Let's talk about collections

CatherineCarter1

Hi! I am on the verge of finishing my first story map. It is a complicated production with 4 stories. I like the collections page and I am using one but I am a little confused. When I click on a story on the collection page I go to that story and it shows my selected navigation bar at the top. But then I can never get back to the collections page and I have to use the navigation bar to walk through the other stories. Further, if I access a story by its link and not through the collection, the navigation bar is not presented. What's up with that?

On another note, I have a suggestion.

I wish you would provide more text space on the collections page so that I could say a few words about me and my background .. something like the flyleaf on a book cover. It would add credibility to the material that will come in the stories.

Thanks for listening!

oevans_storymaps

@CatherineCarter1 -- Great news that you are using a collection to group your 4-part story! That's a perfect use for a collection, and it helps keep the length of your individual stories short, which is good for keeping people interested and engaged in your content.

To get back to the overview page, readers can click the grid icon at the top left.

 

>  if I access a story by its link and not through the collection, the navigation bar is not presented. What's up with that?

Adding a story to a collection doesn't make the story aware that it's part of a collection. A collection is just another way to access a story grouped together with other stories. You (or other people) can add a story to several different collections, if needed. If you think that your readers will somehow come across an individual story and you want them to know it's part of a collection, you can add a note and link to the collection somewhere in your story, for example in the credits section.

Lastly, thanks for the suggestion to expand the collection description. It's best to add requests for new features and enhancements to our ideas board so others can upvote them and provide their own information about why the idea would be helpful to them. If you wouldn't mind posting your suggestion over there, that would be the best way to ensure other people see it and can upvote it.