Adding Assets (or Media) to an item

Items and interaction can contain Assets (media), e.g. images, videos, sound files or passages (previously called shared stimuli). These can be files which are stored in the Asset Manager, or files from your desktop.

Note: In some versions this is called the Media Manager, or the Resource Manager (and the files are called ‘Media’ rather than ‘Assets’), but they all function in the same way. The names are used interchangeably.

When you use a resource from the Asset library in an item it isn’t integrated in your item, but instead is only referenced by it. This means that if the resource is updated, your item will automatically be modified to include the updated version of the resource. See the Asset Manager chapter of the User Guide for further details.

There are two ways of adding an asset, or resource, to your item:

One is to use a Media interaction. Please refer to the chapter on Media Interactions for instructions on how to do this.
The second is to add the asset using a Text Block. Media can also be added from the edit toolbar when editing any type of interaction or Text Block. In this case, you will be prompted to upload your media to the item in Asset library before inserting it into the interaction. The steps below describe how to add an asset from your Asset library to a typical text block in your item.

1. When authoring your new Item, drag a text block onto the canvas from the Inline Interactions menu on the left.

A toolbar appears in the gray bar above the item containing a series of icons.

Adding media via the edit toolbar — The Edit toolbar

2. Click on the relevant icon to include a file from the Asset Manager in your item.

Using the image icon or the media (video, audio) icon will show you the resources available of that type in the Asset library. Clicking on the floppy disc icon will show you the passages (or shared stimuli) available.

Clicking on any of these icons will take you to the Asset Manager, shown in the image below.

The left panel is a Library: the Asset Library. Above the Assets folder, you will see which resources (if any) the item contains. The middle panel shows the list of assets which are available within the highlighted Class (i.e. folder) in the Asset library. The right panel provides a preview of the asset you select.

To include a media file from your desktop in your item:

Select the relevant icon in the toolbar (the landscape for an image, or the music tape for an audio or video file).
Select where you want the asset to be uploaded to (either the item’s folder directly, or a particular Class in the Assets library).
Click on Add file(s), then the blue Browse button to browse your computer. Most image and audio formats are supported.
Select the green Upload button.
Click the green Select button. This uploads the asset you have chosen into the text block. If you chose to upload your asset to the item’s folder, the media file becomes an integral part of the item, and is not in the Asset library when you save your item.

To include an existing media file in the Asset Library:

Select the relevant icon in the toolbar (the landscape for an image, or the music tape for an audio or video file).
In the Asset library, select the class where the asset is stored. Browse the assets available and choose one to include in your item.
Click the green Select button. This uploads the asset you have chosen into the text block.

3. Edit the asset using the Properties panel.

If you begin typing without hitting return, the text will center vertically. If your text extends beyond the first line, however, it will wrap underneath the image (or other media). If the image is followed by a longer text, it is best to click on return on your keyboard at least once before starting to type.

Certain elements (such as size and alt text) of images and other types of media may be edited in the Properties panel on the right. For example, there is an option to align an image either inline, left, right, or center:

Note: To include a media file from your desktop in your item, select the relevant icon in the toolbar (the landscape for an image, or the music tape for an audio or video file), and click on Add file(s), then the blue Browse button to browse your computer. Most image and audio formats are supported. When you save your item, the media file becomes an integral part of the item, and is not in the Asset library. To upload a new file to the Asset library, see the chapter on the Asset Manager for further details, or to create a new ‘Passage’ to add to the Asset library, see the chapter on the Passage Editor.