Help:PDA Guide

Introduction

This guide will attempt to familiarize you with the workings of your new PDA device. it'll walk you through initial setup, and is intended as a friendlier version of the datapad helpfile in game.

Initial Setup

When you purchase your pDA, it will have no information recorded in it. As such, it won't be very useful to you until you create, and log into an account. to do that, follow these steps,:

1. Type, "datapad <device> register <username>"
2. Type, "datapad <device> access", and take note of the ID of your newly created account
3. Log into the account by typing, "datapad <device> login <account id>"

Following and Followers

the PDAs function like social media. As such, you have the ability to follow others, and others have the ability to follow you. In order to follow someone, you'll need their CommNet ID, simply ask around. Once you have someone's ID, it's as simple as:

• datapad <device> follow <CommNET id>

to start or:

• datapad <device> unfollow <CommNET id>

To stop following them. Following someone sends out a request, and the recipient must accept that request to complete the process. this will be covered in the next section.

It is possible to see a list of accounts you follow as well as those accounts who are following you:

• datapad <device> following
• datapad <device> followers

The Inbox and Outbox

The inbox and outbox function similar to email, in that documents that are sent to you show up in your inbox, and documents you send show up in your outbox. However, do note that since this is essentially a social media platform, your inbox will contain documents your followers make public in addition to items that are sent only to you. The following commands allow you to check your inbox and outbox respectively:

• datapad <device> inbox
• datapad <device> outbox

Follow requests will show up in your inbox and will be marked as such, and can be accepted by typing:

• datapad <device> accept <id>

Any document that is in your inbox or outbox can be opened with:

• datapad <device> open <id>

More on that in the next section.

Documents

Viewing and Interacting

It's possible to view documents that show up in your inbox, as well as documents that you've sent, which appear in your outbox. IN addition, if you know the CommNet ID of an individual, that can be opened as well. If they've written any public content, it'll be displayed. The command is:

• datapad <device> open <id>

Each line of the document is preceded with a number in square brackets ([]). You'll use these if you need to edit documents, but also, certain types of media, such as photos, sketches, and voice clips must be interacted with in order to view them. The command to do that is:

• datapad <device> interact <line number>

note that you provide the line number, not the ID, because the open document is always used.

Creating

The Short Way

There are two quick ways to send out a document:

• datapad <device> sms send <id> <title> = <message>
• datapad <device> sms broadcast <title> = <message>

Both of these commands send a short message, but differ in how they do so. The first takes an ID, and is used to send an sms message to someone's account. the second one does not taken an ID, and is used to send the message to all of your followers. Please note that as long as you own a CommNet object (a document), you can edit it at any time, even after it is sent.

The Longer Way

We also have two commands for creating a document. they are:

• datapad <device> compose <title>
• datapad <device> compose public <title>

the difference between them is simply that adding, "public" before the title sets the visibility of the document such that anyone can view it. Otherwise, the document is private, and will only be visible to those with whom you share it.

Editing

Editing is the bread and butter of creating documents on your PDA. Documents are inherently multimedia capable. Following is a list of media types along with the data they take.

text

<message content>

Voice

<message content>

Photo

<LOOKable target>

Sketch

<drawing content>

To edit a document, it must be open, and it must be owned by you. When you create a new document, it is opened automatically, so you can get straight to work.

To add a new line to the document, use the, "append" command:

• datapad <device> <append> <type> [data]

The data, in this case, referring to the type of content that the given type takes, as shown above. For instance, text simply takes the text to be added, voice takes the message you'd like to send, photo requires something you can target in game, and sketches take the content of the depiction you'd like to add. A note on photos: You can use the word, "here", to snap a picture of the entire room rather than limiting it to a character or object.

to insert a line or type of media after another line, use the following syntax:

• datapad <device> insert <line> <type> [data]

Note that the only difference between inserting and appending is that with insert, you are providing a line number after which the new media will appear. It's otherwise the same process as appending a line.

If you want to remove a line, you can do:

• datapad <device> erase <line>

Swapping lines is also possible with:

• datapad <device> swap <line 1> <line 2>

Replacing the contents of a line without deleting it first can also be done like this:

• datapad <device> replace <line> <type> [data]

note that this is nearly identical to the insert command, and the line given is the line that will be replaced with the new content.

Access Control

You can control who is able to see CommNet objects you own. As shown above, this can be done at the time of document creation, but it can also be toggled at any point after that by using:

• datapad <device> public

As with the editing commands, this works on the currently open document. If a document is private, you can still share it with others by:

• datapad <device> share <id>

Where the ID refers to the recipient's account.

Conclusion

While this isn't a comprehensive list of things that can be done with the PDAs, it covers common use cases. For the rest, type, "help datapad" in game. If you're still struggling after reading this, consider reaching out on the Discord.