Characters and locations are essential to any story. In our very short story we use the following characters and locations:

• Central characters
  • Amy Anderson
  • Ben Brown
  • Kate Kennedy (Police Officer)
• Minor characters
  • "The Killer" (name unknown)
• Locations
  • Amy's Flat (New York City, USA)
  • Ben's Office (New York City, USA)
  • Central Park (New York City, USA)
  • Police Office (Montreal, Canada)

Consider characters are grouped into two groups: Central characters and minor characters. Let's start with the characters:

Click on the button "new character" located in the toolbar. In this tutorial the toolbar is used very often. However all functions are available on the toolbar can also be accessed via the menu.

Now enter the data for Amy as shown in the screenshot.

Some Notes: Required fields are marked with a "*". The abbreviation is filled in automatically but can be overridden if you prefer another abbreviation. If you enter an incorrect value or if you miss a required field, the field's color turn to red. If you entered a required field correctly, its color turns to green. Other attributes such as a color are optional. We left them blank for now.

Create the others characters, too. Be sure to select the category "minor character" for the killer. Since the Killer's name is not known in this story, use "The Killer" as first name and leave the last name blank.

Now the tree on the right side should look like the screen in the screenshot. To show only the characters (as in the screenshot), click to the character icon at the small toolbar located on the top of the tree. The character tree is grouped by category.

Creating a location works in a similar way. Click the button "new location" on the toolbar.

Enter the data of the first location. Don't create the other locations yet. Here comes the first tip how to work efficiently with Storybook. The next 2 locations are located in New York City, too. You don't have to enter cities or countries twice.

Click on the location icon at the tree toolbar and the locations are shown (actually there is only one shown since we have just one). As you see, the location tree is grouped by countries and cities. Now right click on "New York City" and choose "New Location".

The same dialog as before appears, but magically the city and country are already filled in for you. If a location is in the same country but in another city, simply right click to the country.

Now create the remaining locations.

This is how the location tree should looks like now. You may have noticed the "+" and "-" button located in the tree toolbar. The "+" is to expand the tree, the "-" is to collapse it.

If you want to see both characters and locations, right-click the character icon. This way, you can select the object types you want to show or hide.

Press the button with the 4 small rectangles squares to show all types of objects. Press the icon with the 4 dashed squares to clear your selection.

Continue with Part 3