Property sheets
"Flow fragment" property sheet
All about the sheet view in general can be found here.
Click the "property sheet" icon in the view selector to access the property sheet.
The sheet begins with the fragment title 1 as it is displayed in the navigator and other occurrences. The omnipresent reference strip 2 invites you to drop artwork, documents, web links or other objects and thus attach them to the flow fragment.
Just like any other property sheet, the one for a flow fragment divides its remaining properties into several tabs 3, the "General" tab, the "Template" tab and finally the "References" tab. In addition flow fragments also come with tabs for their "Input & Output pins".
"General" tab
For flow fragments, the description field 4 is the key element. Here you can put your summary / synopsis text of the story fragment, for example.
There are no restrictions to how you use the description field. You can even paste script code here if that benefits your use case, or define your own markup language. It'll all end up being exported with your project data and ready for use in your tool-chain.
A technical name 5 can be given to ease the handling of this flow fragment when using any technical export or the articy:draft API
The External ID is normally empty but can be filled with an ID this flow fragment carries inside another application. Using this external ID provides an convenient way of opening the currently viewed flow fragment within another application.
The Object ID is the primary ID to identify any object within articy:draft. It consists of a 64-bit Integer. Normally you do not need to bother about this ID and you can't change it anyway.
In previous versions this was a GUID but now we changed it into a 64-bit Integer. This is important to know if you use the articy:draft API because instead if handling GUIDs you now need to handle this new ID type.
"Template" tab
If you have defined a template for flow fragments (i.e. "Quest"), you can assign the template to this flow fragment using the template selector 6. If there is already a template assigned to this flow fragment and you want to make changes you can use the Edit template button 7 to quickly jump to the Template Editor. The "apply color" button 8 copies the default color specified in the template onto the currently viewed flow fragment.
For example, if all your "quests" shall appear purple, you can specify this as the template's color. Flow fragments that were created without a template assigned have the flow fragment's default color. After having assigned the quest template, you can choose to overwrite the flow fragment color with the "quest purple".
"References" tab
This section contains a set of automated reference strips:
- Succeeding / Preceeding flow nodes 9: Lists all succeeding / preceeding objects connected to this fragment's output / input pins.
- Referenced entities 10: Lists all entities attached to this object's reference strip (top of property sheet).
- Is placed on the following locations 11: Lists all locations where this object has been linked on the map.
"Dialogue" property sheet
All about the property sheet view in general can be found here.
Click the "property sheet" icon in the view selector to access the property sheet.
The sheet begins with the dialogue title as it is displayed in the navigator and other occurrences. In most cases, this is the subject of the conversation. The omnipresent reference strip invites you to drop artwork, documents, web links or other objects and thus attach them to the dialogue.
Just like any other property sheet, the one for a dialogue divides its remaining properties into several tabs, the "General" tab, the "Template" tab and finally the "References" tab.
"General" tab
For dialogues, the description field should contain a summary of the conversation, but there's no restriction on how you use the description field.You can even paste script code here if that benefits your use case, or define your own markup language. It'll all end up being exported with your project data and ready for use in your tool-chain.
A technical name can be given to ease the handling of this dialogue when using any technical export or the articy:draft API
The External ID is normally empty but can be filled with an ID this dialogue carries inside another application. Using this external ID provides an convenient way of opening the currently viewed dialogue within another application.
The Object ID is the primary ID to identify any object within articy:draft. Normally you do not need to bother about this ID and you can't change it anyway.
In previous versions this was a GUID but now we changed it into a 64-bit Integer. This is important to know if you use the articy:draft API because instead if handling GUIDs you now need to handle this new ID type.
"Template" tab
If you have defined a template for dialogues (i.e. "Trade", or "Interrogation"), you can assign the template to this dialogue using the template selector. The "apply color"-button copies the default color specified in the template onto the currently viewed dialogue.For example, if all your "trade" dialogues shall appear yellow, you can specify this as the template's color. Dialogues that were created without a template assigned have the dialogue's default color. After having assigned the trade template, you can choose to overwrite the dialogue color with the "trade yellow".
"References" tab
The references section contains a set of automated reference strips:
- Speaking entities 12: Lists all entities that have dialogue lines (=are assigned to "dialogue fragments") within the dialogue.
- Following / previous elements 13: Lists all succeeding / preceeding objects connected to this fragment's output / input pins.
- Involved entities 14: Lists all entities attached to this object's reference strip (top of property sheet).
- Takes place at 15: Lists all locations where this object has been linked on the map.
"Dialogue fragment" property sheet
All about the property sheet view in general can be found here.
Click the "property sheet" icon in the view selector to access the property sheet.
This is a basic dialogue fragment's property sheet:
The sheet begins with an automatically generated summary text 16, containing the speaking entity followed by a short version of the dialogue line. This text is used as the dialogue fragment's title in the navigator and other occurrences. Since it is a generated text, it cannot be edited.
Just like any other property sheet, the one for a dialogue fragment divides its properties into tabs 17, the "General" tab, the "Template" tab.
"General" tab
Below the summary line, a big avatar image represents the speaking entity. The dialogue line can even be given to another character by right-clicking the avatar and selecting "Choose target..." 18 from the context menu. This bring up a dialog for re-assigning the speaking entity.The stage directions field 19 can be used to describe how the sentence should be delivered by the voice actor and where emphasis should be placed.
The full text area 20 contains the actual dialogue line in full length, as it will be used for VO recordings and appear in subtitles.
The shorter preview text 21 can optionally be used if the screen space for multiple-choice menus is limited or a summary text is required for whatever purpose.
A technical name 22 can be given to ease the handling of this dialogue fragment when using any technical export or the articy:draft API
The External ID is normally empty but can be filled with an ID this dialogue fragment carries inside another application like an inhouse localization tool. Using this external ID provides an convenient way of opening the currently viewed dialogue fragment within another application.
The Object ID is the primary ID to identify any object within articy:draft. Normally you do not need to bother about this ID and you can't change it anyway.
In previous versions this was a GUID but now we changed it into a 64-bit Integer. This is important to know if you use the articy:draft API because instead if handling GUIDs you now need to handle this new ID type.
"Template" tab
Like all other articy:draft objects, dialogue fragments can inherit additional properties from a template. Imaginable templates for dialogue lines could be: "Quest log relevant", "Item exchange", etc.! See the templates section for details. Click "Select template" to bring up a template browser. Once you've selected a template, you can apply the template's default color to the dialogue line using the "apply color" button.This makes sense when you started writing the dialogue snippet without a template assigned and later wish to convert it into a - let's say - dialogue line with item exchange. You can assign a template at any time, but this won't change the dialogue fragment's color. If you wish to keep it consistent in such a way that all "item exchange" dialogue lines appear dark blue, you can overwrite the color with the template.