Creating New Master Templates
A Master Template is the base artwork for your automated adaptations. Creating a new Master Template is done in a few steps:
- Upload a preview file
- Add metadata and set the template to active. Please make sure you have an active Campaign and Creative when assigning a new Master Template
- Upload Automation assets
- Analysing your project file
- Configure customisation options (optional)
- Assign a translation form (optional)
For details how to create a new Campaign and add a new Creative please go here.
For details how to create a new Creative and assign to an existing Campaign please go here
Upload a preview file
The first step in creating a new Master Template, is to upload a preview (mp4, HTML or PDF).
From the Master Templates tab click the Upload files button
You can then drag and drop, or select the file(s) that you’d like to upload.
Your file will start to upload automatically. When the upload is complete, click the Create Assets button.
Add Metadata and make the Master Template active
New Master Templates will automatically be assigned a draft status, ready for review and additional metadata to be added.
To add your metadata, select Edit row from the item menu.
Click item menu icon
Click Edit row
Creative - The folder that the Master Template should sit in. This will also allocate it to a Campaign.
Click Creative dropdown.
Click Media type dropdown.
Content - The content indicates the type of software the project is created in:
- Static - InDesign automation
- Video - After Effects automation
- Animated - HTML automation
Click Content dropdown.
Material - Whether the Template is for digital or print
Click Material dropdown.
Usage restrictions - Templates can be restricted to markets, countries or languages and made available within a specified date range
Click Start date and End date field.
Click the Copy date field.
Click Category dropdown
Customisation toggles - if your Master Template will have customisation, you can enable that here
Click here for Text customisation
Click here for Image customisation
Click here for Video customisation
Click Save to apply metadata to Master Template
To upload the project files, make sure the template is set to active status.
The available metadata includes:
- Name - By default the Master Template will take the name of the file that is uploaded. This can be changed
- Creative - The folder that the Master Template should sit in. This will also allocate it to a Campaign
- Media Type - The Media Type
- Content Type - The content type indicates the type of software the project is created in:
- Static - InDesign automation
- Video - After Effects automation
- Animated - HTML automation
- Material - Whether the Template is for digital or print
- Usage restrictions - Templates can be restricted to markets, countries or languages and made available within a specified date range
- Size information - The min/ max aspect ratio and height fields allow you to restrict what size media placements the Template can be used for, ensuring the right template is used
- Note aspect ratios are calculated as width divided by height e.g. 210 x 297 would be an aspect ratio of 0.71
- Customisation - If your Master Template will have customisation, you can indicate it here:
- Translation form - if your Master Template will use translated copy, you can link it to the form here
- Customisation toggles - if your Master Template will have customisation, you can enable that here
Upload project files into the automation folder
The Files tab displays a file tree to visually represent the Master Templates and the files associated with the project.
You navigate through the file tree by opening folders. The folder structure shows:
- Clients
- Campaigns
- Creatives
- Master Templates
- Automation Assets
Navigate to the correct Client / Campaign/ Creative to locate the newly created folder, named after the Master Template.
Note: The Creative that you assign to your Master template when uploading it, will determine where its folder appears in the file tree.
Click to open Clients folder
Click to open CreateTOTALLY Client folder
Click to open CreateTOTALLY 2023 Campaign folder
Click to open Create Soda Creative folder
Click to open CT soda ad main Master Template folder
Upload Automation Assets
Automation Assets are the project files that will be used to automate the Master Template. They include your project file e.g. INDD or AEPX file) and all the files linked to it (images and videos). They can be uploaded within the file tree.
Navigate to your Master Template by opening up the client, campaign and creative folder. Expanding the Master Template will show a folder for the Gallery Preview, Thumbnail and Automation.
- Gallery Preview - the preview file you uploaded to create the Master Template will appear here
- Thumbnail - if the preview file is large, it can be optimised or a separate thumbnail added specifically here
- Automation - all the files associated to the project that will be used in automation can be added here. Simply drag them over the folder and click upload on the modal that appears.
You will see a sub-folder called Automation. This is where you can then drag and drop your prepared project files.
Once the assets have been added select the Upload button
You will then see a status of the file upload to confirm once everything has been ingested into the platform. Once they have all uploaded, click finish to return to the file tree.
Click Automation folder to view Automation assets
Note: All automation assets are located within the automation folder. There is no need (or ability) for additional subfolders to be uploaded or created.
Analyse your project file
You will see that each file has an icon next to it to indicate what type of file it is. Your project file (INDD, AEPX) will be automatically marked with a star. Each other file will be marked as a document.
Once all of your project files have been uploaded, click on the Analyse button. Analysing identifies all of the elements within the project, allowing them to be customised during automation.
Once the template has been analysed you will see Generate translations excel icon
If you require translations, you can download a pre-populated translation form (Fig. 2) which will contain the creative tag and text from the master by selecting the Generate translations excel icon
Note: the translation form icon will only appear after the template has been analysed.
If you need to download a copy of the file, you can use the Download file (Fig. 3) button.
To replace any assets with a new version, simply drag and drop the new file. This will allow to you present you with 2 options - replace or upload as variants. Replacing the original files will automatically replace the correct file, based on matching the file name.
Uploading variants
If your artwork needs to have a different variation for a specific country or language (such as different packshots or logos) you can add these directly to the automation folder. Simply upload the variants with the same file name as the file you want them to replace. Then select Upload as variants and add the country or language the file is for.
Note - you will need to upload variants 1 at a time.
Click Next
Click Add country
Click UK
Click Add language
Click English (United Kingdom)
Click Upload
Click Finish
Configure customisation options
To increase the flexibility of a master template, you can set certain images or videos as customisable. This allows users to select the image/ video that will appear in the artwork.
Marking your Master Template for customisation
To set-up customisation, first you need to ensure the type of customisation you require is enabled on the Master Template. This can be done by navigating to Sys admin > Master Template > Active and finding the Master Template you want to customise. Click "edit row" and scroll to the bottom of the form to the Customisation section to toggle on image customisation or video customisation.
Select which images/ videos can be customised
To specify which images/ videos can be customised, as well as what assets should be available for customisation, go to Sys admin > Master Template > File Tree and navigate to the Master Template you require. In the Automation folder, click the pencil icon next to the image/ video you want to customise to edit its details.
You can then mark it as customisable by toggling on "make variable". The variable name is what will appear to users during creative allocation or when completing a bulk content form. Make sure it is clear what this element is.
Tags need to be applied to the image to define what assets from Asset Manager will be available during customisation. You can apply 1 or more tags which will need to also be on the assets for them to be available. If you apply multiple tags, only assets that have ALL of the selected tags on them will be displayed.
Assign a translation form
Translation forms contain all of the text elements used in your master template, across all the languages you need to make content for. They can be set-up in Sys Admin > Type > Translation forms. Once set-up, you can apply them to your master template by editing the record from the active tab.