Page templates & live details

Two things work together here. A template decides what a new page for a kind of thing looks like. A live detail pulls a value out of the record so the page never holds a second copy of it.

Live details

Type {{ in a page, name a detail, close with }}, and it turns into a live value read from the entity the page is about:

Born: {{ self.born }}

self means “the thing this page is about”. Change the birth date on the entity and every page showing it is already right — you are looking at the record, not at a copy you made of it.

The details you can pull in:

You type	You get
{{ self.name }}	The entity’s name
{{ self.summary }}	Its one-line summary
{{ self.born }} / {{ self.died }}	Its lifespan dates
{{ self.tags }}	Its tags, comma-separated

Plus anything your world added to that type — if your Person type has a House field, {{ self.house }} works too. See Types & fields.

When there’s nothing to show

Add a fallback after a | and it shows when the value is empty:

Born: {{ self.born | unknown }}

Without one, an empty value simply shows nothing. If a detail appears highlighted in amber, it can’t find what it’s pointing at — usually because the page isn’t linked to an entity, so self has nothing to read. Link it to one and it resolves.

Tip

Put the value in the entity’s fields and pull it into the prose — don’t type it into both. That’s the whole point: one place to correct it, and nothing to keep in step by hand.

In exports

When you export a page to PDF the live details are baked into the text as they read at that moment, because a PDF can’t go back and check. Everything else about them stays the same.

Page templates

Every built-in type ships with a starting shape — a Person page opens with Appearance, History, Relationships and Notes, and a Born: line already pulling from the record. Create an entity with Also create a wiki page ticked and you get that shape automatically.

Making your own

Build a page you like the shape of, then save it as the template for its type:

1. Open the page’s ⋯ menu and choose Create Template.

2. In Template applies to, pick New Person pages start from this (or whichever type). If the page is already linked to an entity, its type is pre-selected.

3. Name it and click Save.

From then on, new pages for that type start from yours instead of the built-in one. Yours always wins; the built-in stays as the fallback for types you haven’t customised.

Choose Any page instead if you want a general-purpose template rather than one tied to a type.

Related

• Creating & editing entities — where the page option lives
• Types & fields — adding your own fields to a type
• Linking objects to entities — what self resolves through