Story collections are groups of story teasers that can be placed in the body of a story. When clicked, they open in an overlay window, and the reader can quickly navigate through all stories in the collection.
This new feature is similar to the SNO Story Element: Related Stories tool. The big differences are that you can have up to 50 stories in a collection, collections are displayed in grid format within the story body, and the collection stories can be viewed in an overlay on top of the story that they are placed in.
How to Add a Story Collection
- While adding/editing a story, place your cursor in the place you’d like the Story Collection to appear. It typically works best to press enter, giving the Story collection its own line in the text editing field.
- Click the SNO Add Story Element button above the text editing window.
- A pop-up window will give you all of the different story element options. Select the "Story Collection" option.
- Enter a title and description for your Story Collection, if you’d like. This will appear above the Story Collection. These are optional fields.
- Choose the Collections Items Link Style.
- Full Collection - Clicking a story opens that story in an overlay, with the ability to navigate to other stories in the collection at the bottom of the overlay.
- Individual Story - Clicking a story links out to that full story.
- Search for and add stories you would like to appear in this collection. Stories must be published to be added to a collection.
- In the second column, the stories you’ve added will appear in a list. You can change the order of the stories by clicking and dragging them, or delete them by clicking the X after the headline.
- Adjust any design options you would like in the third column Design column.
- Minimum column width: You have some control over the number of columns by adjusting the minimum column width, but the width of the screen a reader views the story with will greatly impact how it displays.
- Photo shape: Set it to display photos in a square, horizontal, or vertical format.
- Photo Fill Style: Fill Photo Frame or Show Full Photo.
- Grid Style: You can choose to have the headline appear as an overlay or below the image.
- Press the Insert button in the upper right corner. A line of shortcode will appear within your story body.
- Click Update/Publish in your story to save the Story Collection.
Changing Global Design Options for your Story Collections
You can access the global design options for story collections in your SNO Design Options. Click on the Appearance tab on the left side of your dashboard, then SNO Design Options. Choose Story Page Templates on the left side of your Design Options menu.
You will find the Story Collection Design options in the third column. All collections on the entire site will use the options set here. Once you are happy with the options you’ve set, click the Save All Design Options button in the upper right corner.