Feature Guide to Content Trees

 

Content Trees let you organize your articles in a very visual way through the use of interactive or static charts. You can use them to display the organization hierarchies, to show which spells belong to different magic schools, and more!

     

How to create a Content Tree

 

Content trees can be accessed from the Content Trees option in the left sidebar menu, under Advanced Tools. Clicking on the content trees option will slide open a field with all your created content trees and a green + Content Tree button to create a new one.

   

You can alternatively click on the green hammer button on the bottom right of your screen and select Content Tree to create a new one.

 

1. After clicking on the "Content Tree" button, a pop-up will appear.
2. Write the title of your content tree (it needs to be at least 4 letters long).
3. Click the submit button or Shift + Enter.

 

You will be immediately redirected to the content trees edit interface.

 

How to edit a content tree

 

After creating your content tree, you can click on it in the list of all your created content trees on the left sidebar menu. It will lead you to the edit page.

   

The Architecture tab at the top has all the tools to edit how the tree looks.

 

On the left of the page you will be able to see what your content tree looks like so far while editing. On the right there is the New Item tab and the Add Multiple Items tab.

 

New Item

 

In order to add a new item, use the ''Add new item'' box.

 

• You can select the article you want to add with the Article drop-down (for more help with articles, check out the article guides).
• Choose a parent article with the Parent item one, which will classify the new item under the specified parent.
• Click the Save Changes button and watch the new item appear in the left preview!

   

Add Multiple Items

 

If you have been using tags to organise your articles, you can use the Add Multiple Items tab to add all tagged articles to the tree! Just type the tag in the text box and click save. The articles you add with this method will not be structured, but you can always use the drag-and-drop system to organise them.

   

Additional options

 

Advanced options when adding new items to the tree

 

The above is enough to create a basic tree, but sometimes you need a higher degree of customisation. While adding a new item, you can click on Show Advanced Options to edit the way the item will be displayed. The options available are:

 

• Title: you can change the display title of the article if you don't want to publicly display the actual article title.
• Description: you can add a short description that will override the article's excerpt (if it has one).
• Cover image: just like with the description, the cover image you add here will override the one you set in the article's Design tab.
• Privacy status: public trees will be accessible to anyone, while private ones will only be accessible to you.
• Subscriber groups: if the tree is private, choose who can access it. More information in the Guide to Subscribers.

Filling in the Title field without choosing an actual article will create a "dummy item" —that is, an item with no linked article. Useful if you don't need a full article or if you are planning to write it in the future.

 

Icons

 

• Edit button: click on the pencil icon when you mouse over the added items to edit them. You can edit their settings, advanced options and delete them.
• Collapse button: click it to collapse the child items.
• Padlock icon: if the padlock icon is displayed, the item is set as private.
• Ellipsis icon: if the item has a description, the three dots will be displayed.

 

Settings tab

 

In the settings tab you can change the title of your content tree as well as its description, privacy status and subscribers.

• Title: this is the header that will be displayed on top of the content tree.
• Description: an explanation of what the tree is or represents.
• Status: you may pick if you want the content tree to be public or private.
• Subscribers: if the tree is private, choose the subscriber groups that can see this content tree. More information in the feature guide to subscribers.

 

How to embed a content tree in an article

 

Content trees can be presented in three different ways —it's up to you to choose the best one depending on the context you want them in. You have the options to:

 

• Embed Interactive Chart: an interactive organization chart resembling the bloodlines implementation.
• Embed Textual List: a simple ordered and nested list of items linking to articles.
• Embed Static Chart: a static organization chart in a tree-like structure.

   

Static Chart

 

Static charts are displayed in a tree-like structure, and are great to display, for example, the structure of an organization or the evolution of a language family. They will show the title of the item, the description, and if you mouse over them you'll get a pop-up with the beginning of the article. However, it will not display the cover images.

 

Interactive Chart

 

These is an improved version of the static chart, which is especially useful for big charts. Everything is also displayed in a tree-like structure, but it includes the cover images, and when you mouse over an item the description is expanded to cover the full image. You can also zoom in and out, drag the tree around, and use the search bar in the bottom left corner to quickly focus on a specific item.

   

Textual List

 

Textual lists present the tree vertically, using indentations to show the relation between different items. Each item will be linked to its article (if there is one) and the advanced fields (custom title and description) will also be displayed if you used them. The cover image is the only field that has no effect on this kind of tree.

They work great in the sidebar of the articles mentioned in a tree, and your readers can use it as a table of contents to quickly navigate between related articles.

 

How to delete a content tree

 

To delete a content tree, you need to click the Content Trees option in the left sidebar menu, under Advanced Tools. You will see all your created content trees listed there. Mouse over the one you want to delete and click on the trash icon and then the green confirmation button.

 

You can alternatively head to the tree's edit page, go to Settings and click on the delete content tree option on the right.

 

Content trees examples

 

Here are some examples of what content trees can look like on World Anvil!