Getting started configuring your Arc XP tools

Starting on a new CMS can be confusing, especially one as broad as Arc XP. This guide covers the key settings to configure so you can take full advantage of Arc XP Composer, Arc XP Photo Center, Arc XP Video Center, and WebSked.

Photo Center

Understanding Photo Center Settings

▢ Source Name Settings - Determines which source names appear in filtering.

▢ Site Hierarchy - Determines which Site Service hierarchy Gallery publishing uses. For multi-site organizations, you can select a different hierarchy for each site.

▢ Field Options - Sets the pre-filled Comments and Syndication options for new Galleries. “True” marks an option as yes/checked by default; “False” marks it as no/unchecked.

▢ Additional Settings - Includes default filtering options (Date Preference and Date Search Range) and, most importantly, “Publish on Upload,” a toggle that determines whether uploaded images are published by default.

▢ Image Metadata Fields - Determines which four metadata fields appear in the four corners of each image in the main Photo Center image library. You can choose from about a dozen options, so pick the metadata most useful to your team.

Settings -> Image Field Settings

▢ Manage Image Types - Determines which image types your organization uses. By default, images without a specified image type are uploaded as “Photograph.” For more granularity, you can enable Graphics and Illustrations as additional types.

Click the name of an image type in the menu to select its default metadata fields (Headline, Credit, Keywords, Alt Text, etc.) and the fields required to save an image in Photo Center. You can set these defaults separately for each image type.

▢ Manage Templates - Like starting templates in Composer, Photo Center starting templates pre-fill default values for your images, such as Keywords, Credit, Photographer, Restricted/Unrestricted, and more.

Video Center

Utilities

▢ Types - Types categorize your videos and work like starting templates in Composer or Photo Center. With Types, you can pre-fill metadata fields and include a watermark for each video type.

▢ Series - A Series is a shell for multiple episodes of a show or broadcast. When creating a Series, you can associate tags, a primary website and section, a header image, editors, related content, and more.

Composer

Composer settings

▢ Content Elements - Controls which content elements (Gallery, Image, Video, Table, Social Media Embed, etc.) are available in the Compose tab. You can also add custom embeds for your organization here.

▢ ANS Overrides - The “Owner Name” field sets the owner.name property in all documents created and edited in Composer for your organization.

▢ PageBuilder - To preview articles from Composer, a resolver in Arc XP PageBuilder Engine must capture the preview URL. For setup instructions, see Configuring Composer for Themes.

▢ WebSked - Determines whether to enable the WebSked integration in Composer (Workflow Statuses, Pitching, and Task Creation).

▢ Media Metadata - Limits the editable fields for images, videos, and Galleries in Composer, based on what you plan to expose on your site’s front end.

▢ Article Body Count Configuration - Affects the line and inch counts at the bottom of the Compose tab.

▢ Link Display Types - If you use link lists on your site, build your default list options here. These options appear in a drop-down menu when users add a link list content element to a story.

▢ Lock Settings - Sets how long a story can remain open (locked) and idle, and when a warning appears to let the user know the story is about to unlock due to inactivity.

▢ Featured Media - Determines which featured media types (images, videos, galleries, etc.) your organization can use and whether any of them are required to publish.

▢ Site Service - In the “Hierarchy Name” field, enter the name of the site hierarchy for Composer to use. Composer uses this hierarchy everywhere, from search and filtering to choosing the section to publish a story to.

▢ Text Content - Select the checkbox to remove empty paragraphs from your content.

▢ Search - Select these checkboxes to display the Slug, the Budget Line, or both on each story card in Composer.

▢ Story Unsaved Changes - Select this checkbox to warn users before they navigate away from a story with unsaved changes.

▢ Proofreader Settings - Composer integrates with two third-party dictionary tools: Tansa and ProLexis. If your organization uses one of them, fill out these fields to connect it to Composer.

▢ Time - Your organization’s time zone settings, including Time Format (12-hour/24-hour), are controlled in Arc XP Global Settings. In Composer Settings, you can configure the Planned Ready Time and the Schedule Publish Quick Pick Times.

▢ Story Tabs - Select this checkbox to give users access to all tabs before they save a story. This checkbox is cleared by default so that users are prompted to fill out necessary metadata fields, such as primary site/section and working headline, and can publish without issue.

▢ Print System Integration - To display the “Send to print” button on the Compose tab, select this checkbox and enter the URL path to your print CMS. See How to set up Send to Print functionality in Composer.

▢ Enable Snowball Integration - If your organization uses the Snowball stock quote recommendation feature, you can enable it on the Meta tab in Composer. This requires additional configuration and support from Arc XP.

▢ Default Search Filters - Sets a default content source or time selection for the main Composer search page.

▢ Disable Editor Plugins - Composer includes a few integrated plugins. To disable any of them, make your selections in this field.

▢ Author Edit - By default, the author information shown on the front end (Byline, email, role, etc.) comes from Arc XP Authors. To let authors in your system override these values, specify those options here.

▢ Kickers/Labels - Create customized labels for your content that, when configured, appear on the front end. You can also associate a URL with each label to send users who click it to a specific destination.

▢ ANS Meta Field Configuration - Controls which fields appear on a story’s Planning and Meta tabs, and whether circulations are required to save content. Click the gear icon for an option to set whether the field is required to save the story, publish it, or both, and whether the field uses a picklist. Dozens of fields are available, depending on your organization’s requirements, and you can arrange them with drag-and-drop.

▢ Base Paths for Websites - Sets up a button, shown as a globe icon in the top toolbar, that takes users from a published story in Composer to the live article on the story’s primary website. For instructions on configuring the base URLs, see Getting Started with Composer.

Templates

In this tab, you can create starting templates that pre-populate metadata fields in the Planning and Meta tabs (site/section, author, kickers/labels, paywall status, tags, subtypes, and more) and add content to the Compose tab. Starting templates speed up story creation in Composer so that authors can focus on content.

Templates are visible to everyone with access to Composer, although users with the right permissions can choose whether to display a given template in the Template tab. Many organizations find that templates work best when organized by section (sports, politics, etc.), content type (opinion column, horoscope, etc.), or author. All visible templates are searchable and easy to find.

WebSked

To access WebSked Settings, open WebSked and click your name in the top-right corner. From there, you will see the “Groups” and “Company” options.

Groups

▢ Groups - A “group” collects task triggers and notifications in WebSked. Groups are usually organized by desk or role (for example, Sports, Entertainment, Editors, or Photographers).

▢ Task Triggers - After you create a Group, click its name to set automated tasks that run when a story’s Workflow Status changes. For example, in the Editors Group, you might set a Task Trigger to create a Task any time a story moves from Any Status to Review and Edit status. The available Workflow Statuses come from Schemas.

For each Task Trigger, you can specify a website, section, content type, and more to target Tasks precisely.

▢ Notifications - For each Group, controls the notifications that certain events trigger (story publish, task create, platform pitch, etc.). Notifications can go through Slack, Microsoft Teams, or email.

Company

▢ Tasks - Set up Task Types, which are actions performed on your organization’s content, such as “Review and Edit,” “Photo Assignment,” “Translation Support,” “Video Edit,” and “Legal Review.”

Task Statuses describe where a Task is in WebSked. WebSked includes five default Task Statuses (Group Assigned, User Assigned, Claimed, Rejected, Completed), and you can create more if your organization needs them.

Task Templates are useful for Tasks that don’t occur often or with most of your content, such as “Photo Assignment,” “Translation Verification,” or “Immediate Backread Needed.” In a Template, you can specify the Group or User who receives the notification, contact information for completing the Task, special instructions, and more. When users create these Tasks in Composer or WebSked, they are prompted to fill out the information in the Template.

▢ Schemas - Establish your organization’s Workflow Statuses. The defaults are “Draft,” “Edit,” and “Publish,” but you can create as many as you need. Workflow Status changes are manual and signal that an action must be performed on that content. You can configure Task Triggers and Notifications based on these changes. For more information, see Groups.

▢ Platforms - Platforms are destinations that are always looking for new content, such as Homepage or Social Media. Users can pitch their stories to Platforms for consideration. For each Platform, you establish a Path (for example, /homepage), a Title (Homepage), and a primary Website.

▢ Configuration - Sets default options, such as preferred language and story length unit (words, characters, inches, etc.), and the preferred hierarchy (from Sites) for finding stories in WebSked.

▢ Integrations - Connect your organization’s Slack account, Microsoft Teams, or both.

▢ Stats - Set your organization’s traffic percentages, which appear on the Statistics page (from the main WebSked landing page).