Creating Layouts
In easyCMS Studio you start from a template. For free-form layouts, the advanced editor lets you place items on a canvas, use playlists and layers, set the resolution, and publish safely.
In easyCMS Studio, every design starts from one of more than 200 templates; your first design shows how. This guide is for the rest: a free-form layout built in the advanced editor, the classic easyCMS layout designer.
When you need the advanced editor
| Studio design | Advanced editor layout |
|---|---|
| Starts from a template | Starts from a blank canvas |
| Change texts, photos, fonts and colours | Place any number of items, widgets and zones anywhere |
| Saving publishes it | Must be published before it plays |
Edit Studio designs in Studio: changes made to them in the advanced editor are replaced the next time they are changed in Studio.
Open the advanced editor
- In Studio’s account menu, choose Switch to classic easyCMS, then Open classic easyCMS.
- Open Design > Layouts and add a layout, or open an existing one.
A screen that already shows a classic layout also has an Advanced editor button in Studio’s My screens.
The canvas and the Toolbox
Drag items from the Toolbox onto the canvas, then move, resize and rotate them freely. Items can overlap.
- Library media: images and videos from your media library.
- Widgets: clocks, weather, tickers, webpages, DataSet tables.
- Elements: text, shapes and similar.
Select an item and the Properties panel shows its settings; its Advanced tab sets how long it stays on screen.
Example: a picture, a ticker and a logo
- With nothing selected, set the Resolution and a background in the Properties panel.
- Drag your main image or video on and stretch it over the upper area. The Snap to buttons, bottom right, line it up.
- Drag a ticker or text widget onto the lower strip, full width.
- Drop the logo in last, so it sits on top.
To rotate several items in one area, place a Playlist there and add the items inside it. A playlist is just another item you place, not a zone you define first.
Layers and grouping
- The Layer Manager, bottom left, lists every item with its layer; drag to reorder.
- Drag a box across the canvas to select several items at once.
- Hold shift, click each item, right-click and choose Group elements to keep them together.
Resolution and orientation
Use 1920×1080 for landscape and 1080×1920 for portrait. A layout of another shape gets black bars, so build separate versions of anything important. See screen resolution and orientation.
Preview, then publish
The play button, bottom left, runs the layout in your browser.
Only a published layout plays. Publish from the three-line menu, top right. Editing a published layout makes a draft and leaves the live one playing until you publish again.
Watch out A change nobody can see on screen is very often a layout edited but never re-published.
To put a layout on screens, use the classic schedule: see scheduling content. Prefer a Studio design instead? Ask us and we rebuild a classic layout in Studio free.
Tip Text is read from metres away: go much bigger than looks right on your monitor, keep contrast high, and keep one message per layout.
Related articles: Your First Design, Playlists and the Media Library, Scheduling Content, Screen Resolution, Orientation and Layout Sizing