Tech Tip: Starting Twine, Saving, and Backing Up Stories

Hello and welcome to a very basic Twine introduction. I learned a lot about Twine from Keegan Wheeler when Dr. Gibbs connected us to talk about Twine. I've also learned a lot from Twine's Wiki and the YouTube series listed in a blog post Keegan made that you can read here! I wanted to write up my own tech tip from the perspective of someone who has only recently begun using Twine!

1. Getting Started

Twinery.org is the official website for starting your own twine story. On the front page, there is different information about patch updates, downloads, and more. Something I really like about Twine is there is the option to use it online. This means you don't have to download any sort of program to create your stories. 

Something very important to note about this is that the information is saved to your browser. This means that there is no login username and password that you use to access your stories. It is just saved to whatever internet browser you're using, such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc. This can sometimes cause a problem with working on projects from multiple computers. 

For example, if I save my work in Google Chrome on my work computer (where I get a lot of my school work done), I won't be able to just open my project on my personal laptop later, even if I am using Google Chrome. There is a solution, though! Which leads me to...

2. Saving and Backing Up Stories

Backing up Twine stories is very very important. Since everything is only saved in your browser, one cookie/cache clear will wipe out everything saved in Twine. This is why "publishing to file" is your best friend. Here is where you can find it when you're editing your story:

Publish to file will download an HTML file to your computer. This HTML file will allow you to always have your work backed up, as well as allow you to edit your story in multiple browsers. 

Going back to my earlier scenario, if I am working on my project on my work computer, but want to work on my story on my laptop, I can use publish to file. Once I have the file, I can email it to myself. Then, on my laptop, I download the file from my email. Then, I go to twinery.org, click "use it online" and I will click "import from file" on my homepage: 

You will be able to upload the file you downloaded from your email and pick up editing where you left off! 

These are just a couple of things that I thought would make a good Twine Tech Tip post, since they are important and things I find myself using most often. I hope they helped you understand Twine a bit!