CG Templates

A CG Template is a placeholder for text that will be replaced with election data.

Copy Existing CG Templates

If you are using your normal News or Desk group for election, skip this step and proceed to Create CG Templates below.

If you chose to create your election from a group other than your normal News or Desk group, you must also create election CG templates in that group. If you want to simultaneously run CGs from your Rundowns and election in this group, the System Administrator will need to copy the normal story CG templates from the main news group to the Elections group by completing the following steps:

  1. On the server machine, open the machine name directory, and then open the P_[GROUP] directory. If the group is called Election, for example, in the machine directory D:\ENPS-DEMO you would open the group P_Election. Open the \G folder, such as D:\ENPS-DEMO\P_BNC\G.

  2. Press Ctrl A to select all of the CG templates. Press Ctrl C to copy them to the clipboard.

  3. Open the \ENPS-DEMO\P_ELECTION\G directory. If there is no \G subdirectory it means that there have not been any CG templates created for the Election group. If this happens, create the \G directory and then open it.

  4. Paste your CG templates by pressing Ctrl V.

Create CG Templates

  1. Open the CG Template creator in ENPS by selecting the Production ribbon and selecting the Templates button.

  2. When the CG Templates window appears, click the New button to open the CG Template Definition window. In the CG Template Definition window, enter a title such as "Election Lower Third". Enter a template page for it to be associated with in the CG. If you are using a CODI, a template number is not needed, but you will need to fill in the color, font, and justification on the properties screen.

  3. Create an output template by adding labels and text entry boxes as you would for an ordinary CG. When the output template has been created, click on an entry box and then click Properties. From the dropdown menu, you will be able to associate the entry field with an appropriate election field.

For example, if you have selected a candidate name field, you would select ELECTION DISPLAYNAME from the dropdown list. Since you will have several candidate names, ELECTION DISPLAYNAME will be associated with several text entry fields on your CG template.

Once that is done, associate all other appropriate fields, such as ELECTION VOTECOUNT and ELECTION PRECINCTCOUNT. You should create separate templates for each of the display formats you anticipate using.

You must set the tab order correctly for the fields to display properly on the CG. For example, if you have a template with spaces for three candidate names, followed by spaces for ELECTION VOTECOUNT and ELECTION VOTEPERCENT the tab order should be:

  1. Display Name

  2. Vote Count

  3. Vote Percent

  4. Display Name

  5. Vote Count

  6. Vote Percent

  7. Display Name

  8. Vote Count

  9. Vote Percent

Alternate Templates: Races Using Headshots

You can use alternate CG templates under certain conditions. For example, when some races have headshots you may want to use a different template.

For this example let us assume that you have two races in the same sequence:

  • Race 1, which has candidate headshots as indicated by the presence of an "image tag" reference in the Race Details.

  • Race 2, which does not have these headshots.

In your election or news group, create two templates:

  • Fullscreen, which uses template 1000.

  • Fullscreen with headshots, which uses template 1001.

Select the Production ribbon and the Templates button. Select Fullscreen and then click Design, then click Properties.

In the Alternate template drop-down box, select another template to use if the primary template will not work. For example, if a race is sent to the Fullscreen template but contains image tags, that race can be passed to a linked template Fullscreen with headshots. This linking can only be done to one race, and attempts to link beyond that will break the original link.

Edit CG Options in Race Details

To edit the CG options of a race, select the Details button on the Election ribbon and click the tab for CG Templates.

Use the following table to help you to enter the values for the CG fields:

Field

Description

Max Pages and Base Page

Max Pages depends on the number of candidates that will fit in each of your CG templates. For example, if there are a total of 5 candidates and each template holds only 3, you will need to set Max Pages to 2. The default value is 5.

Each race will have a "base page" number based upon the number in Max Pages. This is a read-only race number. The first race will be Base Page 0001. If there are 5 max pages from that race the second race will be 0001+5=0006.

As noted above, by knowing the base page and the offsets (as specified in the ELECTIONS.INI file on the CG workstation) a CG operator or producer will know instantly where a particular display is for a race. For example, if a race is base page 0127, and the FS offset is 1000, that race is output on FS at 1127. If the offset for lower third is 2000, that race in lower third will be at 2127.

If you change the number of Max pages in a race, the Base Page numbers of all subsequent races will change automatically. It will also be necessary to close and re-open the Election for the numbers to be refreshed. It is not recommended that this be done on election night.

CG Title

The title of the race as displayed on the CG such as U.S. House.

Corresponds to CGTITLE1 Election field in the CG Template field properties.

CG Short Title

A secondary race title, which can be used for lower third or squeezebacks

Corresponds to CGSHORTTITLE Election field in the CG Template field properties.

CG Subtitle 1 and 2

Subtitles for the race, such as District 7.

Corresponds to the CGTITLE2 and CGTITLE3 Election fields in the CG Template field properties.

Assigning Templates for Individual Races

You can assign CG templates on a race by race basis. At the bottom of this screen, under CG Output Format, you will see a list of output format names from the DisplayFormats option in the ELECTIONS.INI, for example:

DisplayFormats=Full Screen; Lower Third

To the immediate right is a grid/dropdown list from which you may assign a CG template to that race. In the example screenshot below, the CG Full Screen will be used for the full-screen output of this race.

By default, the race will be set to use the default templates selected in Air Control and the options in the race will be disabled. Uncheck the Use Default CG templates box to make choices specific to any given race.

In the example screenshot above, this race will be simultaneously output in both formats.

Create Sequences

Sequences are CG playlists that allow you to determine the order that races will be shown on screen. Similar to Groups, Sequences allow you to organize races by county, city or any other logical order for output.

By default, there will always be a sequence called ALL RACES that cannot be edited.

To create a new sequence:

  1. Select Election > Sequences button to show the current sequences.

  2. Click Setup > New in the Sequences section of the ribbon.

    A new sequence appears in the list of sequences.

To add races from the ALL RACES sequence to another sequence:

  1. Select the ALL RACES sequence.

  2. Select the races in the ALL RACES sequence that you want to add to another sequence.

    • Ctrl click to select individual races.

    • Shift click to select a range of races.

  3. Click Setup > Add Selected Races and select the sequence from the dropdown list.

    The selected races will be added to the selected sequence.

It is recommended that you create groups that will mirror your on-air sequences. Examples:

  • President

  • U.S. House

  • U.S. Senate

  • State Senate

  • State House

  • County Commission Races and/or races grouped by county

  • Manual entry races (sequence used by data entry staff)

You may add sequences in advance or while in progress from Air Control, details of which are provided in the following section.

You can reorder a sequence, other than the default All Races sequence, using multiple selections and drag-and-drop. In the Sequence View you may mark races by holding Ctrl and clicking or select blocks of races by holding Shift and clicking. These may then be dragged into a new order for viewing or for re-ordering the CG base pages.