Showcase your stories

We have launched an exciting new feature in Shorthand - Collection Section.

Collections are lists of URLs and thumbnails that you create in your workspace, which can then be added as a Collection Section to individual stories. The URLs in your Collection can be other Shorthand stories or a link to any other content on the web, making it very flexible.

Think 'related content', 'more stories in this series' or 'our longform stories'. You can use it as a way of directing your readers to other content after they have finished reading the current story (see ours at the end of this post). That's an opportunity to keep your audience engaged.

Our newest feature is something we know many customers are excited about. It's currently in beta because we want to continue to develop and improve, with your feedback. While it's in beta, we are switching it on for customers on request - so, do get in touch if it's something you'd like to have added to your account!

So, how does it work?

Once we've added the feature to your account, go to your workspace and click the icon representing the team you'd like to create the collection for.

You will now be presented with a number of items to choose from: a blank story, a number of examples stories and new collection.

Click 'New collection' and you'll be taken to the next page where you can name your Collection (e.g. 'Birds') so that you can recognise it on your workspace, and provide an optional title that will be used to reference the section within your story (e.g. 'Read more more about birds'.)

The rest of the form is dedicated to adding references to individual stories. For each, you add an image, title, a subtitle (optional) and the URL of the story.

You can add as many stories to the collection as you like and also drag them into the order you prefer.

When you've finished, click the 'Save & publish collection' button and your Collection is ready to be added to any of your stories within the corresponding team.

Once saved, the collection will appear as a card on your workspace and can be further edited or shared with collaborators from there.

Adding a collection to your story

You can add a Collection Section to your stories in a similar way to adding any other section type within Shorthand. Click 'add section', and you'll see the new Collection Section type.

When you click 'Collection' it will add a blank Collection Section. In grey text you will see 'please select a collection from the section option panel on the left'.

Choose the Collection you want to add from the drop down and then it will appear in your story.

You can move this section around in your story as you would any other section.

Other tips:

• Think about where it would be best to feature the Collection in your story. While all URLs will open in a new window, you don't want to direct readers away from your story too soon. Could you use it as a call to action or for never-ending engagement?
• Make sure your images are the same aspect ratio - if you add a mixture of heights and widths this will impact the way the Collection Section displays.
• Do you need to add a subtitle and, if so, how long should it be? Shorthand will adapt to the longest headline and subtitle - ensure they are around the same length for consistency.
• Test your Collection Section across devices. Are you happy with the way it looks?
• The style of the Collection Section within your story is set by a combination of your theme, the number of items in the Collection, and changes made in the Section Options panel. For example, you could use light on dark, or dark on light (We've used light on dark below).
• Your Collection Section will contain each of the stories you add to the Collection form in the order in which they appear. If you update the form, the stories that reference it will be automatically updated too - even if they are already published. They do not need to be re-published to have any changes applied! To achieve this, the Collection itself is hosted by Shorthand.

You can read our full support document on the collection section here.