Hypercompendia

Several hours later and things have slowed down.  I’ve saved the project one more time as a "test" to play with the hierarchy option, and while I’ve done some good things in separating the stories, once I get beyond that it doesn’t seem to make sense for the story layout I am working with, since each has a certain linearity (ohdeargod, it just occured to me that within the stories are memory flashbacks and that’s where the hypertext should come in*) and so beyond that point it’s just a stackup for each of the four stories anyway.  Meanwhile, the map view doesn’t show the links between the stories unless I suppose I pull them out?  If I completed the process, the main map would look dopey with only a few boxes there until I produced mapviews of each writing space.

*This is yet one more point against squishing a story into boxes rather that to write for the hypertext format, and obviously, directly into it is best.

In clearing up the multi-link problem, I see that you cannot bypass the dialogue box on text links by setting priorities as you can with writing space links (at least I think so).  Not a huge problem, if I have three links to "toes" from a single "toes" it’s just a case of linking one only, then that "toes" to another, instead of back and forth among all four instances ad infinitum.  While it would be neat to have all three from one and have them selected at random (or by guard field, once I understand that option’s abilities) I knew even when writing these pieces that it was possible to overdo the hypertext environment to turn it into a jungle out of which the reader will never emerge with any grasp of reason or sanity.

A couple of quirky annoyances have started cropping up and I think it’s a case of how I’m clicking on things.  All of a sudden when I click on the title bar of a writing space it opens up to a full window and I can’t get behind it without minimizing it to see the map view where I’m trying to match a link.  Then, I find the map view in a minimized position.  Another thing is the writing space I’ve linked from (in doing text links) flies off to the side of the map upon occasion.  Luckily those link strings keep it onboard, but it’s tough knowing exactly where to move it back into proper position.    As I say, something I have to figure out what I’m doing wrong.

The most important thing I’m learning here is that the hypertext format is not just read differently, but must be written differently, that is, the story must be told in a different manner, keeping in mind a different set of rules and elements as a base.