Items

Items are the building blocks of Knovis. Each item has a label, a thumbnail image, and a target, the content it opens when activated. Items are stored independently and can be placed in any number of environments.

Creating an item

In edit mode (Ctrl+E), right-click the canvas background and choose New Item.... The dialog has three main sections: appearance, target, and metadata.

Item targets

The target is what happens when you double-click an item. Knovis supports these target types:

Linking vs. copying files

By default Knovis copies the file into your Knovis Data folder. Once copied, the item no longer depends on the original location, which is useful for documents you want to keep alongside your environments regardless of where the source file ends up.

Tick Link Only (Do not copy file to Knovis data folder) to leave the file where it is; Knovis then remembers its path. This is the right choice for large media files you don't want duplicated, for programs, and for files that are actively maintained in another location. It is ticked for you for programs (.exe) and web addresses.

Thumbnail images

Each item displays as a thumbnail with a label. You can set the image by:

• Dragging an image file onto the image area in the dialog
• Pasting an image from the clipboard (Paste Image)
• Using Generate Image From Source to capture one from the target

How Generate Image From Source works

For PDFs, EPUBs, websites, and video, Knovis can generate a thumbnail by opening the content in a viewer. When you click Generate Image From Source, the viewer loads. Navigate to the page, frame, or section you want to use as the thumbnail, then close the viewer. Knovis captures the view at the moment you close it and sets that as the item's image. (With inline viewing on, the button reads Update Preview.)

The Always open at this view option goes one step further: it saves not just the image but your exact position in the content. When the item is next activated, it reopens at that page or timestamp, not from the beginning. It appears when the item is set to open with a Knovis viewer (Open with Knovis Player, Reader, Browser or Viewer).

Filenames and titles

When you create an item, Knovis names its file after the Title DataTag (up to 50 characters) followed by the target type. Characters other than letters, digits and spaces become underscores, so a title of "Season 3 Overview" on a file target becomes Season 3 Overview_file.itm. This keeps your itm/ folder readable, so you can find and identify items without opening the app.

Changing the Title in the item's edit dialog renames the file too. If other environments use the item, Knovis asks whether to Rename Everywhere (and update those environments) or Save as Copy.

Why items are binary files

Item files (.itm) store images in a format that Knovis can read instantly, similar to how video game textures are pre-processed for fast rendering. This is what keeps the canvas smooth when you're scrolling and zooming through hundreds of items.

Reusing items

Items exist as files in your Knovis Data folder. When you place an item in an environment, you're placing a reference to that file. The same item can appear in any number of environments, and editing it in one place updates it everywhere it appears.

Editing items

In edit mode, right-click an item on the canvas and choose Edit Item, or double-click it, to reopen the dialog. Changes apply everywhere the item is used.

Inline vs. standalone opening

Media, documents, websites and 3D models open in a Knovis viewer by default (Open with Knovis Player, Reader, Browser or Viewer). You can instead open them inline, embedded directly in the canvas, with the item's Play/Read/Open/View inline checkbox, or in your computer's usual application. See The Knovis Viewers for details.

Item templates

A template is a reusable base item. It defines default values (a thumbnail image, DataTag field values, settings) that regular items can inherit from. Templates themselves are not placed on the canvas; they exist as definitions that individual items reference.

Creating a template

Set up an item the way you want the template to look, then click Save as Template in its edit dialog. Templates are stored in the itm/templates/ folder of your Knovis Data, separate from regular items.

Creating an item from a template

In edit mode, right-click the canvas background (or use the edit toolbar) and choose Create from Template.... A list of your templates appears; pick one and click Create Item from Template, and Knovis opens a pre-filled New Item dialog with the template's image and field values already set. You can override any of them before saving. Edit Template in the same list opens the template itself.

To give an existing item a template, right-click it in edit mode and choose Apply Template.

How inheritance works

When an item references a template, it inherits the template's thumbnail image and any DataTag field defaults the template defines. The item's own values always win; template values only fill in fields the item hasn't set itself. Changing a template takes effect when you next reload the environment.

Image inheritance is efficient: if 200 items share one template and none of them have their own image, Knovis loads the template image once and all 200 items point to the same copy in memory.

When templates are useful

Templates are most useful when you have a type of item that appears repeatedly with consistent visual style or metadata structure, such as episodes in a series, papers in a research collection, or tracks in an album. Set up the template once with the right image treatment and field defaults, then create instances quickly without filling in the same values over and over.