

Tips, Tricks & References

# Copy & paste in Creator

You can toggle symmetry in the Creator's menu or by hitting S. What if you want to mirror the top and bottom half though? This is where copy & pasting and rotation comes in handy. First we draw the top part:

Now we pick Copy from the menu (or hit C). Then we pick Rotate (or hit R) twice to get this:

Now we can move this a bit on the canvas if needed by using Ctrl-Arrow, or on tablets, the menu arrows. Then, we pick Paste (P) and get this result:

The general approach of Copying - Moving - Pasting can also be used for many other creations where you want to duplicate things, like for instance the legs of a table.

# Extending or shortening in Creator

On the desktop, when you place your mouse cursor over an area on the canvas, you can hit Ctrl+Shift+Arrows to expand or shorten the creation from this part onwards.



Before



After hitting Ctrl+Shift+Right 3 times

There are many different ways to mix colors.

Gatherables are a type you can pick in Creator with an open range of uses. Here's Godiva showing you some of the things you can do with them!

Here Godiva shows you how to create a mountable that takes one to somewhere else on auto pilot:

# Creating a body and motion

Here's Godiva showing you how to create a body, and a body motion!

You can trigger any motion by typing its name. For instance, you can type "haha" to trigger a motion named "haha".

Wildcards are allowed too, so if you have a special 'raising eyebrow' motion for your body, you can have it be triggered from any question by naming it "*?". Since questions end in the question mark, this motion will triggered whenever you ask something.

On top of that, there are some motion names which are automatically triggered by certain actions in the world:

drink Triggered when consuming a consumable that has the attributed "drinkable" eat Triggered when consuming a consumable that has the attributed "edible" hard landing When you land on ground after a longer (than normal jump) fall harmed Triggered when being harmed, e.g. touching a harmful item in the world healed Triggered when being healed, e.g. touching a healing Gatherable or Interacting lie When one starts lying down on a bed and similar map Triggered when looking at the map or scrolling it multi activity Triggered when using a Multi search Triggered when entering search keywords or scrolling the items panel sit When one starts sitting down on a chair or similar swim When someone starts swimming by entering the item type Liquid shout Triggered when typing several letters in caps take When you take a holdable item, like hitting space on a placed coffee mug throw When throwing an item you held upvote When you upvote someone, e.g. by Shift+Clicking them

Some names giving to your Living type creation have special sounds associated with them. You can also mix and match several into your creature name. For instance, create a Living named "Fred the Monkey", place it, and run past it.

Among the supported animal names are cat, kitten, cow, horse, bird, lion, liger, monkey, pony, hen...

# Making a sounds board

You can use the type Writable to create shared forums, but you can also keep a board unshared to make it private just for you. For instance, you can use a board just to collect Soundcloud.com sounds you like, pasting category threads with individual song links. This way you can easily play them back at any time later, but also find songs to play for others during parties and such.

The Manyland Time is always shown when you open the bottom left menu. You can see a table converting it to your time above. It equals Universal Time (UT/ UTC) or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and is useful to coordinate events in the world across different global time zones.

If you want, you can set a phone clock of yours to Universal Time as below to always know Manyland Time!

# Writable calendar events

Every writable forum has a connected calendar that organizes events mentioned in thread-starting comments. To have an event be listed in the calendar, use the following format anywhere in your thread-starting comment:

2015-02-25 19:00 MT

For instance, this might be your full comment:

Everyone, join the birthday party! Where: Near green mountain When: 2015-02-25 19:00 MT Bring: Gifts!

Once saved, your event is added to the calendar, which can be accessed by a top right link from the writable's frontpage. At the bottom of the calendar, there's also a way to compare your time. The table is also shown above.

Text formatting options in Readables and Writables

Please see this page.

A few things you say in chat, ended with a "!", have special effects:

to someplace This transports you to another area, where "someplace" is the name of the area (the exclamation mark is optional here). If you're the editor of an area, it will also transport you to a sub-area of that name. explorify! In a created area where you're an editor, this turns you into an explorer (a non-editor) so you can see what the area would look like to them. It will also briefly sparkle the exact spawn point. make things slower! This will temporarily disable all optimizations that may have been enabled to cater for a potentially low frame rate. For instance, if your refresh rate is low, things like certain gradients or dust effects may stop showing, but once you say "make things slower!" they'll reappear. mystates! If you're an editor of a created area, this shows the states Interactings have set for you. myspeed! This shows your current frame rate and other information. theyare somestate! As an area editor, this sets your own state by that name, where "somestate" is the name of the state. theyarent somestate! As an area editor, this unsets your own state by that name, where "somestate" is the name of the state. dontpossess somename! As an area editor, this is a way to remove something by the name of "somename" from your area possession bar. Speaking "dontpossess *!" will remove everything from the possession bar. guardto! This toggles a guard which, when enabled, won't automatically teleport you when typing "to someplace", but rather turn your chat line into a clickable teleport link. You can still insta-teleport by adding an exclamation mark, like "to someplace!". firstview! This puts you into a pretend rank 1, day 0, no achievements type state, so that you can better understand what a newly registered account would see. For instance, this will show more guidance text on the screen, bring up a welcome message, show a "more" label next to the triangle menu, show the meet button also when in created areas, show your own name tag, and more.

The search box allows different queries like:

solid Would search for the type solid. Other examples are "viewable", "wearable" and so on. hat wearable Searches for any e.g. wearable which includes the word "hat" anywhere in the title. Use other types like "solid", "body", "gatherable" and so on. chair by me Searches for anything named "chair" and created by you. coin by susan Would search for anything named coin created by Susan. coin in bin Searches among your recently deleted creations (you can also hit Ctrl+Z on desktop). "light green" Quotes search for this order of words. Also, instead of a search for the type Light, this would search any type for the text "light green".

# Adding Sound to creations

During creation, you can open the upper left menu and choose "Add Sound", then pick a sound block. Currently, there's a set of ready-made sound blocks you can find shared at the Item Repo board, and you can also find a Holder with mostly all sounds in the second hut at Helptown. Adding sound is available for the following types:

Changing Thing: Plays when approached in earshot

Plays when approached in earshot Changing on Touch: Played when turned on to second cell, or when on and going over

Played when turned on to second cell, or when on and going over Flipping Living, Changing Living: Played when touched

Played when touched Motion, Interacting Motion: Played when motion is triggered

Played when motion is triggered Item, Equipment: Played when picked up

Played when picked up Emitter, Consumable: Played when emitted or consumed

Played when emitted or consumed Transforming : Played when giving result.

: Played when giving result. Gatherable: Played when gathered

Played when gathered Mountable, Flying Mountable: Played when mounted, and randomly every now and then afterwards

Played when mounted, and randomly every now and then afterwards Wearable: Played when worn

Played when worn Holder : Played when viewed/ opened.

: Played when viewed/ opened. Environment: Like other environmental sounds, this plays semi-randomly when in sight. You need to set the attribute "Soundscape" for this to work.

Like other environmental sounds, this plays semi-randomly when in sight. You need to set the attribute "Soundscape" for this to work. Dynamic: Referenced in the Dynamic text via the PLAY SOUND command, e.g. "1s: cell 1 show, play sound"

Referenced in the Dynamic text via the PLAY SOUND command, e.g. "1s: cell 1 show, play sound" Interactings : For this type, instead of using the top menu, add one or more Sound blocks into the object reference list. You can then play it via the action /PLAYS SOUNDNAME. (You can also trigger an Interacting Motion that has a sound.)

: For this type, instead of using the top menu, add one or more Sound blocks into the object reference list. You can then play it via the action /PLAYS SOUNDNAME. (You can also trigger an Interacting Motion that has a sound.) Brain : Played when equipped.

: Played when equipped. Changer : Played when change is performed.

: Played when change is performed. Mift : Played when the Mift is first received, and when it's later clicked on the Mifts page.

: Played when the Mift is first received, and when it's later clicked on the Mifts page. Mover : Played when the Mover body first appears.

: Played when the Mover body first appears. Far Back: Played once when the center of the Far Back appears.

(If you want to have sound for a creation someone else made in an area you're preparing, look into Interacting's Someone syntax, and Area-Global Interactings.)

Most of the current Sounds are Creative Commons licensed, and you can find more creator info in the block's context menu. A big thanks to the terrific FreeSound.org, its community, and the Creative Commons initiative!

# Hiding interface in screenshots

When you hit Ctrl+F10, the side panel and other elements will be hidden. This can be useful for taking full-screen screenshots or videos where you don't want the dialogs to appear.

# The Sparkling type

# Special solid foot step sounds

The following words in a Solid's title cause special footstep sounds:

metal, grass, snow, sand, wood, energy, mud.

For instance, try naming a block "energy bridge", "metal ground", or "muddy puddle".

# Making chairs or beds

Things you create let people sit if you use one of these words anywhere in your Thing's title:

chair, sofa, cushion, bench, stool, couch, seat, bath tub, bathtub, pool, throne, beanbag, toilet, sittable.

To make something liable, use one of these in the name:

bed, mattress, lieable.

# Doing a motion while creating

To trigger a body motion while creating, on desktop press Ctrl+D and enter the name of the motion associated with your current body (like "waves").

Sometimes when there's special weather or lights in an area but you may not immediately know what the block source for this is, you can make things more visible to find it. Click on create, select Wearable, and hit '...' to open the attributes. Check 'Sees all items', save your creation, and wear it. Now, the following types start to sparkle whereever they are:

Light, Top Light, Environment, Interacting, Harmful, Changing Harmful, Deadly, Moving Deadly, Emerging Deadly, Place Name, Gatherable, Music.

Also, if you want to find the placement origin of a Dynamic where the cell positions are moved quite a bit, you can use the Insight boost "Dynamic Origin".

# 10 other things you can do...

Interactings

Interactings can be used to create a wide variety of living, thinking beings, machines, and everything else, so there's a full overview page for them.

Here are some more shortcuts you can use (the start help lists the main ones).

In Painter:

Ctrl+A toggles the Attributes picker.

Shift+G toggles the grid display showing in front (instead of behind your drawing).

Shift+i opens the Info text input, where you can put additional information about your item, like credits and a credits URL. This description then appears when clicking the (i) on an item's context menu.

Select a color in the palette boxes and Shift+Click another color to swap their positions.

Also, use Shift+Right-Click on an open Writable to make it semi-transparent, in cases where you want to still read the chat behind it.