# Chapters

**Chapters** is under **Advanced** inside **The guide** in your guide's sidebar. Use a chapter for stories, tips and local rules, like pages in a travel book. You can add spots too. Chapters are optional. For simple lists of spots, use [Collections](https://docs.sceniq.earth/guide/collections.md); for trips planned day by day, use [Itineraries](https://docs.sceniq.earth/guide/itineraries.md).

Add a spot to your guide once, then reuse it in any chapters or collections that need it. Removing it from one never removes it from the guide. You can use chapters, collections, both or neither; your spots work on their own. On a live guide, buyers see your changes once you publish them ([Save, preview and publish](https://docs.sceniq.earth/guide/preview-and-publish.md)).

## The overview

**New** sits beside the page title and opens **New chapter**. Each row shows its cover or the chapter icon, its name, its member count and its description. The count includes archived spots, so it can be higher than what buyers see. The up and down arrows move a chapter within the chapter list and save its order at once. Tap the row to open its editor on a page of its own.

### Before your first chapter

With no chapters yet, the page shows **Preview**: a sample chapter as buyers see it, with a photo cover, text, chapter links, collection cards and numbered tips. **Sample content** marks the example. Use **Preview size** to switch between **Desktop** and **Phone**. It starts with Desktop on a wide screen and Phone on a narrow screen. Scroll inside the preview to see the rest.

The note below says example content isn’t added to your guide. Use **New** beside the page title when you want to create your own chapter. Once you have a chapter, the list takes the preview's place. An example guide with no chapters shows the same preview, with no New button.

## New chapter

The form always creates a chapter. You create collections on [Collections](https://docs.sceniq.earth/guide/collections.md).

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Name** | Required. The heading of the chapter's page, its row in the guide's menu and its chip on Explore. **Welcome to my guide** is the example. |
| **Description (optional)** | A short line under the name on its page. You can leave it empty. |

The **Live preview** sits beside the form on a wide screen and below it on a narrow screen. It changes as you edit the name and description, and shows your guide's name. The **Preview size** control offers **Desktop** and **Phone**. It starts with Desktop on a wide screen and Phone on a narrow screen; once you choose a size, it keeps your choice. Scroll inside the preview to see the rest.

The example uses the guide's front-matter layouts: a photo cover with a byline, text with photos, chapter links, collection cards and numbered tips. Sample photos appear without photo credit overlays. **Sample content** marks the example; none of its text, photos, sections or spots is added to your guide.

**Create chapter** saves your name and description, adds the chapter at the end of its list and opens the chapter editor. The chapter starts without the preview's sample content. Add your own writing, photos and spots there. **Cancel** closes without a change.

## The chapter editor

A chapter opens on a page of its own: the boxes on the left, a live preview on the right (below them on a narrow screen). The guide's name at the top leads back to **Chapters**. The chapter's name and a **Chapter** tag head the page, with the note "Changes save automatically. Buyers see them once you publish."

Every field saves by itself shortly after you stop typing: the corner reads "Saving..." and then **Saved to draft**. A cover or a photo saves as soon as it is uploaded, and a change to the spots as soon as you make it. Leaving through a link, such as the guide's name or the sidebar, saves a change that is still waiting first. Closing or reloading the tab while a save is on its way makes your browser ask first.

### The Chapter box

"Name, description and the cover of this chapter."

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Name** | The chapter's name. While it is empty, **Name required** shows under it and autosaving pauses until you add a name. |
| **Description** | Shown on the chapter's hero and in the chapter list of an introduction. |
| **Cover** | **Upload cover** adds a photo, **Replace cover** swaps it and **Remove** takes it away; the frame reads **None** while there is none. The hero image of the chapter, and its thumbnail in the guide's menu. Without one, the first photo of the first spot that has one stands in. |

### Front matter

"Ordered editorial sections, made for an introduction chapter." Front matter opens the chapter like a book: a cover slide with the guide's title, then sections you compose under it. Without front matter, the chapter shows its plain text and its spots. **Add front matter** turns it on.

The cover slide pairs the chapter's **Cover** with these fields:

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Cover kicker** | The small line above the title. Left empty, the slide reads Introduction. Up to 120 characters. |
| **Cover title** | The slide's title. Left empty, the guide's name. Up to 160 characters. |
| **Author** | Shown as "By ..." on the slide. Left empty, your creator name. Up to 120 characters. |
| **Author photo** | The round picture next to the author. Left empty, your profile photo. **Upload photo** adds one, **Replace photo** swaps it and **Remove** takes it away, as for every front matter photo. |

Under the slide come the sections, up to 20. Besides the limits below, the front matter as a whole holds up to 150,000 characters as stored, its structure included; past that, the save fails with "Front matter too large". **Add section** has a button for each kind, and each button adds one at the end:

| Section | What it is |
|---|---|
| **Text** | A heading with paragraphs, and an optional photo beside them. |
| **Numbered grid** | A heading next to numbered cards: the plan-your-trip layout. |
| **Chapter list** | One row for each other chapter of the guide, linking to it. It fills itself; its heading starts as **Map Summary**. |
| **Collection cards** | One photo card for each collection that holds spots, linking to it. It fills itself; its heading starts as "Take your pick." |

Each section is a card with its number and kind on top, **Move section up** and **Move section down** to move it, and **Remove section** to delete it with its photos, without asking. Every section has three fields:

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Kicker** | A small line above the heading. While it is empty, the field shows **Before you go** in grey as an example; buyers see nothing there until you write one. Up to 120 characters. |
| **Heading** | The section's title. Saved without one, it reads **Untitled section**. Up to 160 characters. |
| **Lead** | A larger line under the heading. Up to 500 characters. |

Photos upload one at a time; the other photo buttons wait until it is done.

### Text sections

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Paragraphs** | The section's text. A blank line starts a new paragraph, and lines that start with `- ` become a list. Up to 30 paragraphs of up to 10,000 characters each. |
| **Side photo** | A square photo beside the text on large screens, above it on a phone. |
| **Photo credit** | Appears once there is a photo. Buyers see it as a small pill on the photo naming the photographer, while the guide's **Show credits** is on ([Media](https://docs.sceniq.earth/guide/media.md#show-credits)); the preview follows the same setting. Leave it empty for your own photography. Up to 80 characters. Removing the photo removes its credit. |

### Numbered grid sections

**Numbered cards** start as four empty cards, numbered 01 to 04. Each card has a title (up to 120 characters) and one or two short sentences (up to 600). The X beside a title removes its card, and **Add card** adds one, up to 8. A card without a title is left out when the page saves, text and all, and a grid saved without a single titled card reopens as a Text section. On a large screen the heading sits beside the grid.

### Chapter list sections

**Rows** lists every other chapter of the guide, in your chapter order, and each row links buyers to its chapter. You can dress each row:

| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| The color circle (**Pick a color**) | Opens a color picker for the row's color bar. |
| The color field | The same color as a #rrggbb value. Anything else shows "Use a #rrggbb value." and is not saved. The X beside it clears the color. |
| The line under it | A short line under the chapter's name, up to 200 characters. |

Without a color, the row shows the chapter's cover; without a line, its description. Chapters you add later join the list by themselves. While the guide has no other chapter, the box says they will list here once they exist, and buyers do not see the section.

### Collection cards sections

**Cards** lists every collection of the guide that has anything in it, and each card links to its collection. You can give a card:

- a name, up to 120 characters: left empty, the collection's own name;
- a photo, with an optional credit for someone else's shot: without one, the collection's cover shows.

Buyers see a card for each collection that holds a spot they can see or a chapter: a collection that holds only archived spots gets no card. While no collection holds either, buyers do not see the section.

### Removing the front matter

**Remove front matter** at the foot of the box asks first, in **Remove the front matter?**: all sections and their photos are deleted, and the chapter falls back to its plain text and spots. **Remove front matter** confirms; **Keep front matter** closes without a change.

### Chapter text

"Plain paragraphs, shown above the spot cards." Separate paragraphs with a blank line. While front matter is on, buyers see the front matter instead, and this text stays as the fallback. A chapter with text, a cover and no spots, like an introduction, leads the hero on the guide's Home.

### The chapter's Spots

The spots of the chapter in reading order, numbered:

| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Move spot up**, **Move spot down** | The arrows: move the spot one place. |
| **Remove spot from chapter** | The X: takes the spot out of the chapter. It stays in the guide. |
| **Add a spot to this chapter** and **Add** | The dropdown: pick a spot that is not in the chapter yet, archived spots left out, and add it at the end. |

Each change applies at once. In the chapter, an archived spot keeps its place, tagged **Archived**: buyers do not see it while it is archived, and it is back in its place once you unarchive it.

Buyers read the spots in this order, under the chapter's text or front matter.

### Deleting a chapter

The **Manage** box at the foot of the boxes: "Deleting removes the chapter, never its spots." **Delete** asks first, in **Delete "Introduction"?**. **Delete chapter** deletes the chapter with its cover, its text, and its front matter with all its photos, and takes it out of every collection that shows it as a card; its spots stay in the guide. The studio then goes back to Chapters. **Keep chapter** closes without a change. On a live guide, buyers see the chapter until you publish.

### The preview

The preview shows the chapter the way buyers will see it: the front matter, or the cover and the text. Its links do not open. Where the spots go, it only notes how many spot **cards** render there (1 spot **card**); open the chapter in the guide app to see them.

| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Light**, **Dark** | Shows the page in the guide's light or dark theme. |
| The phone button, **Full** | A phone's width, or the full width. |

### Editing in one place at a time

The editor keeps its own copy of the name, the description, the chapter text and the front matter. A change made elsewhere, in another tab or through an AI agent, is never written over: while nothing waits to be saved here, the editor takes it over and shows it; while a change of yours waits, saving stops instead. The cover and the spots always show as they are.

- "This page changed somewhere else. Reload to continue.": a change made elsewhere arrived while one of yours was waiting. Saving stops until you reload; then make your change again.
- "Not saved:" and a reason: the last change did not save. Fix what it names and keep going.

### Chapter not found

The page the chapter editor shows when its link does not lead to one of your chapters: the chapter no longer exists, the link points to a collection, or the chapter belongs to another creator account.

## What buyers see

- **Home:** chapters with a cover or spots take turns in the hero at the top, a chapter with text and no spots first. On a wide screen the next ones wait beside it. A guide without chapters shows no hero and lists all of its spots under the collection rows.
- **The guide's menu:** a Chapters list, each row with its cover.
- **A chapter's page:** the cover with its name, description and number of spots, then its text and spots. Buyers read spots card by card or see them as a grid. With front matter, the cover slide and sections come first, then the spots.
- **Explore:** each chapter is a chip next to All spots that narrows the spots to it.

Archived spots are left out everywhere. [Collections](https://docs.sceniq.earth/guide/collections.md#what-buyers-see) explains the rows below the hero and collection pages.

## The example guide

In the read-only example guide, every chapter opens, with nothing to add, move, save or delete. There is no New button. The chapter editor locks its fields and says the chapter is part of the example guide; the preview's theme and width buttons still work.