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Blueprints

You can create 'blueprints' for all your outputs, which will work as default settings for the associated workflows, scheduling, specifications and permission management. When setting up your blueprints you will define the behaviour of your automations.

Video tutorial​

Creating your blueprints​

When setting up your projects you can also make changes to your blueprints. Your blueprints hold the default settings for your automations.

During the 'project output' step – whilst choosing your outputs for your project – you can click on the small cog in the top-right corner of the output selection box.

Once you have opened up the blueprints modal, the following functionality is available:

  1. Create a new output: Click on 'Add' at the bottom of the list of existing outputs, give your new output a name and select either the 'Timed-Text Editor' or the 'Timed-Audio Editor'.
  2. Define the automations and default settings associated with your new output.

Available automations and default settings:

  • Editor: Select the default editor which will be used to create this output. You can chose between the Zille Timed-Text Editor or the Zille Timed-Audio Editor.
  • Dual languages: If your output is dual-language subtitles this should be activated.
  • Output style: For Timed-Text files you can define the default font, size, colour and background colour.
  • Output specification: Default specifications can be set for event duration, event margins, line count, line length, reading speed, ellipsis and speaker dashes.

The default specifications will apply across all languages. If you want to override a default specification for specific languages then click on '+Add' -> then select all languages you want to set a new specification for -> then define the specifications for those languages.

For example, if Italian and French are selected, and they are given a new default for line length, then the specification for line length will override the default line length specification for Italian and French, and all the other specifications for those languages will be set according to the general default specifications.

  • Tasks: You can edit, delete or create new tasks associated with your output. All tasks can then be added into a workflow for this output at any time.

    Available task settings:

    • Default scheduling: Define how many minutes of video content you expect to be completed within 1 hour of working on the task in question. This will then inform the automatic scheduling process whenever you are creating this output.
    • Default permissions: Define what a person has permission to edit, download or update when working on the task in question.
    • Default access: Define whether a person has limited or extended access when you assign the task in question to them. Limited access means they can only access the editor so long as their task is in progress, extended access means they can always access the editor so long as the project is in progress.

  • Default workflow: Once you have created all your tasks for an output then you can set up the default workflow, which will decide the order in which tasks should be completed. You can create workflows where the same task occurs several times, and you can also create workflows with only some tasks occuring by defaults, and other tasks left to be added manually on specific occasions.

Useful tips​

A great way of using blueprints is to create one for each output you regularly work on, where the default settings or specifications vary.

For example, if you regularly create subtitles for two different clients who have different requirements for reading speed, then you can create one for each client and that way you won't need to update the reading speed every time you set up a new project.

If you're creating several blueprints that are only slightly different from each other then you can duplicate your blueprints by clicking on the menu to the right of each output. That way you only need to edit the name of the output and any small differences in the defaults, instead of setting each one up from scratch every time.

How blueprints function in practice​

When you create a blueprint, all you're doing is creating a set of defaults and automations. It means that the next time you add one of the outputs from your blueprints to a project, those defaults and automations will be applied.

It's important to note that making changes to existing blueprints has zero effect on previous outputs created. For example, if you have an output called 'subtitles' which you have added to existing projects, and then you update the default reading speed specification for that output, then no previously created projects will be affected.

It's also useful to remember that the default settings are only that: defaults. Whenever you add an output to a project, you can still change all the settings, specifications, scheduling, etc. within that project specifically. The defaults are just there to get your project set up quickly and sensibly, and you can then make appropriate changes as necessary.