--- title: "Manage Instructions Outside of Studio" slug: "manage-instructions-outside-of-studio" updated: 2024-11-26T21:10:18Z published: 2024-11-26T21:10:18Z canonical: "docs.skillable.com/manage-instructions-outside-of-studio" --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.skillable.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Manage Instructions Outside of Studio Skillable Studio allows you to manage Lab Instructions from outside of Skillable Studio, using a Markdown Include, instead of a direct connection to an external repository. Choosing to leverage this feature means moving all of your content management (including editing) for a lab into a source of your choosing, outside of Skillable Studio. Once you add the Markdown Include syntax to a lab's instructions, the content in that lab will automatically be updated based on the content in the external source. The Markdown file must be stored in a publicly accessible location and must contain only Markdown syntax. ## External Management Benefits 1. **Offline editing** - With external instruction management, content is created or edited as part of a structured Markdown file, that can be edited offline using one of the many free or commercial Markdown editors that are available for all mainstream platforms/devices being used today, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. 2. **Multi-author support** - By managing your content in a lab that leverages external instruction source, you can support multiple content authors contributing to the content for one lab at the same time. ## External Management Disadvantages 1. **Skillable Studio Custom Syntax Unavailable in External Repository** - when using an external instruction source, custom Skillable Studio markdown syntax will not render in the external system. These markdown elements can still be used and will be rendered in a lab. These include: - Knowledge block/link - Alert block/link - Help block/link - Hint block/link - Note block - Copyable text - Type text - code block modifiers - @lab replacement tokens Intellisense ## Best Practices When using an external instruction source, there are a few things to consider. - We highly recommend using an instruction source dedicated to your lab content and not mixing other content within the source. - You are able to host content for multiple lab profiles from the same instruction source. A good rule of thumb would be one markdown source per Course or per Lab Series. ## Getting started Your instruction source will need a markdown (.md) file that defines the lab content in Markdown. This file will contain the lab instructions for your lab. The Markdown file must only contain Markdown, and not any HTML, or any other syntax. If there is anything other than Markdown in the file, the lab instructions may not look correct. ### Configuring a Lab Profile To configure a Lab Profile to use instructions from an external source: 1. From a Lab Profile, select **Edit Instructions**. 2. Select an Instruction Set. 3. Enter the Markdown Include syntax: `!instructions[](url)` 1. Replace `url` with the URL where your Markdown file is stored. For example, `!instructions[](https://mylabcontent.com/lab1.md)` The Markdown content is now displayed in the Lab Instructions. Confirm the instructions are displayed correctly. If any adjustments need to be made to the lab instructions, adjustments must be made in the external source. Skillable Studio supports adding content to the Lab Instructions alongside the content added by the Markdown Include, using Markdown or Skillable’s [Visual Instruction Editor](/v1/docs/visual-instructions-editor). ### Activities Automated and question activities can be used when using an external repository as an instruction source. Activities must be added to the Lab profile and then the Activity Replacement Token added to the lab instructions in the external repository. To add an Activity to a Lab Profile that uses an external instruction source: 1. Navigate to the Lab profile. 2. Select **Edit Instructions** in the upper-right corner. 3. Select the Activities menu. 4. Select **+ New Question** or **+ New Automated Activity**. 5. After creating the Activity, **copy the Token** for the Activity. 6. **Navigate to your external repository**, and edit the file that is used for the lab instructions. 7. **Paste the token in the file**, where you want the Activity to be displayed. The Activity is now part of your lab instructions. Repeat these steps to add additional Activities. Skillable's lab building & authoring platform. The lab content and instructions written in the Instructions Editor and displayed in the lab user interface. Markdown is an easy-to-use set of markup language to format text. Markdown also supports the use of embedded HTML syntax to format the contents. Bundles together content to then be set up for training through classes, subscriptions, and course assignments. Courses can include labs, videos, SCORM, LTI, external links, assessments, and documents. Courses must be assigned to a Content Provider and a Publishing Group to be available to set up for training. A Lab Series is a container that holds one or more Lab Profiles. The Lab Series contains Lab Profiles and settings for the Lab Series. It is like the cover of a book, while the Lab Profiles are like the chapters within the book. Labs in Skillable Studio are housed in a Lab Profile. The Lab Profile contains the information about the configurable settings and the virtual machines that make up a lab. For a Lab Profile to be published it must be part of a Lab Series. Instruction Sets for Lab Profiles allows lab authors to create and use different sets of instructions for a given lab profile. Activities are configured in the instructions editor and represented in the lab instructions by a replacement token. Activities fall into two broad categories: Questions and Automated. - Questions are multiple choice or short answer questions. - Automated Activities interact with the lab environment (Virtual Machine/Container/Cloud Platform). Used to replace text in lab instructions with a defined variable that is unknown at the time of authoring the lab instructions. These variables may not be generated or created until the lab is launched by the student. These can include usernames, user first name, user last name, running lab instance ID number, etc.