Drag and Drop
- 1 Common Functionality
- 1.1 To Desktop
- 1.2 To Chatbox
- 1.3 To Hotbar
- 1.4 Into a Text Area
- 1.5 Onto A Map or Image
Almost everything can be dragged and dropped in Fantasy Grounds VTT to serve one function or another, and sometimes multiple functions when combined with action keys like [SHIFT], [CRTL], and [Alt].
NOTE: All examples on this page were created using the Dungeons & Dragons 5e Ruleset and the D&D 5e Tutorial Campaign that is available for free in Fantasy Grounds VTT. The default Core theme is also used.
Items can generally be dragged onto the desktop, into the Chatbox, into text boxes or Stories to create links, into the hotbar for quick access, and many other places without restriction. However, dragged items can also have different effects depending on where they are dropped.
For example, if the “Blinded” effect is dragged from the Effects window and dropped onto a character on in the Combat Tracker, that character suffers its effects immediately. If dragged into the Custom panel in the Effects window, it becomes a new, editable item that can differ from the original. If dragged to the Hotbar and clicked, it will appear in the Chatbox to show that it has been clicked.
Drag and Drop functionality was covered briefly in the Basic Actions page, but here we will explore the drag and drop functionality a bit more in-depth, providing visual examples and other related insights.
For the most common drag and drop examples on this page, items from the Sidebar will be used. The Sidebar is the collapsible menu to the right of the main Fantasy Grounds VTT desktop. If additional functionality or special use cases are added in the future, they will be added in their own section below the Common Functionality section.
Common Functionality
To Desktop
Dragging the menu item to the desktop will open that window as if the menu button was simply clicked. The benefit of dragging the menu item to the desktop is being able to place the window exactly where you want it. The dragged window will open with the center of that window appearing beneath the cursor when released.
To Chatbox
Dragging a menu item to the chatbox will show and be clickable for both GM and all Players in the session. If the menu selection’s window has been opened previously, it will also open in the same location when clicked on from the Chatbox. If that window has not been opened in the current sessions, it will default to the center of the FGVTT window.
To Hotbar
The Hotbar is the row of numbered slots at the bottom of the FGVTT desktop used for storing items for quick retrieval later. This was covered briefly in the Common Shortcuts & Hotkeys page.
When a Sidebar item, or any other item, is dragged to a slot on the Hotbar, it will remain in the slot until manually removed.
Much like the Chatbox, if the menu selection’s window has been opened previously, it will also open in the same location when clicked on from the Hotbar. If that window has not been opened in the current sessions, it will default to the center of the FGVTT window.
Into a Text Area
Items can be dropped into text windows as clickable item shortcuts.
When an item is dragged into an empty section of the window with no text, the link and its full name will be shown.
When an item it dragged to the beginning of a line of text, it will only show the link’s icon and will indent the text slightly as shown below.
Onto A Map or Image
If an item is dragged into a map or onto an image, it will show the item’s icon, which we refer to here as a Pin. Pins allow quick access to whatever is dropped there, be it a commonly-opened menu item, individual items such as weapons or armor, links to other maps or images, rollable tables, Story or book entries, etc.
When a Pin is dropped onto a map, it is tied to the grid size associated with that map. They default to about 50% of a grid square.
You can learn more about grid size, how to change it, how to make it appears differently on maps, and more on the Working with Images as the GM page.
Link: Working with Images as the GM
If a Pin is too large or too small, depending on zoom level of the map, you can shrink or enlarge the Pin by holding down CTRL while scrolling the mouse wheel up or down.