Add a sidecar to your story

Follow these 12 steps to get oriented with ArcGIS StoryMaps' most versatile immersive block

Sidecars can appear a number of ways, depending on your layout and content choices.

Sidecar, the original immersive block in ArcGIS StoryMaps, pairs a stationary media panel with a narrative panel into a single slide. Story authors can string multiple slides together to create captivating reading experiences, whether that's a photo gallery with accompanying commentary, a map that readers are guided through one slide at a time, or  much, much more .

If you've never worked with sidecar before and would like to get the most out of it in your stories, you've come to the right place. (If you're brand new to ArcGIS StoryMaps, you might want to start  here  and then come back to this tutorial.) In steps 1-5 below, we'll go over some of the most essential steps to setting up a sidecar. Then, in steps 6-12, we'll explore some of the extra tricks and workflows that help you take this block to the next level.

By the time you arrive at the end, you'll understand the different kinds of content you can include in a sidecar, your options for arranging them, and also have a few things to keep in mind when trying to decide which reading experience makes the most sense for your story. If you're more of a hands-on learner, feel free to  launch the story builder  and follow along with your own content.

Step 1: Insert a sidecar

First things first, you'll need to add the block into your story. To do this, open the block palette and choose Sidecar from the available immersive blocks in the bottom section of the palette.

Your first creative decision will be to choose the layout of the sidecar. There are three layouts to pick from: floating or docked, which are vertically scrolling experiences, or slideshow, which is a horizontal click-based carousel.

All three layouts have advantages, or situations where they're better suited. You can learn more about those in scenarios in  this article .

For the sake of this tutorial, let's start with the floating panel layout (as you'll see later, you can change the layout at any time without losing or changing any content). Click the card that says Floating and a blank sidecar is added to your story, ready for content.

Tip: You can add multiple sidecars into a single story, and can set the layout for each one independent of the others. Or, you could even create an entire story using a single sidecar block — whatever suits your content best!


Step 2: Bring in your content

Let's quickly get acquainted with the elements that make up this block. Each sidecar is composed of slides, and each slide includes a narrative panel and a media panel.

The floating panel layout gets its name from the behavior of the narrative panel: As you scroll up and down, you'll see how it drifts atop the media panel. The narrative panel can contain all kinds of content, from a variety of text blocks, to maps or other media, and even a special feature that can't be added anywhere else in a story — but we'll get to that later.

In the example I've recorded here, I'm creating a sidecar that describes different World Heritage Sites, so I want readers to quickly see what the name of the site is and then learn a few facts about it. To follow along, type in a title for your slide in the narrative panel and add some text. Highlight the title portion of the text and select one of the Heading options from the text style dropdown menu to make the title stand out.

Next up is the media panel, which fills the background of the story and can contain a single photo, video, web embed, map, 3D scene, swipe block, or code block. Click Add media to bring content into this panel. I want to prominently display an image of each site I'm describing—if you want to do this too, choose Add image or video from the dropdown menu, then bring in your desired photo.

Tip: Adding heading 1 text to a sidecar slide makes it eligible for a quick link in the story navigation bar. Learn more about story navigation  here .


Step 3: Adjust the narrative panel

With the floating panel layout, you have a few more stylistic decisions you can make about the size and placement of your panel. Click Change panel appearance at the top of the panel to see your options. You can choose to have your narrative content appear on the left side, right side, or center of the story, and can select from three different panel widths, too.

There's also the option to make the entire panel transparent, with light or dark text. This effect is best suited for media with large, consistently-colored spaces—busier backgrounds may make the text difficult to read.

Tip: You're able to set these appearance options individually on each slide, so if you want your first narrative panel to appear on the left, and the next to appear on the right, go for it!


Step 4: Add a second slide

Now that the first slide has some content, let's add a second slide to keep this story going. Click New slide in the lower right corner of the builder. When you do this, a new, empty slide is added to your story, and the slide panel automatically expands along the bottom of the block so you can easily see which slide you are on and jump between those you've already added. This panel is also used for other helpful things, which we will explore momentarily.

Add content to this new slide just as you did for the first one, nothing tricky there.

Tip: When consecutive slides have different media in the media panel, they will fade between them as readers scroll from one to the next. As an author, you can choose to slow this fade down (for dramatic effect) by clicking the transition icon between two slides and choosing Slow fade.


Step 5: Include some media in the narrative panels

Now that we've added two slides, you — like me — might be thinking that we should give readers of this story a bit more context about each World Heritage Site. Where they are located is pretty important, so a map might make a useful addition, and providing another photo to help transport the audience there would also be a nice touch.

Adding in these elements is pretty straightforward. Add another photo to the end of the narrative panel by opening the block palette and selecting Image, then import a photo as you did before.

We'll use an  express map  to provide the location right below the name of the site. Open the block palette just below the subheading and click Map, then choose New express map in the upper right-hand corner. When the map designer opens, search for the location of your image and click Add to map to drop a point there. You can then adjust the pop-up information and set the extent for your map. Since I want these locators to work at a glance, I'm going to leave the pop-ups pretty sparse, and zoom out for more global locational cues. Once your map is set up to your satisfaction, click Done to place it in your story.

That's it for the basics. Now, onto more advanced techniques!


Step 6: Change the sidecar layout

With this additional content added into the narrative panel, it's time to revisit our layout choice. The floating panel looked great when there was just a little bit of text, but it's gotten a bit busier with the extra media and is obscuring a lot of the main photos for each site. When I scroll between the slides in the builder, it's becoming clear that this story might be better suited to the docked panel layout.

To change the layout, expand the slide panel and click Options, then click Change layout. A familiar window appears, showing you which layout is currently active. Click Docked to convert your sidecar to this format.

As you'll quickly see, in the docked panel layout your narrative panel is flush with the edge of the browser window, and your media is positioned adjacent to it without any overlap. You'll also notice that all the content you had already brought in is still exactly as it was. Given how much content we've put in the narrative panel for both of these slides, this layout provides a smoother experience for readers.

In the docked panel layout, you have the option of choosing the side of the window on which your narrative panel docks; click Switch panel placement (the double-arrow icon straddling the narrative and media panels) to flip back and forth. And you can also adjust the width of your narrative panel using three available sizes using the double-headed arrow just above that. (Note that these decisions apply to every slide in a sidecar to provide the optimal reading experience.)

Note: Feel free to experiment with the slideshow layout, too. It's visually similar to the floating panel layout, except the panel remains stationary and readers navigate through the slides horizontally by clicking the arrow that appears at the right edge of the slide. As the author of a slideshow, you'll have similar control over the appearance of the narrative panel, with the addition of being able to adjust its vertical position within the slide.

The slideshow layout is ideal for contextual or complementary content that is perhaps not critical to the reader's full understanding of the story, but allows the reader to make the decision to dive deeper into the content if they choose to do so.


Step 7: Put a web map in the media panel

Next let's configure a slide with a map in the media panel instead of an image. In the slide panel, make sure the last slide in your sidecar is active, then click New slide. (New slides are always added after the active slide.)

Click Add media, and select Add map from the dropdown. You could create another express map here, if you like, but I'm going to bring in a web map my colleague made showing all World Heritage Sites. Click My organization to see maps you have access to your ArcGIS organization, and use the search bar if you know the map title and want to save yourself some time . When you've found the right map, click on its card to bring it into the map designer within the story.

Next, configure your map as you'd like it to appear in your sidecar. You can choose which layers you want to be visible, and adjust the extent, too. To make the map easier for readers to explore independently, open the Options tab and toggle on Search, Current location, and Docked pop-up. Then click Save when you're ready to add it to the media panel (you can always reenter the map designer to make further adjustments to the map using the pencil icon at the top of the media panel).

Don't forget to include some explanatory text for this slide, too!

Note: When you bring a web map (or scene) into a story, be aware that you aren't able to actually edit the contents of the map itself beyond determining layer visibility for that particular instance of the map within the story. If you have editing capability for that map, you'll see an Edit in ArcGIS button at the bottom of the Layer panel in the map designer, which will open that map in Map Viewer.


Step 8: Reorder your slides

It probably makes more sense from a narrative perspective to provide an overview of all World Heritage Sites before diving into specific examples, so let's bring the new slide with the map to the beginning of the sidecar. Changing the order of slides is pretty simple: Click on the thumbnail for the slide you want to move and drag it to the desired spot in the slide panel. Release your mouse to place it, and don't forget to set your transition if you prefer the slow fade.

Tip: To experiment with the order of slides, a sidecar's layout, or any other treatment without worrying about having to manually revert back to your original state, you can use the Options menu to create an identical copy of the entire sidecar. Another use for duplicating a sidecar is to revisit earlier material or structure similar content later in a story.


Step 9: Create some map choreography

The magic of sidecar and maps really happens when you have consecutive slides using the same web map, web scene, or express map. Then you can bring your maps to life by choreographing them — for instance, by panning and zooming to areas of interest or turning different data layers on or off, or adding, subtracting, or changing the appearance of drawn features in an express map. These changes will then automatically be triggered as a reader scrolls through the slides. You can read more about map choreography and how it can help you tell stories in  this article .

The trick to seamless map transitions is to use the same map in each slide; if you use different maps, each one will need to load separately, so you won't get that nice fade transition and will have to manually match the maps' extents. Fortunately, there's a handy way to duplicate slides so that all copies of it start with the same map in place, in the same position, with the same content, from which the desired changes can then be made.

In the slide panel, click the ... on the thumbnail for the slide with your web map, then click Duplicate. A copy of that same slide — map and all — is added right after the original. On the new slide, click Edit on the map to open the map designer, then adjust the map's appearance as necessary. In the animation here, for example, I've toggled off the layer showing all World Heritage Sites, and turned on a layer showing only those on the World Heritage in Danger list. Click Save when you're satisfied.

Now, as you scroll between the two slides, the map cleanly transitions from one view of it to the other. Make sure you adjust the text in your new slide so that it is relevant to this new view of the map.

Tip: Duplicating a slide can be effective for more than just maps—try it with a long, ambient video, or perhaps a complex, interactive data visualization, and see how using it across more than one slide can give your reader more time to take in this content.


Step 10: Configure a media action

Another way to help readers explore different views of your map is to use  media actions . These are interactive toggles you can configure that, when a reader engages with them, will change the map extent and/or its visible layers, or swap out the initial media for another piece of media entirely.

There are two styles of media actions that determine how your readers will interact with them: a button style or an in-text link style reminiscent of the map actions feature from the classic Journal template.

To create a button-style media action, open the block palette and select Media action. A blank button will appear in your story; add your own text to describe what the action does.

To configure the action, click Add action on the toolbar that appears at the top of the button when you hover over it. This expands a drop-down menu where you can choose what kind of action you'd like to implement. For this example, we'll add toggles to differentiate between natural and cultural World Heritages Sites by toggling different layers on in this same map; therefore, we'll go with the Edit map view option.

Clicking that opens the map designer, where you can adjust the layer visibility and/or map extent as you see fit, then click Save. When you return to the sidecar, the action will be active, allowing you to preview your work. Hovering over the button will reveal a Reset option, which restores the map to its initial state, whereupon the Reset label will be replaced with View, so you can toggle the action on and off to see if it's providing the desired effect. (Note that readers will just click the button directly to toggle the action and then click the button again to restore the initial view).

To implement link-style media actions (not shown in video), highlight the portion of text you want to trigger the action, then pick the little lightning bolt symbol from the text toolbar. From there, the process is exactly the same: choose your action type and configure the action. That portion of text will now be underlined and have a (+) to its left. Clicking anywhere on the action text will activate it — in addition to enacting the changes to the map that you've specified, the action text will become bold and the (+) will rotate 45 degrees — and clicking it again will turn it off and restore the map to its initial view.

Tip: The main difference between map choreography and media actions comes down to the reading experience. Map choreography is more obvious; readers have to scroll through each slide and therefore can't really skipping the different map views you configure. Media actions, meanwhile, are optional — you can't force a reader to click these buttons — but you can use them to present more information on a single slide. This can make it easier for the curious reader to jump back and forth between different map views, no scrolling required.


Step 11: Add a swipe block

The swipe block enables storytellers to make powerful visual comparisons, either between a pair of images or a pair of web maps, using an interactive, draggable bar. I'm curious about whether that might be a more engaging treatment for talking about endangered World Heritage Sites than the map choreography approach, so I'll experiment by adding a slide with a swipe block comparing all sites to endangered ones.

Adding a swipe block to the media panel of a sidecar slide is an option in the media-adding drop-down menu. Click on Swipe in that menu and follow the prompts to add either an image, web map, or express map. Then you'll add a second image or map that will occupy the other half of the swipe block. Note that you can configure the map extent for either side of a map swipe and the other side will automatically snap into place alongside it.

Swipe blocks can be deployed in any of the sidecar layouts; in the floating or slideshow layouts, the narrative panel will temporarily disappear while the swipe handle is being dragged so as to not block the images or maps underneath.

For more information about the swipe block, check out  this blog post , or read through  this tutorial  for more details about configuring one.


Step 12: Hide any extra slides

While details about the endangered sites are interesting, I don't think they're necessarily relevant for this story, which profiles two non-endangered sites. Given that, I'd like to not include either of the slides I put together with treatments for the endangered sites. I could delete those slides, but if I change my mind again I'd have to remake them. Instead, I'll opt to just hide them from the published story for now.

To hide a slide, navigate to the thumbnail of whichever one you want to disappear, click ..., and then choose Hide. You'll see the thumbnail appearance change, indicating that the slide is hidden, and it will no longer appear as you scroll through your story.

Tip: If at any point you want to bring a slide back in, use the same menu and select Show. You'll of course need to re-publish a story, if it's already been published, for a slide to appear in the live version.


By now you should have a firmer grasp on the fundamentals of authoring a sidecar. There's loads you can do with this immersive block, so it's a good idea to spend some time experimenting with the other text and media options that we didn't utilize in this tutorial. And, if you have any feedback after working with sidecar a bit,  share it with us ! Or send us stories with sidecars you're proud of on Twitter at  @ArcGIS StoryMaps .


Looking for more resources?

We have lots of articles, tutorials, videos, and more available on our website. It's a great repository for anyone looking to take their ArcGIS StoryMaps skills to the next level.


About this tutorial

This resource was created by Hannah Wilber, a content creator on the StoryMaps team, using ArcGIS StoryMaps. Read Hannah's  latest blog posts  to learn more about this next-generation storytelling tool, then  get started  on a story of your own.

Sidecars can appear a number of ways, depending on your layout and content choices.