Ideas for Arc XP

Include an option in Composer to “Save As Template” from an existing story

Composer allows the ability to create new story templates and then use those templates when creating a new story with predetermined text content and metadata.

What about adding a “Save As Template” button when viewing stories so that a user can take an existing story, with its text and metadata, and save that in its current form to use on future stories as a template.

  • Guest
  • Mar 12 2020
  • Future consideration
Categories User Workflow, New Functionality
  • Attach files
  • Jakob Ihfongård commented
    August 28, 2020 11:53

    It would also solve the problem brought up here, where the template tool is not as robust as Composer itself: https://ideas.arcpublishing.com/ideas/SB-I-88

    It would be much more convenient to create templates from the normal Composer tool - then you don't even need a separate tool to create templates.

  • Guest commented
    March 13, 2020 16:16

    Hi Lawrence! The problem this would solve is if a user had a story with metadata fields and text that they realized they will need again in the future, they wouldn't have to re-create it from zero as a template, but could just save it as-is to the template list.

    The example that comes to mind is a story that was written as a one-off, but as the news events develop, the journalists realize that this will not be a single story but a series of stories that they will need a template for.

  • Admin
    Lawrence Tsai commented
    March 13, 2020 12:57

    Hi Rob! Thanks for the idea. I'm hoping to understand: what problem is the solution you proposed above solving for?