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 Museums
Main Menu
About This Project
About the creators and purpose of this project
What Is Scalar?
A brief introduction to what Scalar can do as a platform.
Scalar in Libraries, Archives, and Museums
Why Scalar is a relevant tool for librarians and other information professionals to learn.
How to Use Scalar
Step-by-step instructions for creating your first Scalar book.
More Resources
Annotated list of resources with more information on using Sclar
Paige Szmodis
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Elizabeth Swihart
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Shenwei Chang
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Select a Widget
1 media/Select a Widget_thumb.png 2021-03-20T09:50:59-07:00 Paige Szmodis c78c538ae17b32016e9167236f1aa8c213efc288 38779 2 Screenshot of the widget options. plain 2021-03-20T09:57:37-07:00 Paige Szmodis c78c538ae17b32016e9167236f1aa8c213efc288This page is referenced by:
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Uploading Media
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How to import media from archives, website, or your computer and add them to your pages.
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Scalar is a unique digital publishing platform especially due to its ability to import a wide variety of media, such as uploading images or other audio-visual files along with their metadata from online archives, other websites, or directly from your computer. In order to display media in your Scalar book, you must first import the media file and then add it to your pages through media links or widgets.
To Import Media
1. Hover over the Import button in the top-right toolbar. Select an import option from the drop-down menu. You can choose from “Affiliated Archives” like the Internet Archive, “Other Archives” like an Omeka site, or “Files and URLs” to directly upload media files or link to them on other webpages.
2. If you are uploading media from a link, it’ll give you the option to fill out three fields: the title of the item, an optional description (which serves as alternative text to make visual content accessible to screen readers), and the media file’s URL. If you upload from your computer, you’ll be directed to a new page to upload a media file and fill out the title, description, the media page URL, and add metadata.
3. Select the “Metadata” tab to auto-populate the fields with a digital object’s metadata, or add your own metadata according to Dublin Core standards. Scalar automatically includes the fields for source, creator, coverage, spatial, temporal, and date, but you could select “Add additional metadata” for more fields.
4. Save the media you’ve added. You can always edit your media files later by going to the “Media” tab in your Index, selecting the item, and then the Edit button in the menu.
5. To annotate your images, select the paper clip icon from the media page. Then, you can click and drag on the image to create an annotation with a label and description.To Add Media to Pages
To make media files visible in your Scalar book, you’ll need to add them to your pages. The toolbar in each page’s text editor has a variety of options to add your media file.
Here’s what each of the icons mean, including examples of what each looks like:- Insert Scalar Media Link: creates a hyperlink to the media object to display it on the page.
- Insert Inline Scalar Media Link: inserts the media file on a new line on the page.
- Insert Scalar Note: creates a note, like a footnote, that links to Scalar content. When selected, the link will show a pop-up window preview of the media file.
- Insert Inline Scalar Note: creates a note in a new line with an option to "Go to note" to open the media file in its own page.
- Insert Scalar Widget Link: allows you to add a timeline, visualization, map, carousel, card, or summary that links to multiple media items.
- Insert Link to Another Scalar Page: inserts a hyperlink to your other Scalar content, including other pages, paths, media, etc.
- Insert External Link: adds a hyperlink to external websites from the URL you insert.
- Size: Small, Medium, Large, Native, or Full
- Text-wrap: Create a new line, or wrap around text
- Alignment: Left, center, right
- Caption: Description, Title, Title and Description, Metadata, or None