StoryChief provides a number of standard fields when writing and publishing articles, and when managing social posts and campaigns, however, it's possible that you need additional fields for your articles, social posts or campaigns, which can be used either internally or externally in your blog/website.

Watch our Academy video 📹 for a step-by-step guide:

Start using custom fields

1. Creating custom fields

Step 1. In the workspace, open the menu & select Settings.

Step 2. Go to Settings ➜ Custom Fields.

Step 3. To create a custom field, choose 'Add Custom Field'.

Step 4. You will now be presented with different types of fields:

Text: Used to enter a couple of words or a short sentence
Large text: Used to add a large piece of text, such as a long description
Auto-complete: Dropdown menu from which one or several options can be selected
Single option: Listview with multiple options
Multiple options: Listview with multiple options
Date: Calendar view with a datepicker
Image: Upload an image from the computer, a URL or from the media library. Optionally specify image dimensions
Email: It can be used to enter an email address
File: Attach a file from your computer

Step 5. Fill in all the fields:

A. Label

Provide a name (or label) for the custom field to be recognisable while creating content. The label displayed above should be short and descriptive.

B. Available on

Select where the field should be available, this helps to declutter the view and only see relevant fields on the correct content type.

C. Description

Adding a clear description to the custom field helps other users fill in the custom fields to their best capabilities.

D. Important

Set the field as important if it always needs to be filled in. When an important custom field isn’t completed, an exclamation mark will appear next to the custom field section.

You can recognize an important custom field by the exclamation mark that indicates its status.

E. Multiple, options & Dynamic options

Set this field as multiple, if you allow multiple options to be chosen for this custom field and fill the multiple options to choose from.

You can enable the option to allow extra options to be added on the go, without having to navigate to the Settings page.

F. Dimensions (images only)

For images, it's possible to set a minimum dimension or crop images to these exact dimensions.

G. Text type & Allowed styles

For large texts, it's possible to choose between plain text & rich text. Rich text allows for an array of styles that can be applied to the text, which can be enabled/disabled.

H. Visibility

Visibility rules for the custom fields are interesting when managing lots of custom fields. This keeps the overview clean and ensures the correct fields are filled in.

Choose whether a specific custom field should only be shown when another custom field has been filled in.

I. Preview

See a preview of what the custom field will look like on the platform after saving:

J. Field API key

Each created field is assigned a Field API Key. You can use this key to map the custom field to a corresponding field on your website. You only need to use it if you want to sync this custom field with another field on your site.

Step 8. Once you are ready, click on Save.

💡Tip: Add colours to your custom fields to quickly recognize them in your articles, social posts, or campaigns (learn more).

2. Custom fields in articles - External use

Custom fields can be used to send extra information to your blog/website when you publish the articles to your CMS.

Some use cases are:

A Call To Action where a specific banner is included at the bottom of the article
A different publication date (often used to backdate articles)
A second author or a co-author

These custom fields need to be mapped with your CMS, which often requires some advanced API knowledge. This information below is all your developer needs to do:

For Developers 💻

Each created field is assigned a field API key. This key can be used to map the custom fields on your website.

Once the custom fields have been connected to your blog/website, you can start using them by going to an Article > Settings > scroll down to Custom fields, where you will be able to fill them for the specific article:

Once you publish your article to your CMS, these fields will be pushed together with all other standard fields, and they will all be displayed on the blog article.

3. Custom fields in articles - Internal use

You don't necessarily need to connect all custom fields to your blog or website, but you can use them internally as well to track and keep important information.

Some use cases are:

Create a multiple-option custom field to select what stage the article is at
Create a single option custom field to indicate if the article has been translated or not (YES or NO)
Create a date custom field to indicate when an article has reached a specific stage. This can especially be interesting for people that want to use a personalised approval flow

You can assign these custom fields to an article by opening the Article > Settings > scroll down to Custom fields, where you will be able to fill them. You can also assign a custom field to a bunch of articles in bulk. Read more here.

Next to this, if you want to have a clear overview of the values entered on these custom fields, you can add these custom fields to the Article overview. To do so, go to Articles, click on the grid icon on the right-hand side, and make the custom field visible.

You'll identify the custom fields because they show a small tool icon:

The custom field will be added as a column to the Articles overview. Ta-da 🎉

You can also create and save segments based on these custom fields, to facilitate the search and overview of articles.

4. Custom fields in Campaigns

Once you have created custom fields specifically for campaigns, these will now show up every time you create or edit your campaign details. You can also assign a custom field to a bunch of campaigns in bulk. Read more here.

Some examples are:

Budget: The budget that has been assigned to the campaign
Result: After the campaign has finished, the outcome of the campaign
Landing Page URL: a link to the landing page for easy access

As with Articles, these fields will also show up on the Campaigns overview, to facilitate the overview, and the columns can be enabled or disabled by clicking on the grid icon on the right-hand side:

5. Custom fields in Social Posts

Using custom fields in social posts can also help you track extra info that is not available by default in StoryChief.

Some use cases are:

Budget: if you boost your social posts after having published them, you can keep track of the spent budget per social post. Just create a text custom field to enter the amount spent per social post
Create a single option custom field with the YES and NO options to indicate if a social post has been retargeted
As with articles, create a multiple-option custom field to select what stage the social post is at. This can especially be interesting for people that want to use a personalised approval flow

Once you have created these custom fields, you can manage them per social post by going to the social post > click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner > Properties. You can also assign a custom field to a bunch of social posts in bulk. Read more here.

Next to this, if you want to have a clear overview of the values entered on these custom fields, you can add these custom fields to the Social Posts overview. To do so, go to Social Posts, click on the grid icon on the right-hand side, and make the custom field visible. You'll identify the custom fields because they show a small tool icon:

6. Custom fields in Tasks

You can create custom fields in tasks to personalise them and add relevant info.

Some use cases are:

Publication date: Add an additional field to show the expected publication date of the content you are working on
Priority: Add a custom field with a dropdown to mark the priority for each task (ie. Critical, High, Medium, Low)

Create or edit a task to fill in these new fields. You will find them by clicking on the Custom Fields section next to the standard fields:

7. Custom fields in Events

You can create custom fields in events to add specific info that needs to be spotted quickly.

Some use cases are:

Responsible person: Events are company wide and cannot be assigned to a specific user. Create a custom field to specify who is leading the event.
Location: Events can be held online or offline at a specific location. Create a custom field to specify the location where your event is taking place

Create or edit an event to fill in these new fields. You will find them by clicking on the Custom Fields section next to the standard fields:

8. Autofill custom fields with AI

On articles, William AI content agent can also autofill some custom fields (select or multiselect).

9. Assign custom fields in bulk

When creating or updating content, every second counts. Assign a custom field to multiple articles, social posts or campaigns in one go: just select the list of content, click on Manage custom fields at the bottom of the page, and pick the new value.

If your selection has mixed values, hit Clear first, then assign the new value in bulk: