Slideshow

The ‘Slideshow’ panel displays a slideshow of full-width images and/or videos to provide the visitor with a visually-engaging introduction to your school or district. This is supported by an eye-catching set of icon call to action buttons. 

The panel consists of the following key features housed within a single Container element:

• Slideshow: A autoplay slideshow of large images and/or videos powered by a single Resource element with arrow buttons and a play/pause button toggle. This is set to display resources from the ‘Home Hero Slideshow Panel’ gallery by default.

  Each slide within the slideshow includes a supporting text area displaying a title and description (inclusive of an optional button). This content provides further insights into your key messages and encourages the visitor to find out more.

• Icon Call to action buttons: A set of icon call to action buttons display on the right-hand side of the ‘Slideshow’ panel. These drive visitors to take important next steps on their journey, with some common example links including ‘Inquire’, ‘Visit’ and ‘Apply'.

  Each button consists of a customizable white icon and a supporting text label. The icon for each button can be selected from a library of predefined icons uploaded to your website.

  All buttons are powered by a single Navigation element that is set to display the pages within the ‘Icons for Slideshow 12’ branch within the ‘Pages’ panel by default. Each page in this branch represents a different button and can be set to redirect to a webpage of your choice.

The elements in this panel are configured with the following settings:

Container Element

Resource Element

Navigation Element

Important: When updating the elements in the ‘Slideshow’ panel, please only update the settings recommended across these instructions. All other settings have been configured to ensure the panel displays with the correct presentation and functionality.

The following pixel dimensions are recommended for the images and videos uploaded to the Resources module for this panel. Please follow these guidelines to achieve an ideal balance of high visual quality and efficient loading times with your content:

The slideshow in the ‘Slideshow’ panel is powered by a single Resource element. By default, this has been set to show resources all resources from the ‘Home Hero Slideshow Panel’ gallery.

To change the gallery of resources on display within the slideshow:

1. Go to the ’Pages’ panel and select the homepage.
2. Turn on the ‘Compose’ toggle in the bar at the bottom of the page interface.
3. Refresh the page in your web browser.
4. Scroll to the ‘Slideshow’ panel.
5. Hover over the Resource element displaying the slideshow and click on the ‘gear’ icon in the top-right corner.
6. With the ‘Slideshow’ tab selected in the ‘Edit Resource Element Settings’ window, click on the ‘Browse’ button directly below the ‘Title’ field.
7. Select the desired gallery to display in the ‘Select a Gallery’ window.
8. Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the ‘Edit Resource Element Settings’ window.

Important: When updating this Resource element, please only update the settings recommended in these instructions. All of the other settings have been configured to ensure the slideshow displays with the correct presentation.

Note: These instructions detail the steps required to display an existing gallery of resources within the Slideshow panel. To learn more about adding galleries in Composer please read our Knowledge Base article on how to organize resources into Galleries.

By default, the title and description for each image and/or video in the slideshow will display automatically along the bottom of each slide. You may optionally show or hide this title and description.

To hide the title and description within each slide:

1. Go to the ’Pages’ panel and select the homepage.
2. Turn on the ‘Compose’ toggle in the bar at the bottom of the page interface.
3. Refresh the page in your web browser.
4. Scroll to the ‘Slideshow’ panel.
5. Hover over the Resource element displaying the current image or video and click on the ‘gear’ icon in the top-right corner.
6. Click on ‘+ All’ in the ‘Edit Resource Element Settings’ window.
7. To hide the title for each slide, set the ‘Display Resource’ field to ‘None’.
8. To hide the description for each slide, uncheck the ‘Description’ checkbox.
9. Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the ‘Edit Resource Element Settings’’ window.

To show the title and description within each slide if it has previously been hidden:

1. Go to the ’Pages’ panel and select the homepage.
2. Turn on the ‘Compose’ toggle in the bar at the bottom of the page interface.
3. Refresh the page in your web browser.
4. Scroll to the ‘Slideshow’ panel.
5. Hover over the Resource element displaying the current image or video and click on the ‘gear’ icon in the top-right corner.
6. Click on ‘+ All’ in the ‘Edit Resource Element Settings’ window.
7. To show the title for each slide, set the ‘Display Resource’ field to ‘Title’.
8. Make sure the ‘Display Title’ field is set to ‘Below Resource’. 
9. To show the description for each slide, check the ‘Description’ checkbox.
10. Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the ‘Edit Resource Element Settings’’ window.

To add a new slide to the slideshow in the ‘Slideshow’ panel, begin by uploading an image or video for it to the Resources module:

1. Click on the ‘folder’ icon button in Composer’s left navigation to access Resources. 
2. Click on the ‘Resources’ tab.
3. Select the folder containing your hero images and videos in the ‘Public’ directory. 
4. Click on the ‘Add Public Resource’ button at the top right of the Resources interface
5. Choose from the upload options available and upload a new image or video.
6. Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the ‘Edit Resource Details’ window.

Image Size: The recommended size for images and videos in the hero slideshow is 2200px (wide) by 932px (high). 

Once the upload is complete, update the following properties in the ‘Edit Resource Details’ window to populate the supporting text area within the slide and to add an ‘Alt text’ value for the image or video thumbnail:

1. Optionally click into the ‘Title’ field to add a short title for the image or video. This will display on the page as a large title towards the bottom of the slide.
2. Optionally click into the content editor within the ‘Description’ field and type in a short text description for your image or video. This will display below the title and we recommend adding a single paragraph with a maximum of 30 words to ensure that it displays effectively within the slide.
3. Optionally add a styled button below the description text:
   1. Please your cursor at the end of the description within the content editor in the ‘Description’ field and press the return key.
   2. Type in a short label for the button.
   3. Highlight the button label with your cursor.
   4. Click on the ‘Link’ icon button in the content editor toolbar.
   5. Choose ‘Add Link’ from the dropdown list
   6. Select a link type from the top of the ‘Link’ properties window.
   7. Configure the link settings and make sure that the ‘Open link in a new tab’ checkbox is checked if the link opens a document or a page on an external website.
   8. Click on the ‘Class’ dropdown within the ‘Link’ properties window and select one of the button styles described in the table below.
   9. Click on the ‘OK’ button at the bottom of the ‘Link’ properties window.
   10. Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the ‘Edit Content Element Settings’ window.
        

   Name	Purpose
   button-on-dark-1	Small button with a transparent background and white text with a thin white border.
   button-on-dark-2	Small button with a white background.
   button-on-dark-3	Small button with white text and a darker shade of the website's primary color in the background.
   button-arrow-on-dark	Small text link in uppercase letters with a white arrow icon

4. If you are uploading an image, click into the ‘Alt Text’ field and add a short description of the image. This is used to describe the image in situations where the visitor cannot see it and is highly recommended to improve the image’s accessibility. If you are uploading a video, add a short description to the ‘Thumbnail Alt Text’ field.
5. Click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the ‘Edit Resource Details’ window.

Finally, add the new image or video to the Resources Gallery powering the slideshow:

1. Click on the ‘folder’ icon button in Composer’s left navigation to access Resources. 
2. Click on the ‘Galleries’ tab.
3. Select the Resource Gallery powering your slideshow under ‘Public Galleries’. 
4. Click on the ‘Add Public Resource' button at the top-right of the gallery interface.
5. Select the image or video you have uploaded and add it to the gallery.
6. Optionally drag and drop the image or video within the gallery interface to reorder the slides.
7. Click the ‘Update’ button at the bottom-right of the Gallery interface.

Once the gallery has been updated, the new image or video will display in the slideshow panel automatically.

Note: To optimize loading speeds, the hero slideshow has an automatic limit of 20 slides on the homepage. Autoplay videos are also limited to 30 seconds in length, at which point they will advance to the next slide. 

To learn more about image and video best practices, please refer to the ‘Images & Video Best Practices’ sections in the ‘Website Overview’ section.

The order of the slides within the slideshow in the ‘Slideshow’ panel is based on the order of the images and/or videos within the Resources Gallery that powers this content.

To reorder the slides:

1. Click on the ‘folder’ icon button in Composer’s left navigation to access Resources. 
2. Click on the ‘Galleries’ tab.
3. Select the Resource Gallery powering your slideshow under ‘Public Galleries’.
4. Drag and drop the image or video within the gallery interface to reorder its position within the slideshow.
5. Click the ‘Update’ button at the bottom-right of the gallery interface.

Once the gallery has been updated, the images and/or videos you have reordered will display in the updated order.

To remove an existing image or video from the slideshow in the ‘Slideshow’ panel:

1. Click on the ‘folder’ icon button in Composer’s left navigation to access Resources. 
2. Click on the ‘Galleries’ tab.
3. Select the Resource Gallery powering your slideshow under ‘Public Galleries’. 
4. Hover over the image or video you want to remove and click on the ‘tick’ icon. This will select the file and open the ‘Resources Selected’ panel on the right of the gallery interface.
5. Click the ‘Remove from Gallery’’ button in the ‘Resources Selected’ panel.
6. Click the ‘Update’ button at the bottom-right of the gallery interface.

Once the gallery has been updated, images or videos that have been removed from the Resources Gallery will no longer display in the slideshow.

Note: Removing images or videos from a Resources Gallery will remove them from the slideshow panel, but the files themselves will still exist in the Resources module in case you want to use them again in the future.

To add a new icon button to the ‘Slideshow’ panel, begin by choosing an icon for it:

1. Open the Finalsite Icon Library webpage in your web browser.
2. Choose an icon from the library of options available and make a note of the name that displays directly below it.

Next, create a new page for the icon button:

1. Go to the ’Pages’ panel.
2. Hover over the ‘Icons for Slideshow 12’ branch.
3. Click on the three-dot icon and select ‘New Page’ from the Action menu.
4. Click on the ‘Linked’ tab in the ‘New Page’ window.
5. Click into the ‘Page Name’ field and replace ‘New Page’ with a short title for your button.
6. Tick the ‘Linked Page’ checkbox.
7. Set up a redirect to the desired webpage:
1. If the page is part of your website, select ‘Internal Redirect’ and click the ‘Select Page’ button to choose the page.
2. If the page is external to your website, select ‘External Redirect’ and type the full URL into the ‘Redirect to this page’ field.
8. If the link redirects to an external webpage, tick the ‘Open in a new Window’ checkbox.
9. Click the ‘Save’ button in the ‘New Page’ window.
10. Drag and drop the page into the desired position within the ‘Icons for Slideshow 12’’ branch.

With the new page selected in the ‘Pages’ panel, complete the setup process by hiding the page from search engines and applying your chosen icon to it:

1. Click on the ‘gear’ icon in the bar at the bottom-right of the page interface.
2. Check the following checkboxes under the ‘General’ tab within the ‘Page Settings’ window to prevent the icon button page itself from displaying in search results:
1. Hide from internal site search
2. Hide from external search engines
3. Click into the ‘Custom Nav Class’ field towards the bottom of the ‘Page Settings’ window.
4. Type in ‘icon-’ followed by the name of the icon you have noted previously. Please enter all characters in lowercase with a hyphen between words (for example, ‘icon-bar-graph’).
5. Click the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the ‘Page Settings’ window.
6. Click the ‘Publish’ button at the bottom-right of the page interface.

Once the page has been published, the new icon button will display in the ‘Slideshow’ panel automatically.

Note: To achieve the strongest impact with your call to action buttons and maintain consistency with the original design, we recommend adding a maximum of three buttons each with a short and informative title.

The order of the call to action buttons in the ‘Slideshow’ panel is based on the order of the pages in the ‘CTA Buttons' branch within the 'Pages' panel.

To reorder the call to action buttons:

1. Go to the ’Pages’ panel.
2. Open the ‘CTA Buttons’ branch.
3. Drag and drop the page representing the call to action button you want to reorder into the desired position within the branch.

To remove an existing call to action button from the ‘Slideshow’ panel:

1. Go to the ’Pages’ panel.
2. Open the ‘CTA Buttons’ branch.
3. Hover over the page representing the call to action button you want to remove.
4. Click on the three-dot icon and select ‘Delete’ from the Action menu.
5. Confirm you want to delete the page in the ‘Delete Page’ validation window.