Help

Your first story

Three ways to start, what to do first, and how to publish.

Three ways to start

On your Stories page, choose New story. Start a story offers three ways in:

• Blank. An empty storyboard. Add your first beat.
• From your photos. Choose photos. They are sorted by date taken and grouped into beats.
• A template. It sets out the beats and leaves an empty frame for each photo. You can publish once every frame has a photo.

If you keep a trip diary in Polarsteps, From a travel diary turns every step into a beat, with the route under it. Maps and trips covers routes.

Templates use the site's fonts and text animations. A font or animation kept only with a story cannot go in a template.

A new account also comes with a story called Low tide. It has most kinds of beat, and each one explains itself. Open it to see how the pieces fit, then change it, publish it or delete it.

To open an editable backup, choose From an editable backup under Start with.

What to do first

1. Choose Add beat and pick a kind. A Title beat is a good first one.
2. Your media library opens so you can choose a photo. A new beat never takes one for you. Close the library to choose later. A Full frame, Sequence, Gallery or Backdrop then waits as an empty frame, marked Needs a photo in the storyboard. A Title or Words & photo beat shows its words over whatever runs underneath.
3. On the Content tab, write your words. Words are written in Markdown: # heading, **bold**, *italic*.
4. Scroll the preview to see it move. Select a beat in the storyboard to edit it, and double-click it to jump the preview there.
5. Add more beats. On the Look and Motion tabs, change how each one appears and moves.

The editor saves as you go. The top bar says Saved when it has.

If a reload or browser crash interrupts saving, reopen the story on the same device. Recover unsaved edits shows when the words were kept. Choose Recover edits, Discard, or Later. If someone saved newer work, Bring mine back deliberately replaces those saved edits; Undo keeps the way back.

Recovery copies contain private story text, stay in this browser for seven days, and are removed on sign-out or account change. At the bottom of the story panel, Remove device recovery data removes these copies after confirmation. Saved stories stay as they are. If device storage is unavailable, keep the editor open until it says Saved. The editor still needs a connection to open and save stories.

How a story is built names each part of the editor.

In the photo picker, Story use shows all media, media used in this story, or media not used in it. It works with search and tags. Hidden beats, page pictures, map pictures and both covers count as used. A bundle counts when the story links to it, and its photos count too. Choosing a photo can take it out of “Not used in this story”; your choices stay in their order. Clear filters shows everything again.

In the media library, open a video's details and press Preview video to watch it. Playback starts muted; the player's controls pause, seek and turn sound on when the video has it. Open Focus point below the player to change the part that stays in frame. Closing details or choosing another file stops the preview.

Publish it

Choose Publish at the top. It lists what still needs doing: every empty frame needs a photo, whether a template left it or you added a beat and closed the library, and photos without alt text are flagged, because alt text is read aloud to readers who can't see the photo.

Choose who can read the story, then Publish story. After you change something, Publish changes puts the new version out. Readers see the last version you published, never your draft.

Addresses, private links, passcodes and schedules are on Publishing and sharing.