Interface and assets

The welcome screen

• New Project — you are asked to save immediately (many operations use paths relative to the project file) and to pick a template as the starting point. Templates can be your own; the Project menu can also apply a template to an existing project.
• Open Project — a .cmp on disk. Import Package (Commercial) — a .cmpkg with its media.
• Recent Projects shows the last five. Show On Startup turns the screen off; Tools → Preferences turns it back on.

The included Example Project exercises most of the features and is the same story that ChatMapper Cloud opens as “the working story”.

The application window

Pane	What it holds
Assets browser	Actors, items, locations and variables, each group collapsible, sortable and filterable by any field.
Conversations browser	The conversations. Double-click one to open it in a tab.
Main workspace	One tab per open conversation: the tree, a zoom toolbar, expand/collapse-all and node-colour buttons, and the Active Localization selector.
Conditions editor	The selected node’s Lua condition, with False Action, Priority and Delay SimStatus beneath.
Script editor	The selected node’s Lua script. Both editors have syntax highlighting, undo/redo, and a pencil button of snippet templates.
Properties	Every field of whatever is selected — asset or node — including custom fields.
Error List	Validation problems; double-click to select the node.
Reviewer Notes List	Every note in the project; double-click to jump.
Overview	A miniature of the whole tree; click or drag to navigate.
Reviewer Tools (Commercial)	Lock a conversation for editing, set a node’s review status, attach notes.
File Browser, Video Browser (View → Show)	Drag files onto node fields; the video browser previews WMV clips and embedded video.

Layouts

Every pane is a dockable tab: drag it and drop it on the docking guide that appears. The Overview and File Browser can float or auto-hide (the pin icon). View → Window Layout has presets; the layout you close with is the one you get back.

Preferences (Tools → Preferences)

Setting	Effect
Undo levels	Size of the undo stack. Lower it on a low-memory machine.
Continuous linking mode	Linking mode stays on after each link until Esc.
Disable all extensions	Do not load third-party exporters at startup.
Export empty fields to XML / Export field hints to XML	Include empty values and hint text in XML. Turn both on if the XML will be re-imported anywhere; off for the smallest file.
Enable autosave / interval	Periodic backup save to the autosave path.
Layout direction	Tree drawn vertically or horizontally.
Sibling node distance / Child node distance	Spacing of the tree.
Background opacity	Opacity of the conversation’s location image behind the tree.

Dialogue Node Setup tab: show or hide each section of the node card (or load a preset), auto-size nodes to their dialogue text, and set the preferred / minimum / maximum node size.

Simulator Setup tab: see The simulator.

Project settings (Project → Project Settings…)

Saved in the project file, so they travel with it.

• Dialogue emphasis — the colour, style (bold / italic / underline) and label of the four [em1]…[em4] tags. Labels appear as a key above the workspace.
• Custom Asset Fields — see Conditions, scripts and Lua.
• Global Lua script — runs once when a simulation starts.
• Localizations (Commercial) — the languages the Active Localization selector offers.

Assets

“Asset” means any noun in the project — actors, items, locations, conversations, variables, and dialogue nodes themselves. Each has fields you edit in Properties.

• Actors. Every dialogue node has an Actor (who speaks) and a Conversant (who listens). Add one with the gear button on the Actors group, Project → Add New → Actor, or Ctrl+Alt+A; delete with Delete.
• Items and Locations. Optional; useful in conditions (Item["Brass_Token"].Status). A location image can be shown behind a conversation’s tree and as a simulation backdrop.
• Conversations. At least one. Each opens in its own tab.
• Variables. A name and a type — number, text or boolean — chosen at creation, plus an initial value.

Anatomy of a dialogue node

Part	Meaning
ID	Unique within the project; the number scripts refer to (Dialog[12]).
Title	Author label. Never shown in simulation.
Actor / image, Conversant	Speaker and listener.
Menu Text	The player’s choice button.
Dialogue Text	What is displayed and spoken when the node plays.
Indicator pips	Whether the node has a condition, a script, or non-default condition options. Hover for details.
Delete (red ×), New child / group (green +), Make link (chain)	Buttons on the card. Shift-click the + for a sibling; Ctrl and Ctrl+Shift give the group variants.
[+] / [−] (bottom right)	Collapse or expand the subtree. Ctrl-click to collapse or expand everything beneath.