Manifold Guide: Adding Media, Images, & More to a Text

You may add images, media materials, “interactive” elements (visualizations, maps, games, etc.) to your Manifold project. These are referred to as "resources" within Manifold.  Files can be loaded directly into Manifold so long as they do not exceed 200 MBs. All common image, video, audio, and text file types are supported, and you can find a full list of approved file types and instructions on preparing your file types, please visit the Manifold Github manual page.

1. Log in to Manifold, enter Admin Mode, and select your project from the list on the left.
2. When you open your project, select “Resources” from the menu on the left hand side.
3. Click the "Add a New Resource" button. 
4. Select the type of resource you want to upload, and scroll down the page to enter a Title, Description, and select your file for upload.
5. If adding a video to your Manifold project, toggle the “Is this an externally linked video?” button and link out to either Youtube or Vimeo.
6. Click the “Save and continue” button at the bottom of the screen, which will then take you to the Properties page for your newly added resource where you can add or edit your resource’s title, slug, description and caption. You can also add a tag to your image, which can be used later to sort your resources into collections (see below).
7. The other two resource menu options are Variant, which allows you to upload different versions of your resource, such as a high resolution version, and Metadata, where you can enter copyright and bibliographic information. More information on adjusting the settings for an individual resource can be found in the video linked below.
8. Important note on accessibility: Under Metadata, scroll to the bottom of the screen to enter alternate text, which is important for screen readers. Alt text is a written description of an image that conveys an equivalent message for people who cannot see the image.
9. You will always be able to find your resource and edit these settings by clicking “Resources” from your project’s main menu.

You can group your resources together into collections to create image galleries, or bring different types of resources on the same theme together in one place.

1. On your project landing page, select “Resource Collections” from the menu on the left hand side of the screen.
2. Click the "Add a New Resource Collection" button. 
3. Enter a title, description, and cover image for your new resource collection.
4. Click "Save and Continue” at the bottom of the screen, which will take you to the Properties page for your new resource collection.
5. The "Properties" page allows you to edit the title, description, SLUG, and thumbnail image for your resource collection. 
6. The other menu option under Properties is "Resources." Here you can add or remove resources that you have already uploaded into your collection by toggling the button to the right of each resource title. Above the list of resources, you’ll see the heading Resources, with text next to it that reads “Show collection only”. Click this text to show only the resources added to this collection, click it again to see all the resources you’ve uploaded to your project.
7. On the “Resources” page, you can search for resources to add or remove from the collection by typing the name of the resource into the search bar, or by selecting “Options” from the right hand side of the search bar and filtering by tag, type, or sorting alphabetically. 
8. You can view your resource collection by clicking the eye-shaped icon at the top of the page, under the name of your resource collection.
9. You can always find your resource collection and edit these settings by selecting “Resource Collections” from the main project menu. 

Once you have texts and resources uploaded to your Manifold project, you can embed resources into your texts to add context, depth, and interactivity to your texts. For example, if your text references a particular neighborhood in Seattle, you could embed an image of a map of that neighborhood in that section of the text for quick reference. You can embed any of the supported resource types into your texts.

1. Open the text you would like to embed a resource into (from your project page, select Texts from the menu and click on your desired text).
2. Once you are on the landing page for your text, click the eye-shaped view icon underneath the text title at the top of the page to preview your text.
3. Scroll to where you want to insert your resource, and highlight the corresponding text with your cursor.
4. A menu will appear next to your cursor with the options to: Share, Resource, Annotate, or Highlight.
5. Select "Resource,” which will open a pop-up menu. At the top of the pop-out menu, you can toggle between Resources and Resource Collections to embed either an individual resource or an entire collection. Simply click on the resource or resource collection you want to embed, and it will automatically add it to the text.
6. You will now see a box icon hovering next to the text you highlighted. This box will appear for all users, and if clicked on, will open up the embedded resource.

Detailed and accurate metadata values provide valuable context for users, making resources more findable, meaningful, and useful for them. Good metadata will also make it easier for you to manage your project as an administrator. For guidance on the available metadata fields in Manifold, see this Manifold page about metadata.

Alt Text on Images

Another thing you should consider is adding alternative text or "alt text" to any images that you add to Manifold. Alt text is a written description of an image that conveys an equivalent message for people who cannot see the image. Alt text makes the images on your manifold project more accessible to screen readers.