Closeread Components

Every closeread document consists of three components:

  1. A section of the document flagged as a closeread section.
  2. Within the section, an element flagged to appear in the main column of the closeread section (the “sticky”), and also
  3. An element (often a paragraph of text) that will serve to trigger the appearance of the sticky element.

Closeread Sections

To create a closeread section within a document, open up a fenced div and add the cr-section class.

:::{.cr-section}
< add paragraphs, images, code cells, etc. >
:::

Elements within a .cr-section div will appear as a closeread story while elements outside of a section will appear as a normal Quarto HTML document. This allows you to integrate one or more closeread sections into a conventional HTML document.

By wrapping your entire document with a cr-section div, you can make a 100% closeread document. By default, all elements with a closeread section appear in the narrative column unless you’ve indicated that they should be a sticky.

Stickies

An element of your document that you wish to do a close read of is called a “sticky”: as the user scrolls, it will remained pinned in the middle of the main column like a sticky note. To flag an element as a sticky, wrap it in a fenced div and provide an identifier that is prefixed with cr-.

:::{#cr-myimage}
![](path-to-myimage.png)
:::

The syntax is the same regardless of whether the element you’d like to turn into a sticky is an image, a paragraph, a list, math, a code cell, etc. For example, the the syntax for a code cell is:

:::{#cr-myplot}
```{r}
hist(rnorm(15))
```
:::

All sticky elements are placed in the main column of the closeread section and will be transparent. To make them appear, you need to create a trigger.

Triggers

Any elements within a closeread section that are not stickies - usually paragraphs - will be placed in the narrative column. You can set a paragraph to trigger focus on a particular sticky by using Quarto’s cross-referencing syntax: @cr-mysticky.

When this paragraph scrolls into view it will reveal a histogram. @cr-myplot

:::{#cr-myplot}
```{r}
hist(rnorm(15))
```
:::

The reference can be placed anywhere in the paragraph, but it should be separated from other content by spaces. This syntax mirrors the syntax of Quarto Cross-refs but uses a distinct prefix for the identifier (cr-) and does not require a caption.

If you have multiple document blocks (say, two paragraphs) that you’d like to appear as a single trigger, wrap the blocks in a fenced div and supply a focus-on attribute and provide the sticky name as a string. For example:

:::{focus-on="cr-myplot"}
This paragraph and the one that follows will appear as one narrative block

When these paragraphs scroll into view, they will reveal a histogram.
:::

:::{#cr-myplot}
```{r}
hist(rnorm(15))
```
:::

The primary role of triggers is to make a sticky element appear. They can also be used to trigger focus effects by attaching additional attributes to your triggers. Learn more in Focus Effects.