Characters link themselves as you write

Type a character's name or one of their aliases and it links to their profile, with no @ needed, and the scene is added to their appearances.

Type a character’s name in the manuscript and it links to them, with the same dashed underline as an @ mention. Your text is never changed.

Which names link

A character links when you type their name or one of their aliases, written the way it is on their profile. Names are matched with their capitals, so “Daisy” links and “daisy” doesn’t.

• Longest name wins: “Jay Gatsby” links as one name, not as “Jay” followed by “Gatsby”.
• Shared names link to neither: if two sisters are both aliased “Miss Bennet”, that alias is left alone. Use @ to link the right one.
• Lowercase aliases don’t link on their own: an alias like “old sport” stays on the profile for your reference. Link it with @ instead.

Pronouns and nicknames that aren’t on the character’s profile aren’t found. Add a nickname as an alias and it starts linking.

What linking records

The first time a character is named in a scene, the scene is added to their Scene appearances as Mentioned.

Scenes are checked when you open them. A scene you haven’t opened since a character or alias was added won’t list that character yet. Open it and it catches up.

If you delete the name everywhere in the scene, that appearance is removed too. The exception is a character you’ve given a role, such as POV or Primary, or linked with @. That appearance stays.

Remove a character from a scene

Remove a character from a scene in its Characters tab, or from Scene appearances on their profile, and they stay out of that scene. Their name stops linking there, even where it’s still in the text, and writing it again doesn’t bring them back. Other scenes aren’t affected.

To put them back, mention them with @ in the scene, or add the scene to their Scene appearances again. Their name links on its own there again.

Set roles from the “characters linked” notice

When a scene links someone new, a notice at the bottom right of the editor says how many characters were linked. Click it to see who, and to give each of them a role in the scene. It goes away after a couple of minutes, or when you leave the scene.

The first time characters are linked in a project, the notice opens by itself with a short explanation. It does this once on each device you write on.

Stop a name from linking

Click a linked name to see which character it points to. Open profile goes to their page. Stop linking stops that exact wording from linking anywhere in the project. Muting “Gatsby” leaves “Jay Gatsby” linked.

To undo it, open your project’s settings on the Project Home page. Under Characters, muted names are listed under Not linked. Select the Link again arrow beside a name.

Turn automatic linking off

Open your project’s settings on the Project Home page, and under Characters, turn off Link character names automatically. The same switch is in the “characters linked” notice.

The setting is per project and applies to everyone working on it. Turning it off removes the underlines and stops new links, but scenes already on a character’s appearance list stay there. @ mentions work either way.