Adding Content
Now let’s add some content. Keep in mind that this guide doesn’t aim to create a course you might use. Rather, we’re adding content to let you see the various options for text, titles and other opportunities. We’ll be adding specific phrases so you can identify what fields populate the different locations within the course’s UI.
On the Course Structure screen, open your first page by double-clicking the block titled Page title which is the title Adapt gives to all new pages. This brings you to the Page Structure page.
The Page Structure screen displays a hierarchical structure of the page, starting with a top-level block for the page’s settings (again, containing the default page title Page title).
The next level of the hierarchy are articles. Your starting course only has one article that’s been assigned the default name New Article Title.
Contained within that article is your first block shockingly named New Block Title. Contained within that block is your first component: A Text component named New Component Title.
We’ll step through these structures one at a time, making a few changes and highlighting each of the settings.
Double-click the Page title block. This will open the Page Settings screen for the page. Let’s make some changes!
Start off by changing the text in the Title field to “Module 1”.
The field beneath this, Display Title, should update to match the title you enter. We’ll be coming back to this field a bit later.
Enter the text “This is the page body.” in the field Page Body.
Enter the text “This is the page body, too.” in the next field, Body.
Change the text in the Button link text field to “Open Module”.
Enter the text “2 mins” in the Duration field.
After taking a moment to review what you’ve entered, click the Save button in the sidebar.
Back on the Page editor, you’ll notice that the name of the page in the page settings block has changed to reflect the new title you gave it. Go ahead and click Preview Course. The course will have updated with the information you provided.
Take a moment to review the location of each of the strings you entered. For the most part, the usage makes sense: The page title appeared in the block for the page in the menu as well as the duration and title of the button to open the page. Opening the page using the Open Module button, you’ll see the new title and page body.
…and then again, some don’t.
Page Body vs. Body. Yeah, it’s is a bit awkward. Just remember where each of the fields appeared in the course.
Let’s modify the rest of the course. We’re going to edit each of the elements — Article, Block & Component — in one go. If you can stand it, hold off on clicking that Preview Course button until you’ve got everything updated.
Double-click on the article title New Article Title to launch the Article Settings page. We’re only going to make a few basic edits:
Change the Title of the article to “My First Article”.
Yup, Display Title, updates to match (We’ll get there, I promise).
Add the text “Here’s my article body.” to the Body field.
Review the other fields on this screen, but leave them as they are for now.
Click Save to return to the Page editor.
Now double-click the block title New Block Title to launch the Block settings screen. Here’s the changes to make:
Change the Title of the block to “My First Block”.
Of course, Display Title updates.
Add the text “Here’s my block-ie body.” to the Body field.
Add the text “Here’s the block instruction.” to the Instruction text field.
Review the other fields on this screen, but leave them as they are for now.
Click Save to return to the Page editor.
Now carefully double-click the component title New Component Text — you don’t want to click the arrows or gear icons at this point. Here’s the changes to make:
Change the Title of the component to “My Text Component”.
Display Title updates (last one!).
Leave the Body field as is.
Add the text “Here’s the component instruction.” to the Instruction text field.
The other fields should be pretty familiar at this point, leave them as they are.
Click Save to return to the Page editor.
Finally! Now click that big, beautiful Preview Course button! Once your preview is up and running, click the Open Module button to view the page’s content.
Titles, Titles Everywhere!
Adapt has rendered each title, body and instruction for each element: Page, Article, Block and Component. That’s… well, a lot of titles and bodies. Why would you want all this?
Adapt provides different text and titles for different situations. Sometimes you need a few paragraphs in the beginning of an article to orient the user for the topic you want to cover. Starting on a sub-topic? That Block title and body might just be what you need.
I’m sure you noticed there are a few common fields between each of these objects:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | This is the title of the element in the Adapt Authoring tool. It is extremely important to set a unique title (You’ll see why a bit later). |
| Display Title | This is set for you, by default, to match the Title, but can be set to read differently for the learner or turned off completely. |
| Body | This is rich text so you can add lists, links, tables and other common formatting. |
| Instruction | This field is intended for specific instructions for any components that follow. |
Let’s say that our course doesn’t need a block title or body. Time to remedy that!
Double-click the Block title My First Block.
Locate the “X” icon to the right of the Display title and click it with feeling.
The field will turn from gray to white and the text will vanish.
Select all the text in the Body text editor, then delete it (Bonus points if you locate the Select All button in the toolbar).
Finally, select all of the text in the Instruction field and then delete it.
Click the Save button to return to the Page editor.
Click Preview Course.
When you view the page the Block title and body content are no longer present. Neat huh? Any field left blank in the authoring tool will be removed from the course.
The “Lock” icon (found right next to the “X” icon to the right of the Display Title field) will break the association between Title and Display Title, allowing you to provide different values for each field.
In the next section, we’ll add another component or two.