Characters, Places and @ Mentions

Five Rooms keeps a cast list for each project: characters, places, objects and motifs. It links them to scenes by reading your text. You never tag a name by hand.

Add someone while you write

In the editor, type @ and the first letters of a name, for example @Mar.
Choose from the list that appears. It shows cast members whose name or alias starts with what you typed, and names from the glossary.
If the person or place is new, choose New character “Mar…” or New place “Mar…” instead. Five Rooms creates the entry and puts the name in your text.

The @ doesn't stay in your text. You get the plain name, exactly as a reader will see it.

On Mac, the list opens by itself after @ and one letter. Press Escape to keep what you typed. On iPad and iPhone, the matches replace the buttons above the keyboard.

A mention is a single word: typing a space ends it. For a two-word name, type the first word and choose from the list.

Edit the cast

Open Plan, then Story ▸ Cast & Places. Use Add Character…, Add Place…, Add Object… or Add Motif… to add entries without writing them into a scene. Objects and motifs can only be added here, not with @.

For each entry you can set:

Also called: other names, separated by commas. A scene that uses any of them is linked too.
Role (characters): their part in the story, in a line.
Birth date known (characters): gives the character's age in each scene, which the continuity checks use.
On the map (places): search for a real location. Its position and time zone give sunrise, sunset and the moon for scenes set there. For historical settings, choose Use local mean time (before time zones).
Colour, used wherever the character or place is charted.
Notes: saved as you type.

Deleting an entry leaves your text unchanged. Scenes simply stop being linked to it.

How names are matched

Only whole words match: "Anna" doesn't match "Annabel".
Character and place names must match capital letters exactly, so "Rose" the character isn't confused with "a rose". Object and motif names match in any case.
Names shorter than two letters are ignored.

Who's in a scene

Open the inspector and find the Story section. Each linked character, place, object or motif has one of four states:

State	Meaning
POV	The scene's viewpoint character. Set with the POV picker.
On stage	Present in the scene.
Mentioned	Named in the text but not present.
Absent	Not linked.

Rows marked inferred come from the text or the POV picker. To change one, pick another state: your choice overrides what the text suggests. To go back to what the text suggests, choose Automatic (from the text). Use Add to Scene for anyone who is present but not named, such as a silent companion.

Each character also gets a study page in Research & Notes; see Character Studies. See also Story Time and Setting and The Story Pages.