The guide
Collections and chapters
Collections is the page after Spots under The guide in a guide's sidebar. It groups the guide's spots in two ways: chapters, the parts of the guide a buyer reads through (an introduction, regions, days), and collections, themed sets such as your top picks. A spot can sit in any number of chapters and collections, and taking it out of one never takes it out of the guide.
The Onboarding step Collections and chapters counts as done once the guide has a chapter or a collection. On a live guide, buyers see your changes here once you publish them (Save, preview and publish).
The overview
The page opens on a line that tells the two apart, with New beside it. Tap a row to edit it; in the read-only example guide you can only see it.
Before the first one, the page shows No collections yet: group your spots so buyers can browse the guide the way you would plan the trip. After that, it lists two groups, Chapters and Collections, each in your order; a group with nothing in it says so in a line. Each row shows:
- the cover, or the kind's icon while there is none;
- the name, then a count such as 12 spots or 1 spot, and the description. The count includes archived spots and, in a collection, its chapter cards, so it can be higher than what buyers see;
- up and down arrows on its left, which move it within its group. The order saves at once, and buyers see the same order.
A chapter's row opens the chapter editor, a page of its own. A collection's row opens the collection editor in its place.
Suggestions
Below the groups, suggestions collect live spots with a shared property value. Select options need at least two spots; repeated short text values need at least three. A suggestion covering more than 90% of the guide's live spots is left out. Collections already following the value, using the same name, or holding exactly those spots are left out too.
Click a suggestion to create a collection that stays in sync with its value. Spots join when they get that value and leave when they lose it or are archived. The row shows its current spot count and the property and value it follows. Show less returns to the first six suggestions after you open the full list.
Chapter or collection
| Type | What it is | What it holds | Where buyers find it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chapter | Something to read: a welcome message, a region, a story. | Spots in reading order, its own text, and front matter with photos. | The hero at the top of the guide's Home, the Chapters list in the guide's menu, and a page of its own. |
| Collection | A themed set of spots, such as top picks or hidden gems. | Spots in display order, and chapters shown as cards. | A row of cards on the guide's Home, the Collections list in the guide's menu, and a page of its own. |
Both are also chips on the guide's Explore page, where a buyer narrows the spots to one of them. More under What buyers see.
A trip planned day by day has a tool of its own: itineraries, on the Planning page (Itineraries).
New chapter or collection
New opens this dialog: "Chapters partition the guide; collections are themed sets."
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Type | Collection (picked to start) or Chapter. The line under it says what the picked type holds. |
| Name | Required. The heading of its page, its row in the guide's menu and its chip on Explore. |
| Description | Optional. A line under the name on its page. |
Create chapter or Create collection, whichever the type is, adds it at the end of its group and opens its editor. Cancel closes without a change.
The collection editor
A bar at the top holds All collections, which leads back to the overview, the Collection tag and Save. Save saves the name and the description; Saved shows beside it until you type again. Everything else here saves the moment you do it.
The Collection box
"Name, description and the cover buyers see."
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | Required. While it is empty, the field says so and Save stays grey. |
| Description | A line under the name on the collection's page and on its row in the overview. |
| Cover | Upload image adds a photo from your computer, Replace image swaps it and Remove takes it away; the frame reads None while there is none. A change applies at once, without Save. |
This editor would label the field Header image for a chapter, but chapters always open in the chapter editor, so here it reads Cover.
The cover is the collection's thumbnail in the overview and in the guide's menu, and its picture on the collection cards of a chapter's front matter. Without one, buyers see the first photo of the first spot that has one, and in a collection of only chapters, the cover of its first chapter. A cover belongs to its collection: it is not added to the guide's Media, and it goes through the same compression as every upload. A photo the studio cannot read, such as some HEIC files, asks you to convert it to JPG first.
The Spots box
"The themed set, in display order." The collection's spots, numbered:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Move member up, Move member down | The arrows: move the spot one place. |
| Remove from collection | The X: takes the spot out of the collection. It stays in the guide. |
| The dropdown and Add | Pick one of the guide's spots that is not in the collection yet, archived spots left out, and add it at the end. |
Each change applies at once. In a hand-picked collection, 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 see the spots in this order, and the collection's row on the guide's Home shows its first spots that have photos, so put the strongest first.
Keep a collection in sync
For a hand-picked collection, Keep in sync with a property lists each available value with its spot count, grouped by property. Choose a value and press Keep in sync. If some current spots do not match, a dialog shows how many would leave and join. Confirm to apply the rule, or cancel to keep the collection as it is.
A synced collection keeps its current member order as values change. New matching spots join at the end. You can still move its spots up and down, but adding and removing them by hand is hidden. Short text values ignore case and surrounding spaces; select options follow their ids, so renaming an option does not break the rule. Chapter cards are unaffected. Existing collections that follow a legacy kicker keep syncing, but the picker and suggestions no longer offer kickers.
In Manage, Stop syncing keeps the current spots and lets you pick them by hand again.
The Chapters box
"Chapters shown as cards inside this collection (the All Regions pattern)": a collection can also list some of the guide's chapters, such as all of its regions. Pick a chapter in the dropdown and press Add; it joins at the end. The X (Remove chapter from collection) takes it out of the collection, never out of the guide. A row reads Removed chapter when what it points to is no longer a chapter of the guide; take it out with its X.
On the collection's page, buyers see these chapters as rows above the spots, each linking to its chapter. The guide's menu lists a collection once it holds a spot buyers see or a chapter. On Home, its row shows its first spots with photos; a collection without such a spot shows its first chapters as rows instead.
Manage
"Deleting removes the grouping, never the spots." Delete asks first, in Delete "Top picks"?: the collection and its ordering are removed, and the spots stay in the guide. Delete collection deletes it with its cover; Keep collection closes without a change. A deleted collection also leaves the collection cards of any chapter's front matter.
A chapter is deleted in the chapter editor: see Deleting a chapter.
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 Collections. 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. 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 the last name stays saved; the other fields keep saving. |
| 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); 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 a hand-picked collection, 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 Collections. 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, and on a wide screen the next ones wait beside it. Below, each collection has a row of its first spots with photos and a link to the rest; a collection without such a spot shows its first chapters as rows instead. A guide without chapters shows no hero and lists all of its spots under the rows.
- The guide's menu: a Collections list and a Chapters list, each row with its cover.
- A chapter's page: the cover with the name, the description and the number of spots, then the chapter text and the spots, which buyers read card by card or see as a grid. With front matter, the cover slide and the sections come first, then the spots.
- A collection's page: the name, the description and the number of spots, the chapters it lists, then its spots in a grid. Spots without photos are listed in a compact list at the end.
- Explore: every chapter and collection is a chip next to All spots that narrows the spots to it.
Archived spots are left out everywhere.
The example guide
In the read-only example guide, every chapter and collection opens, with nothing to add, move, save or delete. 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.