Thanks for your patience during our recent outage at scalar.usc.edu. While Scalar content is loading normally now, saving is still slow, and Scalar's 'additional metadata' features have been disabled, which may interfere with features like timelines and maps that depend on metadata. This also means that saving a page or media item will remove its additional metadata. If this occurs, you can use the 'All versions' link at the bottom of the page to restore the earlier version. We are continuing to troubleshoot, and will provide further updates as needed. Note that this only affects Scalar projects at scalar.usc.edu, and not those hosted elsewhere.
Practical Scalar Guide for the Field of Digital HistoryMain MenuMediaNavigationAestheticsAdvanced Scalar TechniquesContextCitationsBlake Hatton668ed8e064332293f5252d57bb106581fc79a416Jonathan Rees3c1d30e7d6075de94f4565f942234014223611d6
CF&I Administration Building
12017-03-11T14:41:35-08:00Blake Hatton668ed8e064332293f5252d57bb106581fc79a416153791Photo of CF&I Administration Building for Annotation Purposesplain2017-03-11T14:41:35-08:00Blake Hatton668ed8e064332293f5252d57bb106581fc79a416
This page has annotations:
12017-03-11T15:01:36-08:00Blake Hatton668ed8e064332293f5252d57bb106581fc79a416St. Mary-Corwin under constructionBlake Hatton3plain2017-03-11T15:04:26-08:00Blake Hatton668ed8e064332293f5252d57bb106581fc79a416
12017-03-11T15:00:46-08:00Blake Hatton668ed8e064332293f5252d57bb106581fc79a416Future site of interstate 25Blake Hatton1plain2017-03-11T15:00:47-08:00Blake Hatton668ed8e064332293f5252d57bb106581fc79a416
This page is referenced by:
1media/Scalarmedann.jpg2017-02-15T19:35:14-08:00Annotating Media11image_header2017-04-27T20:42:02-07:00The annotation of media is a relatively new feature to come to Scalar. The annotation feature in Scalar for media is essentially a way for users to caption areas of their images, rather than the whole image. This allows users to highlight areas of the image that are most relevant to the point they are trying to make or to easily explain an image with multiple relevant elements that are not immediately obvious. Historic images can be labeled and explained with ease, which is a boon to the author of digital history, who can more accurately explain images with direct labels rather than longwinded captions.
Images displayed in Scalar pages are shown without their annotations if they have any, but they can be easily accessed by clicking the image. Take for example the image below, courtesy of the Steelworks Center of the West, that shows Colorado Fuel and Iron's administration building, medical dispensary, and annex, among other relevant structures:
A caption for this image that attempts to describe all of the relevant pieces of information could look something like this:
"This image depicts Colorado Fuel and Iron's administration building, which is the Spanish style building with the silver dome, the medical dispensary, which is next to the administration building, the annex, which is connected to the administration building, the future site of Interstate 25, which is where the cars are parked, and in the background is Minnequa Hospital, which is being constructed and would eventually become St. Mary-Corwin."
The caption is long and cannot convey the intended information 100% accurately.
Now the image shall be shown with annotations:
The annotations tab can be clicked on or the image can be hovered over, and relevant parts of the image can be explained without fear of misdirecting the reader to the wrong portion of the image, and the need for a long caption is completely eliminated, allowing for more engagement with the audience. Especially for the field of digital history, the ability to accurately convey information is an absolute must, and the ability to do it through images is an excellent bonus. What's more, image annotations can be chosen to be displayed or not displayed, so users can add them without requiring them to be present on the finished page.
To annotate media as shown above you must first have author privileges to the book that contains the media you want to annotate. Then navigate to the image you want to annotate. To be clear, you must be on the image's unique page, not in the user dashboard. Then click the annotate button, which is the paper clip shaped button in the toolbar. This will bring you to the annotation interface.
Here, you can click and drag over the image to draw the areas you want to be annotated. You can also add a title and a description to the annotation from here, allowing you to caption specific parts of the media that you wish to highlight.
