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Basic Arcweave tutorial | Part 17: More project features ​

This tutorial covers several quality-of-life improvements available in Arcweave's project environment:

Video tutorial ​

Watch this tutorial as a video:

⚠️ This video does not reflect the latest updates to Arcweave's UI.

✅ You can play the finished version of the Tutorial Project here and explore its diagrams and structure here.

Ways to create jumpers ​

There are 3 ways to create a non-empty jumper in Arcweave.

Create jumpers from Boards section ​

The first way to create a jumper (and the way we've already mentioned) is to drag an element from the Boards section of the left sidebar into an empty area of the board. Use this method when you have located the target element in the left sidebar.

  1. Go to the Boards section of the left sidebar.
  2. Find the board where the desired element is.
  3. Expand the board by clicking on the drop-down arrow next to its icon.
  4. Find the element by its name.
  5. Drag and drop the element into the empty jumper (or an empty area of the board).

Create jumpers from Search field ​

If you don't know where the target element is, look it up in Arcweave's Search. Then, you can drag it from the search results into the board:

  1. Click Search project at the right side of the top menu.
  2. Look up the desired element, typing part of its text content or title in the search field.
  3. From the search results, drag the element into an empty area of the board.

Create jumpers by pasting ​

When you can easily access the target element in a board, you don't need to search for it again. Instead, you can copy and paste it as jumper:

  1. In the board, click the element to select it.
  2. Copy the element:
    • Press Ctrl/Cmd + C or
    • Right-click and select Copy from the menu.
  3. Paste as jumper:
    • Right-click an empty area of the board and select Paste as jumper from the menu or
    • Press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + V.

✅ Arcweave has a long list of keyboard shortcuts. Make sure you check them out!

Component references ​

In Part 5 of this tutorial, you learned how to attach components to elements and other components. In Part 6 you learned how to mention a component in rich text content.

Overall, you can attach or mention components in the following items:

  • Elements
    • Attach to element
    • Mention in element content
    • Mention in element title
  • Components
    • Attach to component list attribute
    • Mention in content of rich text attribute
  • Labels
    • Mention in label text
  • Notes
    • Mention in note content

As the component attachments and mentions increase, it can be useful to see a report of everywhere a given component appears:

  1. Go to the Components list in the left sidebar.
  2. Right-click a component and select References.

This shows every element, component, connection label, and note where the selected component is attached or mentioned. Clicking any entry in the list takes you directly to the item that includes the reference.

Create components by mentioning ​

You already know how to mention an existing component in the rich text of an element, note, label, or attribute.

What you may not know is that mentioning a non-existing component will create it.

For example, typing @dead_frog in an element's text shows an option to create a new component called dead frog.

Pressing Enter creates the component automatically, and it becomes immediately available in your Components list.

✅ Use an underscore in place of a space when typing a multi-word mention.

Sticky connections ​

By default, connections between board items automatically reposition themselves, moving from side to side, or top to bottom, when you reposition the items in relation to each other.

Make connections sticky ​

To make a connection stick to a specific side of an element, a jumper, or a branch instead:

  1. Grab the connection's arrowhead or tail.
  2. Drag it close to the edge of the item (not into the body of the item), until you see an orange border highlighting that side.
  3. Drop it there.

The connection now stays fixed to that side of the item, regardless of how you reposition the connected items.

Revert connections to auto ​

To revert a connection to its default, automatic behavior:

  1. Grab the connection's arrowhead or tail.
  2. Drag it into the body of the item (not just the side) until the entire border is highlighted in orange.
  3. Drop it there.

The connection returns to its automatic state.

Automatic / manual item height ​

New elements and notes automatically adjust their height to fit their text content.

You can however manually resize an element or note to a specific height:

  • Drag the top or bottom side.
  • Drag a corner in a way that also changes the height.

✅ A scroll bar appears if the content exceeds the visible area.

To revert to automatic height, double-click the orange border of the element or note. This resizes the item to fit its content and returns it to "auto" height behavior.

YouTube embeds as element covers ​

You can embed a YouTube video directly as an element's cover.

  1. Right-click the element and choose Cover > Set cover.
  2. Select the Embed tab.
  3. Paste the YouTube video's link in the respective field.
  4. Select whether the video should Autoplay when the element loads and whether player controls should be available to the viewer (Show controls).
  5. Click Embed Video.

The video's YouTube thumbnail is used as the element's cover. In Play Mode, the video plays directly over the element's content and any attached components.

This feature can be used to include a video reference alongside your content, or to build a fully interactive movie that takes advantage of Arcweave's state handling (variables and conditions) to drive the story.

✅ Arcweave also supports video assets, allowing you to assign videos as element covers. Among its project templates, see Interactive Movie Example, which demonstrates this feature.