Throughout working with the Anthill Activator™ you will come in contact with templates, layouts and shared resources, but what is the difference between them and how are they used?

Layouts are predefined styles, you can call them "a template" for slides or email templates. It's basically the structure of a slide, considering maybe a slide will have 1, 2 or 3 columns, have images or graphs, be text-only, etc. Layouts are stored in the shared resources of Activator and are usually created by the global brand teams.

Layouts can include the use of specific colors, fonts, effects, background styles, and even content from the shared resource

Layouts for Slides:

Layouts for Approved Email:

A Template is a generic term often used to refer to a structure that can be used to create something. 

An Email Template in the case of Approved Email is a predefined structure where content can be customized to fit the HCPs needs, but still having pre-approved messages.


Shared Resource is a type of slide in Veeva CRM (and Vault) which can be accessed by other slides that are connected to it. As an example, you can have a logo for the brand and intend to use it in all slides. Instead of having to copy the logo in all slides, you can place it in a shared resource only once and use it everywhere in your project. Activator uses shared resources in order to place fonts, color definitions and other elements such as layouts available for a project. The files inside a shared resource are most often altered and maintained by a creative agency.