Copy of Illume Proofing Format
The Illume proofing format for Twine addresses two challenges. First, it’s designed for collaboration, so others can review and provide feedback. Second, it can help you manage development if you need to migrate content from Twine to another development tool like Storyline. It’s not a perfect solution, but it does provide a workflow for reviews and revisions.
What are proofing formats?
As a refresher, Twine controls how the story is displayed through two different types of formats: story formats and proofing formats. Think of formats like themes or design templates.
Story formats change how the published story appears (e.g., white background with black text or black background with white text). Different story formats have slightly different features, like a back button, or may handle images and tags differently.
Proofing formats are intended to help review stories, rather than being for end users. They can range from very simple, plain text exports to more complex options with additional features. Illume is a proofing format with additional features specifically to track changes.
Install Illume
On the Twine start page, select Formats.
Select the Proofing Formats tab. By default, you will have one proofing format available, Paperthin.
Select the Add a New Format tab.
Paste this URL into the address field. Note the https (the Illume website says http, but that won’t work). Select Add.
https://www.maximumverbosity.net/twine/Illume/format.js
On the Proofing Formats tab, select Illume.
View Illume proofing copy
Open your story. Select the story name.
In the menu, select View Proofing Copy.
This will show you an “illuminated” copy of your story in your browser. As you can see in the image below, this has a number of sections.
- Unreviewed: A list of passages (currently all unreviewed)
- Passage Summary: Length and links for each passage
- Stats: Number of passages, orphans, etc.
- Summary: Total passages plus how many have been changed and reviewed
- Reviewed: The bottom blue bar shows how much has been reviewed
Use Illume for reviews
To review, select a passage on the left under the Unreviewed heading.
If everything looks good, select Flag as Reviewed.
To make changes, type the new text in the top box. The changes will appear with a tracked version below, and the passage will be marked with a C in the passage list.
When you finish changes on a passage, select Flag as Reviewed.
To review all changes, select View Change List. You can export the change list as an HTML file.
Sending to a reviewer
If you use Illume as a tool for collaborative reviewing, but your reviewer doesn’t have Twine installed, you can Export Illumination. This create an html file of the proofing copy with all of its interactive features. Ask your reviewers can export the change list when they finish. As the ID or developer, you can use the exported change list to make revisions in Twine.
Note that the changes in Illume are only saved in the change list. The revisions do not carry through to the original Twine story automatically. That’s great if you don’t want SMEs to break your stories, but annoying if you’re using it for revisions yourself.
For this course, I can use Illume to provide you with feedback on your story, following the procedure above.
Review the change list
You can open a change list to view comments and edits from reviewers. Each passage with revisions is listed with the title and text. Additions are highlighted in green; deletions are highlighted in red. I used // to mark a comment in this example.
You may have to horizontally scroll to view all of the changes, especially if the text is long.
Use the change list as a “checklist” for your revisions. As you make changes based on the feedback, mark each passage as Done with the button at the top of each passage.
Example files
You can view a sample of the illuminated file (for reviewing) and a mocked up change list. Please download the files and open them in your browser (they won’t appear correctly in Drive).