Platform access level: Org Admins, Managers, and Writers (anyone who builds courses).
No matter how a course starts, with Creator, a template, or a blank page, it's refined in the content editor. This guide tours the editor, showing you how to move around it, where the course's settings and references sit, where the writing actually happens, and which course-level tools sit in the Actions dropdown.
1. Navigating on the left, editing on the right
The editor keeps navigation and editing in separate places. Two stacked cards on the left, Outline and Details, are how you move around the course; the wide panel beside them is where the work happens.
Select anything on the left and it opens in that panel, and that panel is where you type, upload media, and set up questions.
Outline: Lists the course in the order learners receive it, starting with the Welcome message and running through every lesson, with Add content at the bottom. Drag a lesson by its handle to reorder it, or use the icons on its row to duplicate or delete it.
Details: Holds the course's configuration screens: About course, Settings, References, and, when AI has worked on the course, AI inputs.
The editing panel: Shows whatever you selected, with the fields and controls that belong to it, including the character counters that keep each field within the limits of the delivery methods you send over.
2. Setting the course's identity in About course
The About course screen is the first in the Details card, and it holds what the course is called and what language it's written in.
Three fields sit on it, and the first and last are required.
Course name: Name the course in up to 100 characters. The name has to be unique in your organization, so the field tells you if other content already uses it.
Course description: Write this one for learners, because it's what they read on the self-enrollment and manage-enrollment pages. It's optional, and it takes the same formatting options a lesson body does.
Language: Choose the language the course is written in. Set it early, because the field locks once the course has translations or enrolled learners, and from then on you add languages by translating the course.
3. Filling in Settings for filing, delivery, and outside systems
The Settings screen is the second in the Details card, and it holds the administrative details rather than anything a learner reads.
This is also where the course's identifier for other systems lives.
Author name: Type the name the course is authored under. The field is required.
Topic tags: Pick up to three tags so the course can be filtered later. The list you pick from is your organization's own set of topic tags.
External ID: Enter the ID this course already has in another learning system, so that system can match its own record to this course. The field is optional, its own note reads "For syncing with external learning systems", and the ID has to be unique in your organization.
Content type: Choose what kind of content this is. The field is required, and its own note reads "Required by carrier".
Dedicated SMS number: Shows which number this course's SMS messages send from, and whether a dedicated number is enabled, still pending verification, or not requested yet. The field reads Preferred SMS number instead when your organization already has one set. See Configuring Delivery Methods in Settings.
Note: The External ID here identifies the course itself, while the External distribution ID on a schedule is the one an outside system uses to enroll learners programmatically, and filling in one does not fill in the other. Cloning a course also leaves the External ID behind, so the copy starts empty.
4. Tracing your sources in the References tab
Selecting References in the Details card opens the material that backs the course up, split across two tabs.
Sources: The general references that inform the course overall. If you built the course with Creator from material you uploaded, or let Creator bring in outside research, it's listed here.
Citations: In-text citations that tie one specific claim in your content back to the source supporting it, which is what regulated and compliance-sensitive content needs. Where citations apply, an Add citation link appears beside the welcome message, each lesson body, and each question prompt.
The Citations tab appears once your organization turns citations on. There's more to them than this tour covers, including adding sources, writing a citation, getting citations reviewed and approved, and exporting a course with them intact. For that whole workflow, see Adding Citations.
5. Reviewing the AI inputs behind an AI-built course
The AI inputs screen appears in the Details card when the course carries a record of AI work, which happens when AI built, translated, or modified it and your organization has Arist's AI features turned on.
Everything on it is a read-only record of what AI was working from, so there's nothing to fill in and nothing on the screen regenerates the course.
A course Creator built: Lists the answers Creator was given, including the course topic, the training type, the target audience and their existing knowledge, the desired outcome, the knowledge components you asked for, the number of lessons, the course language, and whether AI generated the media.
A course AI translated or modified: Lists that history instead, including the original course, what you asked the new version to focus on, the files and websites AI drew on, and the outline it produced.
To change the course itself, use Translate or Version in the Actions dropdown; nothing is edited from this screen.
6. Writing lessons within the character counter
Select any lesson in the Outline to open it for editing. Lesson bodies are capped at 1200 characters, with a live counter under the text, and short lessons are the point: focused content keeps learners replying.
The welcome message, question prompts, and answer choices each carry their own separate limit, and line breaks count double against all of them, so see Understanding Formatting and Content Limits for the full set before you plan a long lesson.
Note: A lesson's image sits in a fixed slot directly above the Body field, and Arist keeps them in that order, so neither one needs arranging. Any extra media you add as a block below the body can be reordered among the other blocks.
7. Seeing text formatting support by delivery method
Every text field in the editor, lesson bodies and question fields alike, carries a Formatting options link next to its character counter.
Select it to see exactly which markdown your enabled delivery methods support for that field: Microsoft Teams and Arist Messenger together, then Slack, then WhatsApp, each with its own bold, italic, link, and list syntax, plus a reminder that formatting is not supported for SMS messages.
This panel shows you the syntax for the field you're in. WhatsApp has its own combined character budget and its own delivery rules, both set out in Understanding Formatting and Content Limits.
8. Adding question and media blocks to a lesson
Inside an open lesson, Add block at the bottom of the editing panel inserts an interactive element into that lesson:
Multiple choice question: Learners answer with one or more pre-selected options.
Open-ended question: Learners answer with a written response, which AI can grade and respond to if you turn assessment on.
Rating question: Learners answer with a numeric rating on a scale.
Media: Send learners an image or video.
This section covers where the blocks live and what each one is. Choosing between the question types, setting up AI assessment, and reading the responses back are covered in Using Question Types and AI Assessment.
Tip: Balance your formats. Open-ended questions need a clear right and wrong answer so the AI can grade fairly, and too many of them lowers engagement.
9. Using Add content to extend the course itself
The editor has two add buttons, and each has its own scope. Add block sits inside an open lesson and adds a question or a piece of media to that one lesson. Add content sits at the bottom of the Outline and adds to the course as a whole.
Under STEP, one option adds teaching content:
Lesson: Adds a new lesson to the course, ready for its own media, text body, and optional questions.
Under COURSE BENCHMARKS, three options add a measurement to the course rather than teaching content:
Confidence lift survey: Measures how much learners' confidence in the topic rises, by asking them at the start of the course and again at the end.
NPS survey: Measures how likely learners are to recommend the course.
Learner sentiment: Measures how satisfied learners were with the course.
Each benchmark can be added once, so one that's already in the course shows as Already added. For where each benchmark's question lands, how it's worded, and how to read what comes back, see Using Question Types and AI Assessment.
10. Opening the Actions dropdown for course-level tools
The Actions dropdown sits at the top right of the editor and holds the things you do to the course as a whole, rather than to one lesson.
[ Image to add: using-the-content-editor--actions-dropdown — the Actions dropdown open in the content editor showing Preview, Translate, Version, Regenerate images, Download, and Shorten link, with Schedule as the primary button beside it ]
Preview: Sends the course to a real recipient over a real delivery method so you can take it the way a learner would, before anyone is enrolled. See Previewing and Testing Content.
Translate: Starts an AI translation of the course into other languages. See Translating an Existing Course.
Version: Creates a new version of the course from a description of what you want changed. See Modifying an Existing Course.
Regenerate images: Replaces every image across the course, after warning you that the change cannot be undone. On a course that has no images yet, this reads Generate images instead.
Download: Opens a window where you choose the file format, and choose the languages when the course has more than one.
Shorten link: Turns a long URL into a short one you can paste into your content, without leaving the editor.
Note: Translate, Version, and Regenerate images appear only when your organization has Arist's AI features enabled, and Preview becomes available once every lesson is free of errors.
11. Replacing or regenerating one lesson's image
When your organization has Arist's AI features turned on, the editor can make and remake images for you, whether or not the course itself was AI-built. In a lesson's Media area, select Generate image on an empty slot, or Regenerate image on a slot that already holds one.
Either opens a window where you can add instructions, look at what comes back, and select Use image to put it into the lesson.
Apply instructions to existing image: Leave this checkbox on, which is how it starts, and your instructions change the image already in the slot. Clear it and Arist generates a completely new image instead.
Upload your own file: The Media area takes an image or a video you upload, and the generate control sits on image slots rather than on one that already holds a video.
12. Regenerating every image in the course at once
Choosing Actions > Regenerate images works at the other end of the scale, and it's the one to reach for after a rebrand or a change of tone rather than for one image you want to change. Before anything runs, a window takes optional image generation instructions and warns you that all existing images will be replaced and that this cannot be undone.
The item appears when your organization has Arist's AI features turned on, and on a course that has no images at all yet it reads Generate images.
The warning covers more than the images AI made:
Every image, not only the AI ones: Images you uploaded yourself are replaced along with the generated ones, and Arist keeps no copy of what was there before.
The welcome message and every lesson: Both are included, and the image Arist shows for the course itself is refreshed from the new set.
Several minutes in the background: Leave the window open while it works, and the course reloads with its new images once the pass finishes.
Any course, however it was built: A course you wrote by hand is regenerated exactly like one Creator made.
Important: If any image currently in the course needs to survive, save a copy outside Arist before you regenerate, or work one image at a time from the lesson instead. There is no undo.
13. Downloading the course as a Word document or PDF
Choosing Actions > Download turns the course into a document you can hand to a reviewer who does not work in Arist. A course you have translated downloads in whichever of its languages you pick.
[ Image to add: using-the-content-editor--download-modal — the Download course as window open over the content editor, with the Word and PDF format tiles and the Languages row of language buttons beneath them ]
Choose Word for a .docx file or PDF for a .pdf file.
On a translated course, select the languages you want under Languages. All selects every language the course has.
Select Download.
Arist prepares the file in the background. The download starts once it is ready.
Pick more than one language and the button reads Download .zip. That file holds one document per language you chose.
Note: Citations export in the language the course was written in, whichever language you download.
14. Shortening a long link to save characters
A long web address counts against the same character limit the lesson text does, so shortening one buys back room to write in. Choosing Actions > Shorten link trades it for a compact link on Arist's own arist.link domain, without leaving the editor.
Paste the full address into URL to shorten and select Shorten. The same window comes back with the finished link under Shortened URL, and Copy puts it on your clipboard, ready to paste into a lesson, a question, or the welcome message.
Include the http:// or https:// part: Arist checks the address before it shortens anything, and it needs that prefix to accept one. Copy it straight out of your browser rather than retyping the part you can see.
Copy it before you close: Arist does not keep a list of past links and the window opens empty each time, so put the finished link on your clipboard while it is in front of you.
The result is short whatever you paste: Every shortened link is that same domain followed by a short code, so the length of the address you started with makes no difference to the length learners receive.
The same item sits in the Actions menu of the nudge and survey editors, and it works the same way in both.
Tip: Shorten the link before you write the sentence around it. The character counter then counts the short version, so the number you are working against is the real one.
15. Saving your work and handing the course to a schedule
Your changes save as you go, and the header shows Saving and then Saved as it happens, so you can step away and pick up where you left off. The button at the top right does the rest, and what it says depends on where the course stands.
Schedule: Saves your changes and takes you to the course's delivery. A course with no schedule yet opens the setup screen; one that already has schedules opens its list of them. See Scheduling and Delivering Courses.
Save: Saves your changes and keeps you in the editor. The button reads Save instead of Schedule when the course isn't ready for delivery or when your role doesn't manage schedules, which is the case for Writers.
Lessons that still have something to fix carry a red warning triangle in the Outline, and clearing those is what readies the course to send. The course itself stays in Drafts on the Content page until you set a schedule, and moves to Published once you do. Take the course end to end yourself before anyone is enrolled.
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Note: Need help at any point? Reach out to your Arist Customer Success contact, or email [email protected].