RENAMING CHARACTERS

This topic applies to renaming Characters, Groups, Locations, and Items, and it is very important for Editors to understand how the process works, because it involves many updates to the database.

Most often, Characters are renamed when a secret identity is revealed, or a real name is misspelled, or just to add a clarifier to the character to differentiate from other characters with the same or similar name.

For example, we'll use a test character I created named 000 - Test Character (Unrevealed)  and he has 2 appearances. NOTE: see the topic Tips for Character & Location Entry  for how to properly name records.

Today, his real name is revealed as Homer Hamfist.

We would want to update Test Character's profile to add the revealed name, so we would edit the record, and change the name to 000 - Test Character (Homer Hamfist)

When you Save the record, after a prompt reminding you to update Edit History, the program recognizes that the Character Name has changed, and will pop up a message making sure we want to update all Appearances.

If we choose No , the update stops and Test Character's name is NOT changed.

If we choose Yes , both appearances of Test Character will be updated behind the scenes.

Because of the way Appearance records are saved in stories, and updates to the renaming process in version 4.0, it is generally okay to choose Yes with little chance of updating an incorrect record.

Once that process has finished (the more appearances, the longer it takes), we then get another prompt, asking if we want to update all Data in other Characters, Groups, Locations, and Items where 000 - Test Character (Unrevealed)  is listed. This would include Groups where he is listed as a member, Locations and Items where he is a User, and any Characters which list 000 - Test Character (Unrevealed) in some sort of relation.

This question is crucial. Because the character was named with a clarifier (Unrevealed), updating data records here is most likely okay with no issues. However if the Character was only named 000 - Test Character we would have to look at other records with similar names before choosing to update further. Because there is a character named 000 - Test Character (Donald Doofus) there would be problems renaming. See the infographic below for a breakdown on renaming records.