Instructions for Twistory 2.1

Menu-Item Records: #i

     Records of this type define the occupations and types by which people and event, respectively, are grouped and selected in Twistory. In the default database they are all defined in the files "p-menu.ttt" and "e-menu.ttt", before any people or events are read in. Each record creates one item in either the "People" or "Events" menu. The menu item may be simple or hierarchical. Each item may have one or more occupations or types associated with it.

     Here is an example of an item in the "People" menu:

#item
<n>Leaders
<n>Monarchs<o>king<icon>purple robes<o>queen<fem><icon>purple robes
<n>Other Royalty<o>prince<icon>blue robes<o>princess<fem><icon>blue robes

This item has a single name first, and then a list of two names. The word "Leaders" will be the hierarchical menu title, and it will have two choices, "Monarchs" and "Other Royalty." Altogether, four occupations are defined: king, queen, prince and princess. Thereafter, these occupational names may be used in the <o> field of a person record. The <icon> field specifies the icon that will be used for each occupation. The <fem> field says that those occupations are implicitly female; a woman with that occupation does not need a <fem> field in her record. (Sex is used to determine colour in the genealogy windows.)

     Here are two examples of items in the "Events" menu:

#item
<n>Conflict
<n>Wars<t>war<icon>helmet<col>black
<n>Battles<t>battle<icon>swords<col>black
<n>Sieges<off><t>siege<icon>trebuchet

#item
<n>Disasters<off><t>fire<icon>fire<t>volcano<icon>volcano<t>earthquake<aka>quake<t>shipwreck<aka>wreck<icon>shipwreck

The first one is a hierarchical menu with three items, each with one associated event type. The second is a simple menu item, with four event types associated. The <col> field after the types 'war' and 'battle' means that these events types will have black bars in the time-line window. The <aka> field defines a short form for the event type name, which may be used instead in the event record. The <off> field tells Twistory to turn this menu item off initially when it loads it. (Subsequently, Twistory tries to remember your setting in its preferences.)

     One cannot mix occupation definitions and event type definitions in the same item. So a #item record may have either <o> or <t> fields, but not both. Also, the former may not have <col> fields, and the latter may not have <fem> fields.

     Finally, the occupation type "other" and the event type "misc" are reserved. They should be defined somewhere in the .ttt files, normally under items at the end of each menu called "Other" or something like that. People without any stated occupation, or events without any stated type, are placed in these categories, respectively.