Strata
Strata
A stratum is a block of detail attached to one shape. The reader clicks the shape and the detail opens beside it, with the diagram still on screen.
In a long page of prose the reader has to work out which paragraph belongs to which box. A stratum removes the guess: the detail has exactly one owner, and the owner is the thing they are already looking at.
What a stratum holds
A stratum is a set of tabs, and each tab has a kind. One stratum can mix them: an overview in Rich, the config it describes in Raw, and a Subdiagram that opens the box up.
| Kind | Holds |
|---|---|
| Rich | Markdown, images, embedded diagrams |
| Raw | Code or config, rendered line-numbered |
| Subdiagram | A diagram of its own, in any supported engine |
| Image | A single image, uploaded or linked |
| Embed | An embeddable URL. YouTube and Google Maps links convert automatically |
Adding one
Right-click the shape and choose Add Stratum…. The modal opens already bound to that shape.
Right-click the same shape later and the item reads Edit Stratum…. Shapes carrying a stratum are marked on the canvas.
A stratum does not have to be created from the shape. The link picker binds an existing stratum to any shape on any surface in the blueprint, including diagrams embedded inside rich text. See Linking strata.
What readers get
Hovering a marked shape for half a second shows a preview card with the stratum's name and its opening lines. Clicking opens it in a window that moves and resizes by its corners, or docks to a panel down the right-hand side at half the viewport width.
Readers can leave the panel open and work through several strata in turn while the diagram stays put.