Manifold Guide: Loading a Text into Manifold

Manifold is a publishing platform so you’ll need to prepare your text in advance and then upload it into Manifold once you’re finished.  Texts may be created and loaded into Manifold using the following file formats: Epub, HTML, Google Docs, Word, LaTex, or Markdown (see Markdown guide). You can format your text using Title and Headings, and Manifold will preserve these settings when you upload your file. You can include images directly in your source text, or you can embed images and other interactive resources using Manifold’s “resources” features discussed in the following section.

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 “Texts” from the menu on the left hand side.
3. Click the “Add a New Text” button, which will open a pop-out window on the right side.
4. Manifold can upload (or “ingest,” in Manifold’s terms) a text via file upload, or via URL for google docs. If you are ingesting a google doc, make sure the sharing settings are set so that anyone with the link can view. The pop-out menu offers options for both file upload and URL ingestion. Note: If you ingest a google doc, Manifold takes a snapshot of the current state of your document, it will not reflect later changes you make to the google doc. To make changes to an ingested text, see the “re-ingestion” section below.
5. Click the “Continue” button at the bottom of the pop-out menu, which will take you to another screen on the same pop-out menu. Click the “Start Ingestion” button, and once ingestion is complete, click the green “Complete” button.
6. You will automatically be taken to a landing page for your text, and can adjust settings like title, author, description, and visibility by navigating through the menu options on this page. You can come back to edit settings later by selecting “Texts” from the menu on your project’s home page. The video at the bottom of this LibGuide page has more instructions for adjusting the settings of an individual text.
7. Note: Be sure to edit the Metadata for your text, including the copyright information. Detailed and accurate metadata values provide valuable context for users, making resources more findable, meaningful, and useful for them. More information on copyright and fair use can be found at the bottom of this page.
8. Note: For those who are well-versed in CSS, there is an option to add CSS stylesheets to your texts by selecting “Styles” from the menu. Otherwise ignore this setting.

If you need to make edits to a text that has already been uploaded to Manifold, make those changes in the original document outside of Manifold, and then “re-ingest” the text to reflect the updates.

1. Find the text you wish to update by entering your Manifold project, then selecting “Texts” from the project menu.
2. Click the pencil icon next to the title of the text you want to re-ingest, which will open the landing page for that text.
3. Select "re-ingest” from the bottom of the menu on the text landing page, and upload your file or enter your URL, following the same steps as your original text ingestion.

1. When you are ready to publish a text to your Manifold project, select “Texts” from your project landing page, then click the pencil icon next to the text you want to publish. This will open the landing page for that text.
2. On the landing page for your text, select “properties” from the menu on the left hand side, then scroll down to the Presentation section.
3. Under "Presentation," toggle the "Published?" button on to publish your text. 
4. Keep scrolling down to "Access" to adjust the access settings for the text itself, if they are different than the access settings for your project as a whole. 
5. Click the "Save Text" button at the bottom of your page, and your text will now be published to your Manifold page. 

Manifold supports uploading multiple files at a time. In order for Manifold to properly ingest multiple source documents at once, the system requires a YAML file to be included along with them in the compressed archive that will be loaded into the system. For more detailed information on preparing a YAML file, check out this guide from CUNY. 

Follow the steps for ingesting a single text, and upload your YAML file and source documents. For .docx files, you can upload the YAML file with the source files in a .zip format by using the Upload a File button or dragging and dropping them onto the page. In cases where there are no source documents to upload (e.g., if you are creating a text from multiple Google Docs) then only the YAML file needs to be loaded. When uploaded alone, the YAML file does not need to be compressed or zipped.

As you are finding and uploading materials into Manifold, you will need to consider the copyright status of the materials to ensure you have permission to use the item and can properly credit the copyright owner. You will also want to add a license, such as Creative Commons license, to any original work you upload. The best practice is to tell your readers the copyright status of the project, each text, and each resource.

Some questions to consider while finding texts or resources: 

• Is it in the public domain?
• If not, is it openly licensed?
• If not, can you get permission? 
• If not, can you link out?
• If not, is your use fair? 

For more guidance on Fair Use and Copyright, see the UW Libraries Copyright Guide

For help finding Public Domain and Creative Commons materials, see the UW Libraries Open Resources Guide

Check out this video tutorial on ingesting a text and adjusting the settings for an individual text. 

This video shows how to upload a public domain EPUB file into a Manifold project.