Creating and Editing Slides

Slides are the building blocks of your digital signage content. Each slide is a single screen of content that displays for a set duration before transitioning to the next slide in the playlist. This article covers how to create, edit, and clone slides using the Slide Editor.

Opening the Slide Editor

There are two ways to open the Slide Editor:

• New Slide: On the Slides tab, click the New Slide button or press Ctrl+N. This opens a blank editor.
• Edit Slide: Select a slide in the grid and click Edit Slide, or double-click the slide row. This opens the editor pre-populated with the slide's current settings.

The Slide Editor is a modal dialog with four tabs: General, Background, Text, and Overlays.

General Tab

The General tab contains the essential slide properties:

• Slide Name — A descriptive name for the slide. This appears in the Slides grid and playlist views. Use clear names like "Summer Sale Hero" or "Daily Specials Board" so you can quickly identify slides.
• Slide Type — The content type. Options are Standard, Live Item, and Live Promotion. Standard slides use manually entered content. Live Item and Live Promotion slides bind to inventory data. See the article on slide types for details.
• Duration (seconds) — How long the slide displays before advancing to the next slide. Valid values range from 1 to 3600 seconds (1 hour). A typical promotional slide uses 8-15 seconds.
• Transition In / Transition Out — The visual effect when the slide appears and disappears. The current implementation uses a fade transition.
• Transition Speed — Controls how fast the transition plays. Options are Slow, Normal, and Fast.
• Enabled — Whether the slide is active. Disabled slides are skipped during playback even if they are included in a playlist.
• Play Until Video Ends — When checked and the slide has a video background, the player waits for the video to finish rather than using the fixed duration.

Creating a New Slide

Follow these steps to create a new slide:

1. Click New Slide on the Slides tab.
2. Enter a descriptive name in the Slide Name field.
3. Set the Duration to your desired display time.
4. Configure the background on the Background tab.
5. Add your text content on the Text tab.
6. Add any overlays (logo, price badge, QR code) on the Overlays tab.
7. Click Save.

The slide is saved to the database and appears in the Slides grid. You can now add it to one or more playlists.

Editing an Existing Slide

To edit a slide, select it in the Slides grid and click Edit Slide. The Slide Editor opens with all fields pre-populated from the slide's current configuration. Make your changes and click Save to update the slide.

Changes take effect the next time the player renders the slide. If the player is currently showing the slide you just edited, the update appears after the slide cycles back around in the playlist.

Cloning a Slide

Cloning creates an exact duplicate of a slide with "(Copy)" appended to the name. This is useful when you want to create a variation of an existing slide without building it from scratch.

To clone a slide:

1. Select the slide in the Slides grid.
2. Click Clone Slide or press Ctrl+D.
3. The clone appears in the grid immediately. Edit it to make your changes.

All properties are copied, including background settings, text content, overlays, and configuration. The clone is a completely independent slide — changes to the clone do not affect the original.

Deleting a Slide

To delete a slide, select it and click Delete Slide or press the Delete key. A confirmation dialog appears. If the slide is currently included in any playlists, the dialog warns you that it will be removed from those playlists.

Deleted slides cannot be recovered. If you want to temporarily remove a slide from rotation without deleting it, use the Enable/Disable toggle instead.

Save Workflow

When you click Save in the Slide Editor, the system:

1. Validates all required fields (slide name is required).
2. Serializes all visual properties into a JSON configuration.
3. Saves the slide record and configuration to the database.
4. Updates the sync status so active players detect the change on their next poll.
5. Logs the action to the activity log.

If any validation fails, the editor highlights the problem field and displays an error message. Fix the issue and click Save again.

What to Read Next

• Understanding Slide Types and Live Data Binding for details on the three slide types.
• Customizing Slide Backgrounds for background configuration options.
• Configuring Slide Text and Call-to-Action for text layout and styling.