Story Almanac Categories

[Zane_Marlowe]

Just curious, is there a way to set which topics are organized under the top-level groups in the Story and World almanacs? So, currently when I click on a new topic in "People," I've got the option of creating a new Individual or a new Entity topic.

Can I assign other categories to the "People" (or other) top-level almanac groups? How would I do that?

[Viral Platypus]

All the way up at the top there's 'Home/Manage/Help'. Go to manage, then select Categories. This is where you edit your Almanac Topic and Mechanics Article Categories. You can add new ones if you want, but keep in mind that shared material may not have the same categories as you, so they recommend that you tweak the ones there unless you really fee the need to make big changes.

[Viral Platypus]

Oh, Also, you can set the sorting to put things under their 'container' So, if you have a guy 'contained' in his shop, he will show up as a sub-item under the shop rather than an individual under people. It's 'Show Containing Topic Heirarchy' in the Almanac Options.

[Bidmaron]

Wouldn't you want the guy to show up in both places? I didn't notice that is what is happening. Why would you make it work like that?

[meek75]

Originally Posted by Bidmaron

Wouldn't you want the guy to show up in both places? I didn't notice that is what is happening. Why would you make it work like that?

I don't know the answer to that question. Maybe it has to do with how the database is set up. Being able to have things contained in multiple topics is very high on my wish list though. I realize I can use the relationships to detail multiple connections, but in practice its much easier to just look over at the almanac tree and select things from there.

[Parody]

Originally Posted by Bidmaron

Wouldn't you want the guy to show up in both places? I didn't notice that is what is happening. Why would you make it work like that?

Because sometimes it makes sense in your personal form of organizing your campaign for an item to belong in a container. That's when you'd use a Containing Topic. There's always Relationships to show a relationship without being in a container.

I like it for places: shops are in their cities which are in their nation on their continent. I've also been using it for mechanics like skill specializations under their default skill. I haven't used it much for people, but I think I would if I wanted to, say, have a placeholder person for the name and basic description of a shopkeeper who isn't that important otherwise. I don't know for sure, since I don't have a lot of people detailed anywhere yet. :)

Hope this helps.

[Zane_Marlowe]

Super helpful so far about organizing articles under their containing topics. Is there a way to add or change the groups under which these are all organized? I.e., currently it's, People, Groups, Places, Things, Events, and Other. Can these be added to or changed?

[Parody]

Not currently, no. Under Manage/Preferences you can change the view to show all of the categories with or without the "Simple Grouping"/"Family" but the Simple Groupings and Families are fixed.

Added: You can hide empty groups in the Navigation Pane Options (F6) menu.

[Zane_Marlowe]

Great stuff, thanks again!

[Maidhc O Casain]

Is it possible to create new Simple Groups, and to hide current ones?

For example, in the Mechanics Reference I'd like to hide the Simple Group "Abilities" and create a new one called "Powers." Is this something a user can do? If so, how would I go about it?

Thanks!