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Let's talk about collections

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07-25-2021 07:56 AM
CatherineCarter1
Occasional Contributor

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!

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OwenGeo
Esri Notable Contributor

@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.

Screen Shot 2021-07-26 at 9.35.00 AM.jpg

 

 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.

Owen Evans
Lead Product Engineer | StoryMaps

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3 Replies
OwenGeo
Esri Notable Contributor

@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.

Screen Shot 2021-07-26 at 9.35.00 AM.jpg

 

 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.

Owen Evans
Lead Product Engineer | StoryMaps
CatherineCarter1
Occasional Contributor
Thanks so much, Owen. I see that I am thinking about a storymap as a standard website (which I used to design and code) but they are really quite different. I appreciate your explanation, and thanks for getting back to me so quickly! I really want to be finished this week.

I will certainly post my suggestion on the ideas board. It has been a long time since I posted on the community site (it used to be just pure ArcGIS questions) and I have to say that I am finding it difficult to find things in this new incarnation. I didn’t even know there was an ideas board!😄

I have more questions and I will post them later this morning.

Thanks again!
OwenGeo
Esri Notable Contributor

@CatherineCarter1 -- Please be sure to share your collection here (and if you Tweet it, please tag @ArcGISStoryMaps too) when it's done so others can see it.

Owen Evans
Lead Product Engineer | StoryMaps
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