Carousel Studio, the tour

Carousel Studio is where a set of frames becomes a multi-image Instagram post. You bring frames in, arrange them across a canvas that's sliced into slides, and then export or schedule the set.

Carousel Studio start to finished post, in nine and a half minutes. The tour below is the same ground in text.

Create · Carousel Studio9:22

Three ways in

From the sidebar. Click CREATE. The Studio opens on whatever you had open last, or on a blank canvas.

From The Archive. Select the frames you want, then Send to Carousel. The same action sits on the thumbnail toolbar as Send to Carousel Studio. Order of selection is the order they land in, one frame per slide, starting at the slide you had selected.

From Finder. Drag image files straight onto the canvas. A drop target appears across the whole editor.

A fourth door is worth knowing about. Open a scheduled carousel on the content calendar and its detail sheet carries EDIT IN CAROUSEL STUDIO, which reopens that exact project.

The screen

Both side panels are collapsible, and both hide themselves automatically when the window gets narrow. Cmd P toggles the preview.

Two view modes

The toggle sits in the middle of the document toolbar.

Continuous is one surface across every slide, with the slide divisions drawn as faint lines. The mode for a composition that spans slides.

Single slide gives you one slide per screen, for when each slide is its own picture.

They're two views of the same project. Switch whenever you like.

Adding things

Three buttons on the document toolbar, all on the right-hand side.

• Add Photo from Computer opens a file picker
• Add Photo from Archive opens the catalog picker
• Add Text drops a text element on the current slide

Brand assets come in from the left-hand panel, which the seal icon opens.

There is no shape tool. If you need a block of colour behind something, set the slide background from the filmstrip menu, or use a texture from your brand assets folder.

Editing an element

Click it. Corner handles appear for resizing. Resizing is proportional by default; hold Shift for a free resize. A small pill on the element itself carries Duplicate, Lock and Delete, and right-clicking gives you the same three plus a move-to-slide list.

The inspector opens as a strip under the canvas. Its bar reads:

There is no Edit button. Text elements get a Text tab instead.

The keys

Cmd ] and Cmd [ do nothing. Layer order isn't on the keyboard. The Arrange group in the Position tab handles it, four buttons: Front, Forward, Backward and Back. The Layers popover on the document toolbar does the same job visually, with a thumbnail per element and drag to restack.