Step 1: Planning

Work in Collaborate begins when the Editor sets up a flatplan with the number of pages for the publication, and with placeholders for articles and advertisements.

These placeholders, whether for editorial content or ad space, can be assigned directly to team members on pages in the flatplan. The Salesperson role can also create ad spaces and put these on the flatplan.

Creating a Title

On your Collaborate home page, you can create and edit Titles and find all tasks that you need regarding features and functionality. Each title can have several Publications (or editions) under it.

To get started, click the CREATE NEW button, give it a name and click CREATE.

NOTE: The top left drop-down menu (Go to title) in Collaborate’s navigation bar allows you to switch between different Titles at any time (including the ones you own or are invited to collaborate on).

Creating a Publication

Once you have created a title, you can add Publications to it by clicking the CREATE NEW button.

Here’s what to do when creating a Publication:

1. Give it a Name.
2. Set a Deadline. The deadline will be the default deadline for all articles, ads and layout in that Publication.
3. Choose a Layout. The layout can be single pages (such as a stack of papers stapled together) or facing pages (like you see in a typical magazine, bound at the spine and featuring two-page spreads).
4. Choose if you want to use a previous publication as a publication template. This will copy the existing flatplan including articles and ads, but not the content itself. At this time, Collaborate is unable to store custom templates.
5. Finish by clicking CREATE.

Adding Pages

Once you have created a Publication, you can add pages to its flatplan. (If you are using a previous Publication as a publication template, you will see its existing pages but not the older content.)

For magazines that will be printed, it’s best for the total number of pages to be evenly divisible by four due to requirements of the binding process.

Digital magazines, in contrast, can be any number of pages. Pages can also be added or removed from the flatplan as you build the Publication. 

To easily add pages to your Publication, click ADD PAGES at the top-left corner of your flatplan.

To delete extra pages, hover over them in the flatplan view and select DELETE on the top righthand corner.

You can move a spread by mousing over the spread and clicking MOVE to drag and drop the spread to its new position.

Adding Articles

An Article can contain copy, images and other assets. When creating Articles, you can assign each one to specific contributors or invite new team members to work on them.

To add Articles, click NEW ARTICLE on the right-hand sidebar. You can also create new articles on the ARTICLES page.

Here’s what to do when adding an Article:

• Choose a Name.
• Set a Deadline for when the Article should be submitted. The deadline will be reflected in the status in the Article view.
• Choose an Editor. The Article Editor will be in charge of either accepting or rejecting the Article when a Contributor marks it as complete.
• Choose a Contributor who will be responsible for adding content to the article.
• Finish by clicking CREATE.

Adding Ads

Ads are created from the flatplan or Ads page by clicking NEW AD button.

You will be prompted to specify:

• The Size of your ad. The size will be expressed as a fraction of the page on which it will be placed. A full-page advertisement will be 1/1; a half-page ad is 1/2; and so on. An Ad can be placed across as many pages as you want. If you place a 1/2-size Ad across two pages, then this is really only 1/4 per page, so you should express this as 2/4.
• An Advertiser. If you’ve sold the ad space, you can add the name of the advertiser here. If this field is left empty, the ad will be considered unsold.
• You can leave a Comment with any information relevant for the assigned Salesperson.
• An assigned Salesperson. The team member will be responsible for selling the Ad or adding content to it. Only team members in the Salesperson role are allowed here.
• A Deadline for when the Ad should be delivered. The Ad will be marked as Overdue unless it’s marked as completed before the deadline.
• Finish by clicking CREATE.

NOTE: We have observed that if an ad blocker is running, it blocks the calls made to create Ads. The easy fix for this would be to disable the ad blocker.

Placing Articles and Ads

You can easily place content on pages after creating your Collaborate flatplan and adding spaces for Articles and Ads.

Here's how to do this:

1. Mouse over an Article or Ad on the right-hand side of your flatplan window - a Place button will appear.
2. Click PLACE and then click on the pages in the flatplan where you want the content to be placed.
3. You can select as many pages as needed by an Article’s length (not necessarily adjacent ones). If you accidentally click on one too many pages, simply click the same page again to remove it.
4. When you are done placing your article or ad, click SAVE at the bottom.