Adding Content to the Canvas

In this video, we'll cover the different ways in which you can add content to the Readz canvas. The first way we'll look at is using the + or Add Element panel, which you'll find in the left in the Readz design studio. Next, we'll look at using the drag and drop method for adding content directly from our desktop and lastly, we'll look at copying and pasting.

Let's get started by seeing how we can add content using the + or add content menu. So, on the screen, we'll see our Readz dashboard, which right now is completely empty. To begin a project, whether it'd be a magazine, website, or online publication, let's start by clicking "add project."

Now, we see we have the option to use a template, but I'll show you how to add content to a completely blank canvas. So I'll choose that. Now, we have a nice white canvas to get started adding things to. So first, I'll come over to this + option in the left-hand side menu, the add elements menu.

Here we can see all of the different types of elements we're able to add to the page. They're categorized into groups by their function. So, at the top, we have structural elements such as dividers, boxes, navigation bars, then we have text elements, then we have media elements such as images and videos, then we have forms, social media buttons, and lastly, more complicated options such as search boxes and iframes. So to add an element, I will click on it, and drag on to the canvas.

So if I want to add a box, I will click and drag, and place it wherever I like on the canvas. Boxes always start out in the same style and same size. So I'll need to resize it and position as I want it. So, this is the first way that you can add content to your canvas. And there's a lot here. Be sure to utilize all of the different options and try using this menu to add things such as structure, social media buttons, and navigation bars to your page.

Next, we'll talk about how you can drag and drop content from your desktop onto the Readz canvas. As you can see, I have a few files here on my desktop. So to add one of these to my canvas, I'll select it from my desktop, drag on to the canvas, and simply let go. The great part about this is that the platform will automatically figure out what type of element I've dragged on, and put it into the appropriate category. So since I dragged on an image, the image will automatically be formatted as an image element, and a video as a video element and so on. So now I can move it around, for example, into this box and resize it as needed.

Next, I'll drag in this text document. As you can see, it's automatically formed into a text box. So we'll bring this here to the center. Important to know is that when you import text, it may lose things such as line breaks, italics, and so on. So you may have to spend a little bit of time adding those things back in. So that's how we can add content by dragging and dropping from desktop.

And lastly, we'll have a quick look at how you can add content by copying and pasting from other sources like websites, PDFs, Word documents, etc. So here we are back on our page. The first thing I'm gonna do is make space for the content that I want to copy and paste. Now, say I wanted to add something below my gray box and above my textbox. I could just select the text box and drag it down. But if I have other elements beneath that text box, they will not be moving, and I might mess up my layout. So an easy way to do this is to find the little half moon at the top of an element and click on that before dragging down. When I do this type of moving an element, it will move down all the other elements below it, while keeping their spacing and layout unchanged. This is useful when you forget to add something at the top of a page or in the middle of a page and don't wanna spend a lot of time selecting and dragging other elements below it.

So, we've learned how to add content in three different ways from the Readz add content menu by dragging and dropping from our desktop and by copy and pasting.