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.
How to Use Scalar: Digital Publishing for Libraries, Archives, and MuseumsMain MenuAbout This ProjectAbout the creators and purpose of this projectWhat Is Scalar?A brief introduction to what Scalar can do as a platform.Scalar in Libraries, Archives, and MuseumsWhy Scalar is a relevant tool for librarians and other information professionals to learn.How to Use ScalarStep-by-step instructions for creating your first Scalar book.More ResourcesAnnotated list of resources with more information on using SclarPaige Szmodisc78c538ae17b32016e9167236f1aa8c213efc288Elizabeth Swihart2a47b61d624c2ba01890fc87ecc1d0c25d5107a3Shenwei Chang5f647018e81e72f2978f28d4dfbea5d53d6dd876
12021-03-18T03:37:36-07:00Creating Paths27How to create paths in your bookplain2021-03-21T20:22:04-07:00
Scalar allows you to connect pages and other book elements in a linear sequence of links called a “path.” You can add as many different paths as you want, with the elements in any order that you want. You can use any given element in as many paths as you want.
To Create a Path
Create a new page using the "+" icon or navigate to the page or media you want to make into a path and click the pencil icon to open the edit page.
Scroll down to the area under the content editor box and find the “Relationships” tab. Click on the option that says “Path.”
Click on the hyperlinked text that says “choose the items that it contains.” This will pull up a pop-up window.
Select all the items you want to include in the path by clicking the boxes to the left of the items’ names. You can add pages or select from non-page elements in the project by using the dropdown menu on the upper left.
Once you’ve checked all the boxes for your selected items, click “Add Selected.”
The items you’ve selected should show up in a numbered list. You can click the “Add content” button to add more items to the path. To reorder the items, click on an item, hold down the mouse button (the item should become highlighted in gray and be preceded by a bullet point instead of a number) and drag it to the position you want.
For any given path in your book, you can set a “destination” link to redirect the user to a particular place in your book.
To Set a Destination
Click on the “Change destination” button below the list of items in your path. It will pull up an embedded window.
Select the page or element you want to set as the destination. To navigate to non-page elements, use the dropdown menu in the top left corner.
After you select the desired destination, the pop-up window will close and the area under the "Relationships" tab should refresh and show the name of the destination item. You can remove the destination by clicking the "Clear" button or set the destination to a different item by clicking "Change destination" button again.
Make sure to save your path using one of the two save options at the bottom of the editing page.
After you save your path and go to view the page for the path, it should show a table of contents listing each item linked in the path. The destination link should appear at the bottom of the page for the item at the end of the path.
12021-03-18T02:37:44-07:00Using CSS16How to use CSS to customize the appearance of your bookplain2021-03-21T08:14:07-07:00If you want to change the appearance of your book from the default settings, you can use the custom CSS functionality to override the defaults. The CSS can be customized so that the changes are reflected across the entire book, or you can customize the appearance of a particular page.
Customizing the Book
To customize the CSS for the entire book, go to the dashboard by clicking the wrench icon.
When the dashboard loads there should be a tab labeled Styling. Click on that tab.
Under the Styling tab there should be a section labeled custom CSS. You can type any CSS code directly into the input field without enclosing it in HTML <style> tags.
You can also insert predefined CSS provided by Scalar by using the dropdown menu below the main CSS code field. Select the desired option and click the “Insert” button.
The code should appear in the Custom CSS code field. Make sure to save your CSS using the “Save” buttons at the bottom of the page.
The screenshot below shows the effects of applying the “Show path contents in side bar” predefined CSS whose code is shown in the previous step.
Customizing a Page or Element
To customize the CSS for a particular page or element, open the editor for the page and click on the Styling tab underneath the text editor field. Locate CSS on the dropdown menu and click on it.
The area under the tabs should refresh to show a CSS input field. As with the CSS input field for the entire book, the CS input field here can also be used without making use of the HTML <style> tags.
You can also insert predefined CSS using the dropdown menu. Select the desired option and click “Insert.”
The code should appear in the Custom CSS code field. Make sure to save your CSS using the “Save” buttons at the bottom of the page.
The carousel below shows screenshots of the index page before and after the custom CSS is applied. For more tips, check out the Scalar 2 user guide for how to alter the CSS. For those who are familiar with HTML and CSS, further experimenting is encouraged. CSS changes applied to pages that are paths will also apply to the other pages on the same path. Be sure to use the correct selectors for page-specific elements to avoid unwanted aesthetic changes in other parts of the book.
12021-03-17T14:17:19-07:00Creating Pages16How to create pages and format content on Scalar.plain2021-03-21T19:56:16-07:001. To create a page of content on Scalar, select the “+” icon in the top-right toolbar. 2. From there, you can add a title (all page titles must be unique) and description for the page, then add content like text and media (covered in the next section) to the page’s text editor. Similar to other blogging platforms, the text editor allows you to adjust text styles and alignment, headings, font color, and bulleted and numbered lists. 3. When you’re done adding content, you can select “Save and View” to see how your page will appear on the front-end of your Scalar website. To edit a page again, select the pencil “Edit” icon in the toolbar to go back into edit view.
Page Layouts
In addition to the basic page layout that allows you to combine text and media on a page, you can also choose from a variety of other layouts from categories including general, interactive, visualizations, and utility. These can range from a Title page with a large “Image Header,” media galleries, embedded Google maps or Timelines, grids, and even more visualizations. For more details on each of these layout types, reference the Scalar 2 User’s Guide on Selecting a Page’s Default Layout.