Importing & Using modules

This page covers how to find, import, link, and review existing Modular Content in your slides, emails, and briefs. For creating new modules, see Module Creation (MCM).

Importing Modular Content

Using modular content involves four steps:

1. Open the insert/add flow for modular content.

2. Browse or search the available content modules.

3. Insert the content module into your document.

4. Edit only where the module is intended to be editable.

For details on linking Modular Content to Layouts, see the section below.

You can import Modular Content into different document types in Activator — Slides, Briefs, Emails — and the flow works the same way for all of them. Both Editor and Designer roles can import Modular Content. In the example below we use the Editor view for a slide.

The Content tab in the Slide Editor view lets you browse the Content Modules available for import. Just underneath the Content tab, you have two sub-tabs: 'Modules' and 'Media'. The Modules sub-tab is shown below.

From the screenshot above, you can see that some Content Modules are already available for import in the second pane. If you do not have any modules listed, or you do not see the module you are looking for, you can use the Import modules button. Clicking it opens an overlay with options for importing Content Modules.

Here you can select product and country as filters for the modules you want to import. Content Module results for your filters appear in the second column.

In the second column you can also search for Content Modules by name, or select from the listed modules. To get a preview, click on a Content Module's card and it will display in the preview area to the right of the module list.

Make your selection of Content Modules to import by ticking the relevant boxes in front of the module names. Select the modules you want and finish by clicking the Import button at the top right of the overlay.

You can always go back to your slide without importing anything by clicking the back arrow in the top left corner of the screen.

After the import process, the modules you imported are now listed under the 'Modules' sub-tab.

Linking Modular Content to Layouts

To add approved Modular Content to your Layout(s), you first need to have created a slide, email, binder, or brief and added a layout to it. You should be editing the content type either in the Editor or Designer view of Activator. Double-click on a Layout to start editing it.

Each Layout element has a Modular Content button next to it in the right-hand pane, indicated by the stacked layers icon. Click on the button next to the Layout element you want to add content to. This opens a pop-over that lets you select from the available Modular Content.

Click on any Modular Content piece to associate it with the selected Layout element and import it to your slide, email, or other document. You can also click 'show more' to view the full extent of the content, or click the info icon to get more information about that piece of content.

Activator supports Content Rules that can be applied to the layout you are working with. This is a way to restrict content editors to work with content in a certain way and ensures that the output adheres to company policies. If any Content Rules have been applied to a content element in the layout you are using, the rules show on the pop-over:

A Content Rule for the Title/Headline defines in this case that only one headline may be used in the layout at any given time.

If there's a long list of available content pieces, you can use the Search bar to search for specific content.

If you are not seeing the Modular Content piece you are looking for, you can import it into your project from your DAM (e.g. Veeva Vault).

You can tell that Modular Content has been added to a Layout element by the different colour of the content button — it turns from purple/white to orange/white.

Removing Modular Content from your layout element

You can click the 'detach' button next to the layout element to remove all modular content pieces from the layout element again. This will not clear the imported text or image, but simply removes the link to the modular content.

Previewing and deleting Modular Content from your imports

While in the Slide Editor view, you can hover over any of the modules listed in the left-hand pane to reveal options to preview or remove them from your imports.

Click the eye icon to preview the module, or the recycle bin to delete the module from the list of your imported modules for the project you are working in.

Previewing your content for MLR review

Read these two dedicated articles below for previewing your content in MLR view and generating an MLR PDF report:

• MLR PDF report — what the report contains, the MLR states (approved/unapproved/modified), and how reviewers use it

• Creating an MLR PDF Report — step-by-step instructions to generate and download the report