Table of contents

A Layout splits a screen into zones so you can publish a different playlist to each part of the same screen. Each zone plays its own playlist on its own schedule. For example, a video loop can fill the main area while a news ticker runs along the bottom, or a QR code can stay in a corner while the content underneath keeps rotating.

Use Layouts when you want to:

Every screen starts on Full screen, where one playlist fills the whole display. Nothing changes on a screen until you assign a Layout to it.

Layouts use your existing screen permissions. There is no separate Layouts permission.

In the left sidebar, under Screens, click Layouts. This page lists every Layout in your account and is where you create and manage them.

If you haven’t made a Layout yet, the page shows No Layouts yet with two worked examples you can add in one click:

Click Try this Layout on either example to create it straight away and open it in the editor, where you can rename and adjust it.

Switch between Table View (the default) and Grid View. Each Layout shows a preview of its zones, its name, how many zones it has and how many screens use it.

Click a Layout once to open its details on the right. Content by zone lists each zone with its size and the playlists playing in it, so you can check what’s showing where before you change anything. From here you can Edit Layout, Duplicate it or Delete it. Double-click a Layout to go straight to the editor.

Zone positions and sizes are percentages of the screen, so the same Layout fits any screen size. When you pick a screen resolution in the editor, zone labels can also show width × height in pixels so you can fit content exactly. Those pixel values are for editing only.

There are two kinds of zone:

Every Layout has a zone called Main. It’s locked. You can move and resize it, but you can’t rename or delete it. This keeps one dependable zone on every Layout.

Select a zone in the Layers list or on the canvas to see its settings.

The name you’ll pick from when publishing a playlist to this zone, so choose something that describes what plays there, like Ticker or Sidebar. Every zone needs a name. The Main zone’s name is fixed.

Turn this on to make the zone an overlay that can sit on top of other zones. Leave it off for zones that should share the screen side by side. Overlays are useful for small, persistent items like a QR code, logo or info box.

Drag and resize the zone on the canvas, or type exact values for X, Y, W (width) and H (height) as percentages of the screen. Typing values is handy when you want zones to line up precisely.

The color shown behind the zone’s content when that content doesn’t fill the zone, for example around an image with a different shape. Enter a hex color or pick one from the swatch, or click Clear to remove it.

On the Properties (optional) tab, you can tag a zone with a screen property and value, such as Location = Reception. Playlists published By Property to screens with that property then play in the tagged zone. Each property value can only be used on one zone per Layout. You can skip this; playlists can still target zones directly.

Create a Layout once, then assign it to as many screens as you like. The editor steps are Resolution, Zones, Screens and Review.

1. On the Layouts page, click New Layout.

2. Choose Start from scratch for a single full-screen Main zone, or start from a template: Top and bottom, Side by side, Main and ticker or Main and sidebar. Templates give you a ready-made split you can adjust.

3. Give the Layout a name using the pencil icon at the top of the editor.

4. On the Resolution step (Screen resolution), pick the size of the screen this Layout is for. Zone sizes are shown in pixels so content can be made to fit exactly. New Layouts open on this step; existing Layouts open on Zones at 1920×1080.

Choose a group:

Click Next when the size is valid.

5. On the Zones step, click + Add zone to add zones, then arrange and name them as covered in Zone settings. An alert appears if any zone is in an invalid position, and you can’t save until it’s fixed. A zone is in an invalid position when:

The alert explains what to fix. For splits, click Fix to tidy them automatically.

6. On the Screens step, choose which screens should use this Layout, By Screen or By Property. This assigns the Layout but doesn’t publish any content. You can also skip this and assign screens later.

7. On the Review step, check the zones, splits, overlays, property tags and screens, then click Create Layout.

To reuse a Layout as a starting point, click Duplicate in its details panel. The copy is named after the original with “copy” added.

Each screen uses one Layout at a time. You can assign a Layout in three places:

To go back to one playlist filling the display, choose Full screen (default). New screens always start on Full screen.

Assigning a Layout sets up the zones. To show content in them, publish playlists to the zones from the playlist editor’s Screens step. A playlist can play in several zones and on several Layouts.

On the By Zone tab, tick a Layout and choose its zone under Plays in zone. The playlist then plays in that zone on every screen using the Layout, including screens you assign to it later. This is the easiest way to manage many screens that share a Layout.

On the By Screen tab, screens on Full screen work as before. For a screen with a multi-zone Layout, pick the zone the playlist should play in. You can save the playlist without picking one, but you can’t publish until every screen has a zone (Pick a zone for every screen).

On the By Property tab, if a zone is tagged with the matching property, the playlist plays in that zone.

The Design Studio lets you arrange several elements inside one piece of content, which still plays as a single item in one playlist. Layouts work at the screen level: each zone runs its own playlist with its own schedule. Use the Studio to design what a piece of content looks like, and Layouts when different parts of the screen need to change independently.

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