Editing digital assets

You can create new versions of digital assets, edit their properties, or edit image files.

Creating a new version

You can edit digital assets by downloading them from ACM, editing them in your preferred editor, and then re-uploading them.

To create a new version:

  1. From the Admin Center, open the Digital Asset Manager.

  2. Locate the asset to edit. Click its name to open it in Digital Asset Detail.

  3. Download the asset file.

  4. Use your preferred editor to edit the asset file. You can change the name of the file if you wish. The system will still track the versions of the asset record in ACM.

  5. Re-upload the edited file.

Editing properties

You can edit some properties of digital assets without downloading them.

To edit properties:

  1. From the Admin Center, open the Digital Asset Manager.

  2. Locate the asset to edit. Click its name to open it in Digital Assets Detail.

  3. Change the status with the Active checkbox; change the Name, Description, or Alt Tag fields or assign the file to a new folder. Note: Updating the name and alt tag of the asset doesn't update the name and alt tag values on the pages where an asset is currently published.

  4. On the Sites tab, indicate the sites where the asset is to be made available.

  5. On the History tab, delete unwanted versions of the asset.

  6. On the Tags tab, add metadata tags to the asset file. These tags allow images to be pulled and grouped dynamically based on tag values. Click Add to add a Tag. ACM displays a free-form text field into which you can type anything, or ACM displays a list of predefined tags to select. Tags and tag entry are configured as part of Setting global system variables.

  7. On the Site Groups tab, select which groups of sites have access to the digital asset.

Editing digital asset images

You can edit images right in ACM using the built-in editor. If you edit an image this way, ACM creates a new version of the image.

The built-in editor supports files that are BMP, JPEG, PNG, or non-animated GIF.

Note:

The built-in editor has the following tools:

To edit digital asset images:

  1. From the Admin Center, open the Digital Asset Manager.

  2. Locate the asset to edit. Click its name to open it in Digital Assets Detail.

  3. Under the thumbnail image of the asset, select the Edit link to open the Edit Digital Asset Image page.

  4. Select one of the icons in the toolbar to open an editing tool.

The toolbar above the image contains icons to open the various tools. The status bar below the image has information about the zoom, size, position, and last action. The lower right window corner can be used to resize the canvas.

Tip After you open an image, click Zoom > Best Fit to resize the canvas to the size of your window.

Bounding boxes

Some tools have bounding boxes with controls on the top, bottom, sides, and corners. Use these controls to resize the bounding box. You can also click and drag the bounding box to a new position.

Print

Click the Print icon to print the image.

Undo/Redo/Reset

Click the Undo icon to reverse your most recent action; click the Redo icon to redo an action that you undid, or click the Reset icon to start over again.

Crop

Click the Crop icon to select a rectangular section of the image to retain while eliminating the remainder. The tool opens with a default square bounding box in the upper left that you can resize and move to another area on the image.

The Crop tool includes:

Resize

Click the Resize icon resize the image, usually by making it smaller.

The Resize tool includes:

Zoom

Click the Zoom icon to make the image appear smaller or larger on your screen. Zooming in or out doesn’t affect the image itself, only its appearance in your window.

The zoom tool includes:

Opacity

Click the Opacity icon to increase the transparency of the image.

The Opacity icon includes a slider.

Rotate

Click the Rotate icon to rotate the image clockwise or counterclockwise by increments of 90 degrees.

Flip

Click the Flip icon to flip the image up to down, right to left, or both.

Add Text

Click the Add Text icon to add words to the image.

The Add Text tool includes:

Note: The text box tends to start new lines on its own; however, once you click the Insert button, new lines start only where you have pressed Enter in the text box.

Insert Image

Click the Insert Image icon to insert an image from the web onto your image.

The Insert Image tool includes:

Tip: The bounding box defaults as a square. If the image to insert isn’t a square, click the Constrain Proportions button to turn the feature off before you download the image. Turn Constrain Proportions back on after the download. In this manner, the tool knows that the inserted image isn’t a square. Otherwise, you might get unexpected results if you enter a value in Height or Width.

Insert the image first and then resize and move it. To start over, click the Set button. Once you have finished resizing and positioning the image, click Insert.

Brightness/Contrast

Click the Brightness/Contrast icon to adjust the light and darks areas of the image.

The Brightness/Contrast tool includes:

Pencil

Click the Pencil icon to write or draw on the image.

The Pencil tool includes: