The Project Information feature is a way for Scratchers to type documentation that goes alongside their projects for other Scratchers to see and understand what the project is about. They are separated into two sections, the "Instructions," and the "Notes and Credits." Only the sharer of the project or a member of the Scratch Team can edit the project notes. This is to avoid false information and to ease the project's owner. However, a Scratch Team member often only edits another user's project notes to delete content that breaks the Community Guidelines. Project notes can be found on the right of a shared project's page.
Sections
There are two sections to the project notes. If the instructions are left blank, the Notes and Credits section takes up the whole column, and this also works vice versa.
Project Instructions
Project Instructions is a place where one can put instructions to their game, such as keys to press. It can also be used as a strategy guide of some sort. Some projects, commonly animations, have humorous instructions which often enforces the moral of the story. In Scratch 3.0 and above, this is the only section shown if the user did not type anything in the Notes and Credits section. If the creator of a project did not type anything in the Instructions section, it will say "Tell people how to use your project (such as which keys to press)." to them only.
Notes and Credits
- See also: Giving Credit
Notes and Credits allow Scratchers to explain some facts about how they made their project (such as how long it took them and where they got the idea) and to give credit where it is needed. It is also used to add side notes on a project, advertisements, and the version number. In Scratch 2.0 and above, this is the only section shown if the user did not type anything in the Instructions section. If the creator of a project did not type anything in the Notes and Credits, it will say "How did you make this project? Did you use ideas, scripts or artwork from other people? Thank them here." to them only.
Because of crediting problems when remixing, the section is also outlined blue and has a prompt to add credits when a project is a remix. The box and prompt goes away when something is typed in the box.
When a project is remixed, above the Instructions section, there is a message that says "Thanks to [insert original project creator's username] for [insert original project name]." The "original project creator's username" and "original project name" will link to the Scratcher's profile and to the original project. Because of this feature, users are no longer required to include remix credit.
Editing
Project notes can only be typed online as of the initial 3.0 release.
Online
Online editing can only be done one way: Clicking the project notes area on a project's page. A text box appears, and text can be inserted. However, many users have complained of the small space to write their text in—some instead type in a word processor and paste the text.[1] The project notes can only hold up to 5,000 characters.
Links
If you give a link to a project, forum thread/post, studio, or wiki article in some project notes, it comes up as a link which says (link to project), (link to forums), (link to studio), or (link to wiki) respectfully. This makes it easier to make sense of links in the project notes. This can also be used with usernames, so @user will become a link. Using the hashtag symbol (#) before a word or phrase will transform it into a link for a search of the word or phrase. This can also be done in comments.
Studio Notes
- Main article: Studio#Description
Studio Notes are the same as project notes, except they contain information about a studio rather than a project.
Common Uses
Project notes are generally used for explaining information about their project. Some examples of uses are:
- Explaining how to use the project
- Saying what the project is about
- Showing the current version number of the project (and sometimes an update log)
- Announcing how long the project took to make
- Explaining what the project does
- Giving credit to people who may have helped with the project
- Saying how the project was made, providing extra information and documentation, and links for further reading
- Warning users of some suggestive content such as jumpscares in screamers or flashy GIFs.
However, Project Notes are also used in other ways, such as:
- Giving information about the user who shared the project
- Asking people to view other projects of the user
- Telling people that a download is necessary
- Telling people what projects the creator of the project is currently working on
- Telling a story
There are also other multiple ways the Project Notes are used for, but there are too many to list all of them here.
Changing the Default Project Notes
By default, the Project Notes in a Scratch project are blank. If you want to provide questions or instructions whenever users first edit a project’s notes, you can create a default Project Notes file. Simply make a text file with your default notes, save it with UTF8 encoding, name it "defaultNotes.txt", and put it into the Scratch folder.
History
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This article or section documents something not included in the current version of Scratch (3.0). It is only useful from a historical perspective. |
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In Scratch 1.x, there was only one section called "Project notes." It could be edited when you uploaded a project from the editor as well as online.
