There are four ways to create relationships between whole pieces of content and parts of other content in Scalar: annotations, media links, notes, and Scalar links.

Annotations

An annotation is content which is linked to a specific portion of a media file. Currently annotations can be created for images, audio, video, plain text files and source code. You can create annotations by navigating to the media file and clicking the paperclip icon on the Scalar header, or by editing an existing page and adding the annotation relationship manually. Any page or media file can become an annotation, and can even annotate more than one media file at different points simultaneously.

Readers who arrive at the annotation will see its own content (either text or media) first, and then below that, the annotated media. Media files with annotations will display those annotations when matching segments of the media are played or selected; access to the annotations is also provided wherever the media is displayed within Scalar.

Media Links

A media link connects a portion of the text of a page to a media file. Once created, Scalar can use that link as a trigger for the automatic embedding of the referenced media into the page. Simply put, it's a hyperlink to media which Scalar can use to display the media itself. Annotation links function in a similar way, only they link to a specific annotated portion of the media.

Media links look like conventional hyperlinks, with an added media icon which appears immediately before the link. Clicking on a link causes the page to scroll to the related media and if the media is audio or video, to play.

Notes

A note is content which is linked to a portion of the text of a page. Notes are used most often like footnotes would be used in a conventional book, because when the user rolls over the link, the complete content of the note is displayed.

Note links look like conventional hyperlinks, but are preceded by a note icon and display additional content when clicked.