What are project settings

Every articy:draft project allows to customize some general settings that affect details when working with the project. Project settings are divided into

• Journeys
• Flow
• Multi-user MULTI-USER
• Localization NEW in X!
• External applications

Project settings: "Journey"

Settings are hierarchical

There are three levels on which you can set parameter values:

• Project settings: Set project-wide default values
• Journey settings: Set parameter values for all slides of the presentation that inherit the journey's values
• Journey point / slide settings: Override journey values for specific slides if desired

Generally, a slide (journey point) derives all default values from the presentation (journey), which again derives all default values from the project settings.

Project settings: Setting default values

To set project-wide default parameters for presentations, please go to the settings folder 1 in the navigator and switch to the journeys tab 2. On this tab you can specify values which will be used by all presentations in the project, given that they do not override this setting.

3 Setting: "Apply a gradient to the background color"

Each object in articy:draft can have a color. For example, in the flow editor or tiles views, you can click on flow fragments (and other story objects) and assign a color. A node's background color will become the slide background by default. Here you can specify whether you want to have a gradient or not. If gradients are switched off, articy:draft uses simple color fills as backgrounds.

4 Setting: "Background image"

You can set this parameter to the following values:

• Choose default background image: The background image will be used for all slides (e.g. your corporate design background with logo), given that they do not override this parameter in their settings or in the journey settings.
• Use preview image of node: A node's preview image will automatically become the slide background, given that this is not overriden in the slide's settings or the journey settings.

5 Setting: "Arrangement of background image"

This specifies how the background image shall be layouted:

• Fit
• Fill (recommended)
• Stretch
• Tile
• Center

6 Setting: "Fade between journey points"

If this is set to "yes", there will be a smooth cross-fade between slides.

7 Setting: "Speed of auto-play"

Recorded presentations can be played back in "auto-play" mode, which means stepping through the slides automatically without any user interaction. Use this parameter to specify the number of seconds you want each slide to be displayed.

Journey settings: Customizing the presentation

Journeys (=presentations) have the same set of parameters as the defaults in the project settings described above. New journeys by default use all project-wide default values, but you can go to a journey's property page to adjust them. Changing values here will not reflect back to the project's default settings.

Journey point settings: Customizing the slide

Journey points (=slides) have the same set of parameters as journeys and the defaults in the project settings, both described above. New journey points by default use all default values from the journey, but you can go to a journey point's property page to adjust them. Changing values here will not reflect back to the journey's default settings.

Project settings: "Flow"

14 Setting: "Use built-in sripting support"

The built-in scripting support provides syntax highlighting and error validation for articy:expresso. This setting is auto-checked. The only reason to deactivate this setting is if you plan on using your own code in conditions, instructions, and pins, and handle export to a game engine yourself.

15 Setting: "Grid size"

The grid size option controls the size of the graph paper-like background present behind the elements in flow mode when the "Show grid" option is enabled. Grid size can be set to any number of pixels between 10 and 500, inclusive.

16 Setting: "Spacing"

The spacing option controls the automatic spacing provided between objects when multiple flow objects are created after right-clicking on an empty pin. Horizontal spacing and vertical spacing can be set separately to any number of pixels between 1 and 500, inclusive.

Project settings: "Multi-user"

In this tab some settings regarding handling of the repository can be made.

Enter a change message before publishing

Every time a partition is published, the user has the option to add a custom commit message that is sent along with the changed partition data to the repository/depot. By default, this behavior is enabled but it can be disabled by unchecking this setting.

Generate automatic change message

When publishing is set to also send a custom commit message to the repository/depot, articy:draft prefills this commit message by assembling a textual list of changes that have been performed since claiming the particular partition. While you can edit or even delete this prefilled commit message, you can also entirely deactivate the prefilling by unchecking this option.

Projects settings: "Localization"

NEW in X!

The old text settings received a face lift with articy:draft X and are now Localization settings, responsible for setting the primary and secondary project languages and mark if specific objects and properties are supposed to be localizable and can have voice-over.

• 17 Identified culture name: Name of the specific language entry.


• 18 Display name: Can be edited by the user, for example when planning use in export.


• 19 Voice-over?: Is language entry supposed to have VO? Has effect on data export / import and if VO columns are displayed in localization view or not.


• 20 ISO 639-1: ISO designation of language entry. What is ISO639-1?



• 21 Spelling Dictionary: Shows if the language entry has a spelling dictionary. Green means dictionary is active, red means there is no dictionary available for this language, and a disc symbol means there is a dictionary available for this language, which can be downloaded with a click on the disc icon.


• 22 Edit: Exchange a language with a different language by clicking the wrench icon or delete an entry with the red X.


• 23 Primary language: The first entry is the primary language and is displayed in bold. The primary language is the content creation language for the project and is the language displayed in the Flow View and other areas of articy:draft. The primary language entry can be edited, but it cannot be deleted.


• 24 Secondary languages: All other project languages are secondary languages. These are the target localization languages. They can be edited in the Localization View or monitored with the Presentation View

• 25 Add language: Click to add additional project language.


• 26 Predefined language: Select predefined language from drop-down list.


• 27 Custom: Add language by entering ISO 639-1 code into Culture name field.

• 28 Invariant language: This is shown if a language is unknown and can happen if no primary language was set at project creation, a project from articy:draft 3 or older is opened, or a custom language is added without entering the ISO 639-1 code. Use Edit 22 (see image above) to select a recognized language.

• 29 Localizable objects and properties: Here you can set which of articy’s objects and properties are supposed to be localized and get VO. Find a detailed description here.

Project settings: "External applications"

Most development projects will rely on third-party applications for various editing tasks, and articy:draft makes integrating with these applications very straightforward. All applications added to the external application list will show up whenever right-clicking on any articy:draft object.

Adding external applications

To add an external application, click the "New entry" button 30. An empty entry will be created within the application list, which can then be configured as below.

Configuring external applications

There are a small number of options which must be set before an external application can be used. First, the "Menu entry" 31 item must be filled in, which determines the name which is displayed on the right-click context menu. Second, the path to the application itself 32 along with any desired command line options must be set. Finally, an optional "Working directory" 33 can be set which determines the present working directory for the application.

In addition to being able to simply run a program from the menu, articy:draft is capable of substituting in command line options containing various information about the selected object by using placeholder values 34. To use a piece of data a placeholder can provide, simply enter the corresponding placeholder text on the command line for your application. These placeholders are as follows:



This list of valid placeholders is supplied at the bottom of the menu, beneath the "New Entry" button.

Advanced menu entry options

For more advanced context menu entries you can add icons or create submenus.



To add an icon to a menu entry, you first have to import the icon (max. 128 x 128px) as asset into your articy:draft project. Then open the icon's property sheet (select it and press F8) and copy its Object ID from the bottom of the sheet. Now you can use the Object ID within the menu entry field of the external application settings as follows:

for example: {0x0100000000000112}Jira

To group menu entries you can create a submenu as follows:

In this case you must make sure that all entries of this group start with exactly the same group name.

Example for a combined usage of icons and groups (as in the image above):
{0x0100000000000112}Jira\{0x0100000000000115}New Issue