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Guide

Place and arrange widgets on the stage

You add text, images, and widgets and arrange them.

5 min readUpdated Oct 30, 2026As Markdown
For
anyone who designs a scene
Prerequisite
the Owner or Manager role. App widgets need the installed app, and media must be Ready in the library.
Where in the portal
Scenes › open a scene
On this page

The scene editor shows your scene on a stage in the middle. Add text, images, videos, and app widgets from the bar on the left, then move, resize, and stack them until the scene looks right.

The editor at a glance

Area What it holds
Stage A live preview of the scene in its real format. You place and move widgets here and drag the dividers between zones. Below it, the sequence strip shows what the selected zone plays.
Insert and settings bar Text, Media, Apps, Elements, Zones, and Settings.
Layers All widgets in their stacking order. Drag an entry to reorder it, or remove it.
Toolbar on a widget For an app widget, the Template and Colors. For every widget, the gear icon Settings, Replace, Duplicate, Position, and Delete.
Header Preview, Save, and Publish, plus Versions, the Stage format, zoom, Undo, and Redo.
Status line Below the stage: whether the scene has issues, how many zones and free widgets it has, and its ratio.

The scene editor with an open scene: the stage as a live preview (1), the Insert and settings bar with Text, Media, Apps, Elements, Zones, and Settings (2), the open Layers panel with all widgets of the scene (3), the header with Preview, Save, and Publish (4), and the status line with the issue count and stage format (5)

Steps

Add a widget

  1. In the bar, open Text, Media, Apps, or Elements for Shapes and Graphics.
  2. Drag the widget onto the stage. For an app widget, a click on its tile works too, and for text there is Add text box.
  3. The new widget is selected. The gear icon on it opens its settings, see Configure widgets: template, preview, and fields.

For images and videos, click Choose from library. A document (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, or Excel) becomes a Document widget, see Place a document (PDF) in a scene. Replace swaps the content of a widget and keeps its position and size.

The open Apps area next to the stage: the Apps heading of the flyout (1), the Search widgets field (2), and the Time & countdown category with its widget tiles (3)

Drop a widget into a zone

  1. Drag an app widget over a zone. The editor shows where it can land.
  2. Drop it in the middle to replace what the zone plays. Drop it on an edge to split the zone, and the new part plays the app.
  3. With a zone selected, an image, video, or document goes into that zone, at the end of its own sequence. Text and shapes always stay free.

Without a fitting zone, a new widget lands in the middle of the stage.

Move, resize, and align

  1. Drag a widget to move it. Drag a handle of its frame to resize it. Hold Shift to keep the aspect ratio.
  2. Widgets snap to a grid, to the edges and center of the stage, and to other widgets.
  3. For exact values, click Position on the toolbar and enter Width, Height, X, and Y. Align to page places the widget left, center, right, top, middle, or bottom.

You don't move or resize a zone this way. A zone changes through its dividers, see Configure a scene: format, zones, transitions.

Copy and stack

  • Hold Shift or Ctrl and click to select several widgets.
  • Copy, Paste, and Duplicate create copies slightly offset from the original.
  • When widgets overlap, the order in Layers decides what is on top. Drag an entry, or use Bring forward, Send backward, Bring to front, or Send to back under Position › Arrange.

Format text

Select a text box and type on the stage. Text styles offers Heading, Subheading, and Body text. The toolbar above the text sets the font, size, weight, colors, alignment, and line spacing.

Keyboard shortcuts

These work on the stage, not while you type in a field.

Key Effect
Arrow keys Move the selection by 1 pixel
Shift + arrow key Move the selection by 8 pixels
Del or Backspace Delete the selection
Ctrl/Cmd + Z, Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z Undo, redo
Ctrl/Cmd + C, V, D Copy, paste, duplicate
Ctrl/Cmd + S Save

Check the result

The widget appears in Layers at the expected place. The editor shows Unsaved changes and, after saving, All changes saved. To see the scene as the display will show it, click Preview.

If something goes wrong

Symptom Cause Solution
An app's widget is missing under Apps The app isn't installed, needs your consent to new permissions, or isn't included in your package. Install or enable the app, then reopen the editor.
A zone can't be moved Zones change only through their dividers. Drag the divider, see Configure a scene: format, zones, transitions.
An image is missing under Choose from library It hasn't finished processing. Wait until it shows Ready in the library.
A widget is hidden behind another The stacking order. Click Bring forward, or drag it up in Layers.
5 min readUpdated Oct 30, 2026As Markdown

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