
  1. Size. Choices include “Small” (206px wide), “Medium” (412px wide), “Large” (620px wide), “Full” (maximum wide of the page), and “Native” (the original size of the media up to the maximum width of the page).
  2. Alignment. Choices include "Left" (aligned left), "Center" (aligned center), and "Right" (aligned right).
  3. Caption. Choices include "Description" (the description for the media object will be displayed), "Title" (the title of the media object will be displayed), "Title and description" (the title and description for the media object will be displayed), and "None" (neither title nor description will be displayed).
6. Under"Annotations" click to select which annotations will appear when the media object loads on the page. Clicking the eye icon next to “Annotation Title,” at the top of the menu, will alternately select and de-select all annotations in the list.
7. Under “Featured annotation,” select which annotation will be highlighted in blue below the media object on page load.
8. Next to "Default layout," select the layout you want for this page (only Basic, Image Header and Google Maps views support linked media).
9. Click "Save."
For more details, see Adding Media and Links.
Creating Pages
To create pages in Scalar, you must be logged in to a book for which you have Author privileges. Once logged in, a suite of icons--new page, edit, import, trash, dashboard and account--should appear in your Scalar header bar. To create a new page, click the icon.
QuickStart: Creating a path 6 How to create a path in Scalar. plain 2015-05-28T12:02:23-07:00
1. Sign in to your Scalar account.
2. Click in your Scalar header bar to create a new page, or navigate to an existing page and click to edit that page.
3. Click on the "Relationships" tab and select "Path".
4. Next to the text reading "To make this page a path," click "specify the items that it contains."
5. Select the content you want to add to the path and click "Add selected."
6. Drag and drop the content to reorder it if necessary.
7. Click "Save."
For more details, see Whole-Whole Relationships.
QuickStart: Creating a tag 5 How to create a tag in Scalar. plain 2015-05-28T12:03:10-07:00
1. Sign in to your Scalar account.
2. Click in your Scalar header bar to create a new page, or navigate to an existing page and click to edit that page.
3. Click on the "Relationships" tab and select "Tag".
4. Next to the text "To make this page a tag," click "specify the items that it tags."
5. Select the content you want to tag and click "Add selected."
6. Click "Save."
For more details, see Whole-Whole Relationships.
QuickStart: Adding notes to a page 5 How to add a note link to a Scalar page. plain 2015-05-28T11:58:31-07:00
1. Sign in to your Scalar account.
2. Click in your Scalar header bar to create a new page, or navigate to an existing page and click to edit that page.
3. Select the text you want to link to the note.
4. Click and select the content you want to link as a note.
5. Click "Save."
For more details, see Adding Media and Links.
QuickStart: Adding miscellaneous content links to a page 5 How to link any online content to a page. plain 2015-05-28T12:00:10-07:00
1. Sign in to your Scalar account.
2. Click in your Scalar header bar to create a new page, or navigate to an existing page and click to edit that page.
3. Select the text you want to link to the content.
4. Click and enter the URL of the content you want to link, then click "OK."
5. Click "Save."
For more details, see Adding Media and Links.
QuickStart: Adding Scalar content links to a page 4 How to link other Scalar content to a page. plain 2014-10-03T10:38:16-07:00
1. Sign in to your Scalar account.
2. Click in your Scalar header bar to create a new page, or navigate to an existing page and click to edit that page.
3. Select the text you want to link to the Scalar content.
4. Click and select the content you want to link.
5. Click "Save."
For more details, see Adding Media and Links.
Hiding and Deleting Pages If you are logged into a book for which you have Author privileges, you will see a icon in your Scalar header bar. Clicking this button doesn't actually delete the page; it simply puts it "in the trash," hiding it from public view.

Using the content tabs Dashboard, you can find these hidden pages and either make them live again, or delete them entirely. For more information, visit the Content Tabs page.