Elements

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

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

Create independent 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.

Create connected elements

When an element is selected, you can use keyboard shortcuts to instantly create and connect a new element in one action.

Press Ctrl + Alt/Option/Cmd + an arrow key. A new element is created and automatically connected to the first one.

✅ The new element is automatically selected. To edit it, press Enter and start typing.

Select elements

Click an element to select it. To select multiple items, see Select board items.

Copy an element link

Right-click an element on the board or in the sidebar's Boards section and select Copy link. On the board, select only that element to make the action available.

Opening the link centers the element on its board in the language active when you copied it. See Share an item or board position for access requirements.

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 selection 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.

Format the element's title and content using rich text.

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

✅ Project owners and editors can also edit element content in Play Mode while playtesting, without returning to the board.

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.

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.

Element covers

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

As covers, you can use one of the following:

• Image assets
• Video assets
• Icons from Arcweave's built-in icon library
• YouTube video embeds

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.

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.

3. Select a tab:
   • My Assets: Select an image or video asset.
   • Icon Library: Select an icon from Arcweave's built-in icon library.
   • Embed: Embed a YouTube video. (See below)
   • Generate: Use Arcweave's Image generator to generate a cover.

4. 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 an element cover. In Play Mode, embedded YouTube videos are rendered above the element's text content.

To embed a YouTube video as an 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).
5. Click Embed Video.

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.

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

✅ 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.

To share an attached component, right-click its reference on the board and select Copy link. The link opens the component's dialog. See Copy a component link.

Add Arcscript

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

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 icon (<>) in the formatting menu.
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, word count, and character count.

Attributes

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

• Rich Text Field
• String Field
• Component List
• Asset List

ℹ️ These four types are also available to boards and components. Boards and components additionally support Boolean, Integer, and Float attributes; together with String Field, they act as scoped variables.

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:

• Accessing the element in the project's JSON.
• Targeting the element for CSS styling in the Style Editor; see the CSS basics guide.

Word count

The element Details tab includes a word count breakdown:

• Words in title
• Words in content
• Total words

It shows the same breakdown for characters: Characters in title, Characters in content, and Total characters.

ℹ️ Word and character counts do 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:

• The jumpers targeting the element
• The Arcscript expressions that mention the element (e.g. a visits() expression—see syntax of visits function in Arcscript page.)

To access an element's references:

1. Right-click the element, in either of the two locations:
   • In the board where it lies
   • In the Boards section of the left sidebar
2. Select References.

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

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.