Talk:Overview

The Overview pages lists all chapters of the interactive story, both those already written (the chapters in blue), and those still empty (in red), providing you with a choice of what to read as well as what to write.

Besides the bright blue and bright red, you'll probably also see some links in a darker blue and a paler red. These are links you have visited recently. If you are a frequent visitor to this site, you'll be able to pick out the chapters you haven't read yet by clicking the brightly coloured links.

Unfortunately, an overview such as this has to be typed up manually - which however is fairly easy to do. Admin will add all new chapters a.s.a.p, but of course you can also do it yourself.

New: watch the video tutorial (5.5 MB download)

It looks daunting, with all the complicated lines, but adding chapters to the overview is not all that difficult. This is because when you add a new chapter, both the options will not yet exist, so they will not yet have sub-options, which means they are listed in lines right after each other, never split up with complicated line drawing to do.

Example:

Chapter 1: A Stranger in the Woods
 ├Faramir says: "No, I think Damrod's right. Get twenty men together tomorrow and bring him in."
 │ ├The man is Imrahil, whom Faramir has not met since childhood.
 │ │ ├Finduilas is not your mother
 │ │ └Denethor is not your father
 │ │   ├Faramir is outraged and punishes Imrahil
 │ │   │ ├Faramir takes Imrahil to Denethor     <-
 │ │   │ └Faramir arranges Imrahil's 'escape'   <-

Note how Faramir takes Imrahil to Denethor and Faramir arranges Imrahil's 'escape' are listed right after each other.

Entering your new options in three easy steps

Now, if I was to write Finduilas is not your mother with the options Faramir's real mother is Arwen and Faramir's real mother is Imrahil - WARNING: ugly mpreg flashbacks ahead!, the way to enter them in the Overview page is as follows:

Step 1: Look for the chapter you have just entered
(Of course, if the chapter had really been entered, the link would now be blue)

Step 2: Paste the options you have just written into the outline, in the lines right after your chapter
Illustration:

Chapter 1: A Stranger in the Woods
 ├Faramir says: "No, I think Damrod's right. Get twenty men together tomorrow and bring him in."
 │ ├The man is Imrahil, whom Faramir has not met since childhood.
 │ │ ├Finduilas is not your mother
Faramir's real mother is Arwen
Faramir's real mother is Imrahil - WARNING: ugly mpreg flashbacks ahead!
 │ │ └Denethor is not your father
 │ │   ├Faramir is outraged and punishes Imrahil
 │ │   │ ├Faramir takes Imrahil to Denethor     
 │ │   │ └Faramir arranges Imrahil's 'escape'   

Step 3: Make the old lines link up so everything looks pretty again
The easiest way to do that, especially if you're a few chapters deep, is to copy and paste the lines from the previous chapter, and then add the appropriate bit to the end. (But if you want to do it bit by bit, the pieces used are │ (Alt-179: keep Alt pressed down and type 179 on the numeric block of your keyboard), └ (Alt-192) and ├ (Alt-195).)
Illustration:

Chapter 1: A Stranger in the Woods
 ├Faramir says: "No, I think Damrod's right. Get twenty men together tomorrow and bring him in."
 │ ├The man is Imrahil, whom Faramir has not met since childhood.
 │ │ ├Finduilas is not your mother
 │ │ │ ├Faramir's real mother is Arwen
 │ │ │ └Faramir's real mother is Imrahil - WARNING: ugly mpreg flashbacks ahead!
 │ │ └Denethor is not your father
 │ │   ├Faramir is outraged and punishes Imrahil
 │ │   │ ├Faramir takes Imrahil to Denethor     
 │ │   │ └Faramir arranges Imrahil's 'escape'

And you're done!

Do a preview before you save (if you use a good browser, all the lines should link up seamlessly), and of course there's always the history tab should something go dramatically amiss.