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Create and manage Layouts

Layouts allow you to place content in different areas of a screen. Each area is called a panel, and panels can then be managed separately. All organisations have a single panel layout as their default layout - as demonstrated below:

One of the advantages of using layouts, is that you can assign a Playlist Manager and they will only have access to manage content in this part of the screen.

To create a layout, you first need to make sure there is an aspect ratio in Nod to match the aspect ratio of your screen. Get in touch with us at support@nodmedia.io if you need a hand setting up your aspect ratios.

If you are an older user of Nod, you can assign a layout to your Controller. For the purpose of this help document, we will assume you are using layouts with Playlists.

Understanding your layout

Before you start to set up your layout, you need to think about how you want your content to be laid out on the screen.

What is the orientation of your screen - will it be orientated in portrait or landscape?

What size are your panels compared to the screen and how are they positioned on the screen? When setting up panels, you will set the panel size as a percentage of the screen size and you can position content horizontally (left, right or centred) and vertically (top, bottom and centred).

Example: my screen has the aspect ratio 16:1 and my panels are 8:1 each and display side-by-side. In this case I know the width of each of my panels is 50% of the screen and the height is 100% of the screen. I will align one panel to the left hand side of the screen and the other to the right hand side. It doesnt matter how I align the panels vertically as the height is the same as the screen.


Do you want some of the content to be overlaid? This means the piece of content sits in front of the other. If you're on an LG device, overlaid content will be transparent, on other devices it will be opaque. An example of an overlaid panel is shown below where the content in the overlaid panel displays the date/time and a line of text:

The screenshot below shows how these panels would look in Nod:

Remember when we set up panels in Nod we use % to set the height and width. In this case the news panel is 12% of the height of the screen and 100% of the width.

Set up a new layout

1. Navigate to the Settings tab and select layouts from the menu: https://go.nodmedia.io/settings/layouts

2. Select "Add Layout" and complete the form:

  • Enter a name e.g. "Advertising and logo"
  • Select the orientation of your layout: portrait or landscape
  • Select the aspect ratio of your screen
  • Save the form

3. Set up your panels:

By default, Nod will create a "Main Panel" which fills the whole screen size. Unless you are simply adding an overlay panel to the screen, you will want to change the size of this to fill part of the screen and establish your first panel. To do this, click on "Edit" as highlighted in the screenshot below.

When editing or adding a new panel, you will choose:

  • The name of the panel e.g. Advertising
  • Horizontal and vertical positioning
  • Size of the panel, scaled as a percentage of the screen size
  • Is the panel an overlay

For example we might set up a menu panel as follows:

After editing your main panel, add panels for each section in your layout by selecting "Add Panel".

If we set up a second panel on the left-hand side, then this would display in Nod as follows:

Publish layout

Once you are happy with your layout, you need to publish the layout so that you can use it in your Playlists.

Select "Publish Layout". Please note, once your layout is published you will no longer be able to edit it.

Using your layout

Now that you have created a layout, each panel is managed independently. This means you will create a playlist for each panel and you will need to assign all of these playlists to your screen. Nod will manage the layout so that it displays correctly on the screen. If you don't assign playlists for all of your panels to the screen, unassigned panels on the screen will be blank.

To create a playlist for each panel, when creating a playlist, select the layout you want to assign content to after entering the Playlist Name. Using the preview pane on the left-hand side, you will also need to select the panel which the playlist is being created for by clicking on that panel in the preview.

The following screenshot shows the "News Panel Layout" as the layout in use, and the "News Panel" as being the panel selected for the playlist:


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