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Docs: Virtual Tour Studio

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A popup (the Open popup interaction of a hotspot or a theme menu item) is written in a rich text editor. Besides text, it can hold images, videos, web pages and PDF documents, a 360° view of one of the tour’s scenes, and photo galleries. Everything here is available on all plans, except uploading PDF documents, which needs the Cool or Super Cool plan. The popup’s colors, size and spacing are set in the editor’s Appearance tab: see Popup appearance.

Toolbar:

  • Point at a toolbar button, or move to it with the Tab key, to see its name and keyboard shortcut. The first name appears after a short moment; moving along the toolbar shows the next one at once.
  • Shortcuts on a Mac: Bold ⌘B; Italic ⌘I; Underline ⌘U; Strikethrough ⇧⌘S; Heading 1, 2 and 3 ⌥⌘1, ⌥⌘2 and ⌥⌘3; Bulleted list ⇧⌘8; Numbered list ⇧⌘7; Quote ⇧⌘B; Align left, center and right ⇧⌘L, ⇧⌘E and ⇧⌘R; Undo ⌘Z; Redo ⇧⌘Z.
  • On Windows and Linux, Ctrl takes the place of ⌘, Alt of ⌥ and Shift of ⇧: for example Ctrl+Shift+S for Strikethrough.
  • The same toolbar, with the same names and shortcuts, appears in the other rich text editors of the tour editor.

Web page:

Visitors see a page from another website inside the popup: a map, a booking calendar, a form, a 3D model or another tour.

  1. Click Embed a web page (the window icon) in the toolbar.
  2. In Link or embed code, paste the page’s link, or the embed code from the site’s share or embed option. Embed code also fills in its size and options. Links that start with http:// are changed to https://.
  3. Size: 16:9 (the default), 4:3, 1:1 or 9:16, or Fixed for the popup’s full width at a set Height, from 50 to 5,000 px. A document or a form often reads best at a fixed height.
  4. More options (optional):
    • Title: what screen readers say for the page. Left empty, it is the site’s name.
    • Allow fullscreen and Show scrollbars: both on to start with.
    • Permissions: what the page may use. Autoplay sound and video, Motion sensors and VR and Copy and share are on to start with; Camera and microphone and Location are off. Browsers still ask visitors before a page uses their camera, microphone or location.
  5. Click Embed.

To change or remove a page you embedded, select it first. A click on the page goes to the page itself, so select it from the keyboard: click in the line just below it and press the up arrow key (↑). It gets a blue outline, with a pencil button to change its link, size and options, and a trash button to remove it. The toolbar’s Embed a web page button always opens an empty dialog for a new page.

Some sites don’t allow their pages inside another website: the frame then stays empty or shows an error such as “refused to connect”. Use the site’s embed code when it offers one. YouTube, Vimeo and TikTok links go in the video button instead, and the dialog says so.

A PDF is easiest to add with Insert a PDF (see PDF document below). Without the Cool or Super Cool plan, a PDF that’s already online can be shown as a web page:

  • Google Drive (shows on phones and computers): share the PDF with Anyone with the link, copy its link, and replace everything from /view on with /preview, so the link ends in /preview. Paste that. The code from Drive’s Embed item… works too: open the PDF, choose ⋮ › Open in new window, then ⋮ › Embed item… there. Drive’s ordinary share link shows “You need access” in the popup instead.
  • A link straight to a PDF file, such as one on your own website: computers show it, but most phones can’t show a PDF inside a popup (iPhones show only its first page). Put it on Google Drive when visitors use phones.

PDF document (Cool and Super Cool plans):

Visitors flip through a PDF’s pages inside the popup, such as a brochure, a car’s information sheet, a menu or a price list. They can open any page full screen to zoom in, and open the whole PDF in a new tab. It looks the same on phones and computers.

  1. Click Insert a PDF (the PDF icon) in the toolbar.
  2. Click Choose a PDF, or drop a PDF onto the dialog: up to 20 MB. Its pages are added one by one. A PDF with more than 30 pages shows its first 30 here.
  3. Show an Open PDF link (on by default): visitors can open the whole PDF in a new tab, every page included.
  4. Click Insert.

In the editor, click the PDF to select it, then click the pencil button to change it (Replace PDF… picks another file) or the trash button to remove it.

  • The PDF and its pages count towards your storage.
  • A PDF with a password can’t be added: save a copy without the password first.
  • In the popup, pages show as pictures: their text can’t be selected, and links in the PDF don’t work there. Open PDF opens the PDF itself, where they do. Screen readers read each page’s text.
  • On the Hobby plan, Insert a PDF says which plans include it and offers See plans. PDFs already in a tour keep showing to visitors if the plan changes.

360° view of a scene:

Visitors look around one of the tour’s scenes inside the popup, without leaving the scene they are in.

  1. Click Insert a 360° view of a scene in the toolbar.
  2. Pick a scene. Only photo scenes are listed: 360° videos and 3D scenes can’t be shown this way yet. With more than six photo scenes, a search field appears.
  3. Starting view: drag the preview to choose where visitors start looking. Without that, the view starts where the scene starts in the tour; Use the scene’s starting view goes back to it.
  4. Size: 16:9 (Landscape, the default), 4:3 (Standard), 1:1 (Square) or 9:16 (Portrait).
  5. Show a “Go to this scene” button (off by default): pressing it closes the popup and takes the visitor into that scene, facing where they were looking in the small view.
  6. Click Insert.

In the editor, the view shows its starting view and the scene’s name. Select it, then click the pencil button to change it or the trash button to remove it. If the scene is later deleted from the tour, the block says so and offers Choose a scene…; until then visitors don’t see the view.

What visitors see:

  • The scene’s picture first; the view loads when it comes into sight in the popup.
  • Drag to look around. The fullscreen button opens the view full screen, on browsers that allow it (iPhones don’t). The mouse wheel zooms in full screen; in the popup it scrolls the popup.
  • If the view can’t load, it says so and offers Try again.

Photo gallery:

A gallery inside the popup sits among its text. It is not the Open a photo gallery interaction, which opens a gallery on its own.

  1. Click Insert a photo gallery in the toolbar.
  2. Click Add photos, or drop photos onto the dialog: JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 20 MB each. A photo that fails to upload offers Try again.
  3. Add a caption to any photo (up to 300 characters), and change the order with the up and down arrows.
  4. Layout: Slideshow shows one photo at a time with its caption below; Grid shows every photo at once, as tiles.
  5. Size (slideshow) or Tile shape (grid): 16:9, 4:3 (the default), 1:1 or 9:16.
  6. Click Insert. Closing the dialog with changes not inserted asks first.

In the editor, select the gallery, then click the pencil button to change it or the trash button to remove it. Visitors swipe through a slideshow or use its arrows, with a counter such as “2 / 5” showing where they are. Clicking any photo opens it full screen.

Notes:

  • Reusable popups can hold 360° views and galleries too, and the reusable-content picker previews them.
  • Duplicating a project: a 360° view in the copy shows the copy’s own scene. Gallery photos are copied like any other image in the popup.
  • Translations: Translate with AI translates gallery captions with the rest of the popup. In Edit translations…, a gallery’s captions can’t be changed by hand yet. The labels visitors see on views and galleries, such as “Go to this scene” and “Next photo”, are among the viewer’s own labels there.
  • VR: a 360° view or a web page can’t be shown inside a VR popup; the popup says so and offers Exit VR to view. A gallery shows its photos as a grid of tiles, without captions. A PDF shows its first page, with Exit VR to read every page when it has more.