Arcweave Documentation

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Elements ​

Elements are the most important flowchart items. They are the building blocks of your flowcharts, as each of them contains a small fragment of your story.

Arcweave's project environment with several orange rectangles emphasizing the open board's elements

By connecting elements together with connections, you create your story flow, allowing the player to make choices and progress through your game.

✅ Play-test the flow of your elements and connections in Play Mode.

Create elements ​

To create an element, do any of the following:

  • Double-click on an empty area of the current board.
  • Drag and drop the New element icon (at the left of the bottom menu) on an empty area of the current board.
  • Right-click on an empty area of the current board and select Create Element from the menu.

Arcweave's project environment. Animated GIF image demonstrating how to create an element with all three possible ways: double-clicking an empty area of the board, dragging and dropping the "new element icon", and right-clicking and selecting "create element" from the context menu.

Select elements ​

To select an element, simply click on it. To select multiple elements, hold Shift or Ctrl/Cmd and do either of the following:

  • Click each element consecutively.
  • Click and drag to create a selection rectangle.

✅ You can similarly select connections, notes, branches, and jumpers.

Delete elements ​

To delete an element, you can do either of the following:

  • Select the element and press Delete or Backspace.
  • Right-click on it and select Delete from the menu.

Edit elements ​

Each element has a title (the top, coloured part) and a content area (the main black part). To edit either, simply double-click on it.

To cycle editing between title and content, press the tab key.

To exit editing mode press Esc or click on an empty area of the board.

Formatting menu ​

When editing an element, the formatting menu appears above or below it. Select text, then click the corresponding button in the formatting menu to apply formatting.

✅ For quicker editing, use Arcweave's keyboard shortcuts.

Rich text ​

Elements support rich text formatting in both titles and content. Select text, then click the Bold, Italic, or Underline button in the formatting menu to apply the desired style.

Screenshot of an element in edit mode, showing the rich text formatting menu.

Blockquotes ​

Place your cursor in a paragraph and click the Blockquote button in the formatting menu to format the paragraph as a blockquote. This helps the text stand out as a quote or callout.

Screenshot showing a paragraph formatted as a blockquote.

Select text and click the Link button in the formatting menu to assign a URL and turn the text into a link.

Screenshot showing selected text formatted as a link.

Arcscript ​

Place the cursor in a paragraph and click the Arcscript button in the formatting menu to convert the paragraph into an Arcscript segment. See Add arcscript further down.

Markdown formatting ​

Element content supports limited Markdown syntax.

Type *one asterisk* or _one underline_ and it will automatically transform to italic text while you type.

Type **two asterisks** or __two underlines__ and it will automatically transform to bold text while you type.

You may also use the usual shortcuts of Ctrl/Cmd+B, Ctrl/Cmd+I and Ctrl/Cmd+U for bold, italic, and underlined text respectively.

✅ By the way, Pro and Team workspaces support exporting your project in Markdown.

Resize elements ​

To resize an element manually, select it and drag any of its corners or edges.

To set it to auto-resize, so it continuously adjusts to fit its content, double-click any edge or corner handle.

Arcweave's project environment. Animated GIF image demonstrating how to resize an element by dragging its bottom border.

Change element theme ​

To change the color theme of an element, right-click on it and select one of the available colors from the menu's color picker.

Arcweave's project environment. The element context menu is open (revealed by right-clicking the element in the board). An orange rectangle emphasizes the section where the theme color picker is.

Element covers ​

Elements can have a cover: an image, icon, or video that renders in Play Mode, above the element's text content.

A split screen view of an Arcweave project and its Play Mode. The focus in both sides is the starting element, with orange rectangles and an arrow emphasizing how the element's cover renders as featured image in Play Mode

As covers, you can use one of the following:

Assets as element covers ​

Images and video assets can be assigned as element covers. In Play Mode, both images and videos are rendered above the element's text content.

ℹ️ For configuring video asset playback behavior, see the page on Video assets.

Drag and drop assets to set as element covers ​

To easily assign an image or video asset, drag it from the Assets section of your project and drop it into the element.

Arcweave's project environment. Animaged GIF image demonstrating how you can drag an asset from the Assets section into an element, to assign it as element cover.

Use context menu to set element covers ​

You can also assign a cover to an element using the element's context menu. This opens your options to icons, YouTube embed, and image generation.

To set a cover using the context menu:

  1. Right-click on the element.
  2. Select Cover > Set cover in the context menu.

Screenshot of Arcweave's project environment. The element context menu is open, and an orange rectangle is emphasizing the "Set cover" option.

  1. Select a tab:

The modal for setting an element cover, open at the My Assets tab, showing the project's available image assets.

  1. Choose an image or video asset, an icon, or paste a YouTube video URL, accordingly.

ℹ️ To use your own images in a project, you must upload them as assets.

YouTube embeds as element covers ​

You can embed a YouTube video as element cover. In Play Mode, embeded YouTube videos are rendered above the element's text content.

To embed a YouTube video as element cover perform the following steps:

  1. Right-click the element and select Cover > Set cover in the context menu.
  2. Select the Embed tab.
  3. Paste a YouTube video URL in the relevant field.
  4. Configure video's playback behavior:
    • Autoplay: Video plays automatically when element loads.
    • Show controls: Player has access to video controls (play, pause, seek bar).

Arcweave's project environment. An element's "Set cover" modal is open, and an orange arrow is pointing at the "Embed" tab.

Generate covers ​

You can also use Arcweave's Image Generator to do either of the following:

  • Generate element covers: Submit a prompt and image orientation preferences; Arcweave generates a relevant image and assigns it as the element cover.

Arcweave's project environment. An element's "Set cover" modal is open, and an orange arrow is pointing at the "Generate" tab.

  • Auto-generate element covers: Let Arcweave generate an element cover using the element title and content as context, without requiring a prompt.

Screenshot of Arcweave's project environment. The element context menu is open, and an orange rectangle is emphasizing the "Auto-generate cover" option.

✅ For detailed instructions, see Image Generator.

Change element covers ​

To change an element's cover, simply set a new cover to the element in any of the ways described above.

Remove element covers ​

To remove an element's cover, right-click on the element and select Cover > Remove cover.

Audio attachments ​

Elements can optionally have one or more attached audio assets. The audio assets play during Play Mode, upon the element's rendering, as loops or one-shots.

Attach audio assets ​

To attach an audio file to an element, take the following steps:

  1. Upload the audio file to your project (see Assets).
  2. Locate the asset in your project's Assets section.
  3. Drag and drop the asset from your Assets section into the element.

Once attached, click on the asset to open its settings menu, where you can set its behavior.

Move audio assets ​

To move audio assets between elements, drag them from one element and drop them into another.

Remove audio assets ​

To remove an attached audio asset, drag and drop it from the element to an empty area of the board.

ℹ️ Removing an audio asset from an element simply removes the reference and does not delete the asset.

Attach components ​

You can attach components to an element to visually reference them in the story flow, both in the boards and in Play Mode. See components for all information.

Add arcscript ​

You can add arcscript segments to your element content, assigning values to variables or manipulating the text output.

An Arcweave element containing rich text and arcscript code segments.

To insert an arcscript segment into an element's content:

  1. Double-click the element to enter content editing mode.
  2. Place the cursor on the line where you want to insert the arcscript segment.
  3. Click the Arcscript segment icon in the formatting toolbar.
  4. Press Enter to exit the arcscript segment and continue writing in the next line.

✅ You can also toggle an arcscript segment using the shortcut Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + C.

Element properties ​

To access an element's properties, right-click the element and select Properties.

This opens the element's Properties panel, which has the following tabs:

  • Attributes: The element's attributes, if any.
  • Details: Element ID and word count.

Attributes ​

An element's Attributes tab contains the element's attributes, if any. An element can hold the following 4 types of attributes:

  • Rich text
  • String
  • Component list
  • Asset list

ℹ️ The same types of attributes are also available to components.

See attributes for all information.

Details ​

An element's Details tab contains the following information:

Element ID ​

Each element has a unique identifier in the form of:

81a30674-aa09-4eb8-8484-59298d37f984 (version 4 UUID)

Uses of this element ID include:

Word count ​

The element Details tab includes a word count breakdown:

  • Words in title
  • Words in content
  • Total words

ℹ️ Word count does not include arcscript segments in the element's content (see Add arcscript above).

Element references ​

Arcweave provides easy access to an element's references. These can be:

To access an element's references:

  1. Right-click the element, in either of the two locations:
    • In the board where it lies Screenshot of Arcweave's project environment. The element context menu is open (revealed by right-clicking an element in the current board), and an orange rectangle is emphasizing the "References" option.
    • In the Boards section of the left sidebar Screenshot of Arcweave's project environment. The element context menu is open (revealed by right-clicking an element in the Boards section of the sidebar), and an orange rectangle is emphasizing the "References" option.
  2. Select References.

In the modal that opens, you will see all references of the element in elements, jumpers, connection labels, and branches.

Screenshot of Arcweave's project environment. The element references modal is open, showing the element's references.

To visit any of the referencing items, click on the reference.

✅ Use the modal's left sidebar to view all references or to filter the ones in elements, jumpers, connection labels, or branches.