Choices, Part 2

1. Use different text in links and passage titles

In the previous section, you have learned how to add choices using links. You also got to know that when you write text in a link, the text automatically becomes the title of the new passage. But what if you want to name your links and passages something different? For example, you may want to call your passages numerically to keep track of your scenes, but your reader should, of course, not see that.

This is how it works:

Put text in double square brackets. This is what your reader will read:

[[Go left]]
Add a pipe. The pipe tells Twine to treat the text before and after the pipe differently:

[[Go left|]]
Add a text directly after the pipe. This is what you want the passage to be titled:

[[Go left|Scene 2]]

A pipe is a vertical bar | that looks a little bit like a small L.
On English PC and Mac keyboards it is located on the same key as the backslash key and you have to press Shift to write it.
On German PC keyboards, it is located together with < and > and you have to press Alt Gr to write it.
On German Mac keyboards, you have to press options + 7, to write it.

2. Watch how it's done

3. Start writing yourself

Open a passage.
Write text that leads up to a decision.
At the bottom, write as many links as you want the reader to make decisions.
Use the pipe | and different names for the passages as the link text.

You can copy the following instruction and paste it into your passage to write the link with a different passage name. Simply replace the text in the brackets with a text of your own. Keep the pipe between link text and passage text.

[[This is what the reader sees|This is the passage title only you can see]]

4. Be aware of this

Do not use spaces between the pipe and the text on both sides!

For every link you have in a passage, a new passage will be automatically created unless you use the title of an already existing passage. In this case, the link will connect to that passage. Make sure your capitalization is exactly the same as your existing passage name!

If you rename the passage title, the text for the passage in the associated link will be automatically updated.

If you change the text for the passage in a link, a new empty passage with the updated title will be automatically created. The old passage gets disconnected.

5. Try it out with the sample story

To better understand this topic, you can look at the sample story from the Introduction section. Download and import it here if you have not done so yet.

Open the story.
Look at the link in the passage “Cut through the mirrored glass”. You can see that the link at the bottom of the passage has a pipe | between two different pieces of text. The first one becomes the name the reader sees and clicks on while playing, and the second the title of the new passage.
Look at the links in the three passages called “Link 1", "Link 2" and "Link 3”. Here we played with linking to already existing passages. Eventually, the reader will discover that what they’re looking for is actually behind the painting (sorry for the spoiler!), and they’ll move forward into the passage called ‘Links With Variables’ in Twine
Play through the passages by clicking “Play” and a playable version opens in your browser.

6. Takeaways

Use different text in links and passage titles: [[This is what the reader sees|This is the passage title only you can see]]

Creating a new link automatically creates a new passage. The title will be the text you put into the brackets after the pipe |.

Renaming passages automatically updates the text in the link after the pipe.

Renaming the text in the link after the pipe creates a news passage with that title and disconnects the old passage.

Congratulations! You can now write your first interactive story.

In the next sections, you will learn about variables that can help you add more flavor to your story. We recommend starting these lessons when you feel comfortable using links and Twine.