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Inventory management tips Get organized Be specific Organization tips Received items Other useful features Advanced Inventory Management How to get an inventory item-count Tips for recovering lost items How to find the UUID of an inventory item Inventory management tips Searching for an item in your inventory can be a frustrating affair; some Residents have over 150,000 inventory items to sort through! Large inventories can present many problems, from difficulty finding objects to technical problems like inventory lists which fail to load completely or even difficulty logging in. Luckily, you have many handy features at your disposal to help you organize and keep track of all your worldly possessions. Get organized The first step toward keeping track of your items is keeping them organized. By creating a system of folders in your inventory, you can easily categorize objects you've acquired. You can make as many folders in your inventory as you want, but try to create your folders using a nested system -- this means having a few major category folders in the top level My Inventory folder, then creating sub-folders in those major categories. ⚠️ Important Tip Folders that are directly in the My Inventory folder are called "top level folders". This is the list of folders that Second Life loads when you log in. If there are too many folders in your My Inventory folder, your login may take a long time (or even fail altogether). Be sure to organize your folders! To create a new folder: Right-click an existing folder in the Inventory window and choose New Folder. Give your folders names that really help you remember what you put in them. "Cars," "Board Game Pieces," and "Hippo Costume Parts" are good examples, but a more detailed naming system may be necessary if your inventory is extensive. Note: Folders with unique icons (such as Library or Clothing) cannot be deleted, moved, or renamed. Be specific How can you best organize your objects such that you can easily find them later? You may find that sorting items into categories can help narrow your search considerably. For example: Having distinct categories for textures can make it easier to find similar content: Textures: Fabric Glass Liquid Metal Stone Wood Once you're comfortable with your folder structure, move things into the new folders (just drag-and-drop) so that you can find them easily. You can also select and move multiple items at the same time by holding down the Shift key. Organization tips You can create multiple copies of objects in your inventory. For instance, you may want to wear the same shirt as part of two different outfits: to make a second copy of the shirt, right-click it, select Copy, select the folder for your second outfit, right-click it, and select Paste. For more information on managing your wardrobe, see Outfits. You can open a second inventory window for easy organizing (drag items from one window to a folder in the other window) and easy passing of objects (drag things from one window to a calling card in the other). To open a second window, click the Gear icon at the bottom of the Inventory window and select New Inventory Window. Empty your trash often! Reducing the total number of items in your inventory helps it load faster. If you find yourself with a large number of duplicate objects cluttering your inventory, you can use the following procedure to find and eliminate them: Open your Inventory window by clicking the Inventory button at the side of your screen. Enter the exact name of the duplicated item in the search bar at the top of the Inventory window, and press the Enter key. Wait a few moments while Second Life indexes and searches your inventory. If you have a very large number of objects in your inventory, this step may take a few minutes. Select all the duplicate items found in your search. Make sure to leave at least one for yourself! Press the delete key. To restore your normal Inventory view, click the X button in the search bar, or close your Inventory window and reopen it. ⛔ Warning! Once you empty your trash, there is no way to retrieve deleted items! Be careful! Received items The Received items feature allows you to conveniently manage all recently received Marketplace items in your inventory. Whenever you receive new inventory items or folders from shopping on the Marketplace, they appear in an expandable pane at the bottom of the Inventory window. To use your newly purchased items, drag the folder either into your main Inventory window for storage and organization, or drag an object icon onto the ground to be rezzed. You can also right-click an object and select "Add" to attach it to your avatar; many purchases arrive as a HUD which unpacks the content for you when you wear it. ℹ️ Important Note Be sure to move your purchases out of your Received Items folder! Filling up the Received Items folder can cause inventory issues or potential content loss. Other useful features There are several subtle-but-welcome features on the Inventory window, including: X Marks the Spot: An X, which clears the current query when pressed, appears at the very right of the search bar when you've entered text. Inventory window configuration options are available by clicking the gear icon (⚙️) on the lower left of the window. Sort Folders Always by Name: When you check this it forces your folders to display alphabetically, even if Sort by Most Recent is also selected. If you uncheck Sort Folders Always by Name, folders with the newest received items appear at the top of the list. Try sorting folders alphabetically and by date and see which method you like best! Sort System Folders to Top: Selecting this option places all system folders on top. Show Filters: Lets you modify and reset the current filters, showing and hiding categories of inventory items to declutter your view. You can also choose to show only items added Since Logoff or since a certain number of Hours Ago or Days Ago. Tip: The My Inventory and Recent tabs each have their own unique filter settings, meaning that what you filter in one tab does not affect the other. You can use this feature to your advantage by sorting your inventory into two different views at the same time. If you've never used filters before, try this to get a hands-on feel: In the Inventory window, click the My Inventory tab and open a lot of folders by clicking on the white arrows. As they expand, the arrows rotate to point downwards, indicating that the folders are open. Click on the Gear icon and select Show Filters. In the Filters window, uncheck all the category checkboxes and watch things "disappear." Don't worry, you haven't lost anything! It's all still there; it's just hidden. Re-check the boxes to make the items reappear. You can also toggle all item types with a single click by using the All and None buttons in the Filters window. Below these is Always show folders, which displays all folders when doing a search. Unchecking it displays folders containing matches. Tip: If ever you think you've lost inventory, check that your filters are showing everything! Try selecting Reset Filters from the Gear icon menu in the Inventory window. Advanced Inventory Management There are a number of other tricks which aren't immediately obvious but are extremely useful for highly-efficient organization of your inventory. Multi-View: Click on the Gear icon and select New Inventory Window so you have two inventory windows open at once. Now you can move items back and forth between two folders and have a different view in each one. What's more, each window has its own set of filters. Drag and Drop: This is very useful if you want to sort your recent items. Just click-and-drag any folder or item (Ctrl+Left-click to select multiples) from within one tab to the other tab's title: the view switches immediately. Move the cursor over the folder you're looking for, and release the mouse button. The folders spring back quickly, and your items have been moved! Filter Master: Check Since Logoff or enter a time for both tabs, and you have what amounts to two Recent tabs. If unsure of your changes, just use the Gear icon menu to Reset Filters. Note: Main system folders, meaning the ones with special icons like Body Parts and Objects, can't be moved. Neither can the Library's contents or the Trash. How to get an inventory item-count To find out how many items you have in your inventory, type anything into the search field at the top of the Inventory window. Wait a few moments while Second Life indexes your inventory, then look at the item count in the title bar of the window. Tips for recovering lost items If an item mysteriously disappears from your inventory, use the the procedures below to locate it. Click the Inventory button on the toolbar and select the Recent tab. Items returned since last log off will be stored here. Clear the Second Life Viewer's cache. Search for the item by entering its name in the Filter Inventory field of the Inventory window. Search the Lost And Found folder. Search the Trash folder. Search folders listed at the top of the Inventory window. Your filter settings may be hiding some of your inventory items. To reset them, click the Gear icon at the bottom left of the Inventory window and choose Reset Filters. How to find the UUID of an inventory item If you make extensive use of LSL scripts, you may want to know the UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) of a texture or sound in your avatar's inventory. You can easily copy any inventory item's UUID to your computer's clipboard by right-clicking it and selecting Copy Asset UUID. This method is great for finding sound and texture UUIDs, but is not always effective for other inventory types. Here is a short list of exceptions: A notecard's UUID changes every time it is edited and saved. There is no way to find an object's UUID until it is rezzed inworld; this is because each rezzed copy of the object must have a unique UUID. Similarly, if you take an object into your inventory, it is assigned a new UUID the next time you rez it. There is no way to find an LSL script's UUID while it is in your inventory, for similar reasons. You must have full permissions on any inventory item to copy its UUID; this also applies to calling cards, which are by nature "no-transfer" items. LSL has several detection functions that can help determine an object or avatar's UUID. If you are interested in learning to use LSL for this purpose, see the LSL Portal. .example-table td { padding: 30px; }

System folders The Library How to retrieve old Library items How to hide the Library Reducing inventory clutter Tips for recovering lost inventory items How to find the UUID of an inventory item This article contains detailed information about certain inventory features and advanced tips for managing and troubleshooting your inventory. System folders A system folder is a special folder that can't be moved inside of other folders or deleted. To view the system folders: Click the Inventory icon on the toolbar. Select the MY INVENTORY tab. System folders have the following attributes: As the name implies, the system depends on these folders to sort and help you organize your inventory, therefore they cannot be deleted. The folder icon for a system folder has a hand logo. User-created folders are plain. They appear by default at the top-level of your inventory. If you wish to change this, click the Gear Icon at the bottom of the INVENTORY window and uncheck Sort System Folders to Top. Inventory items you create, upload or receive are automatically sorted into an appropriate system folder, such as Objects, Textures, or Scripts. No inventory item type is restricted to a single system folder. For example, if you create a pair of pants in the Clothing folder, you're free to move it into another system folder, or to a folder within a folder in the Clothing folder. Special cases: The Lost And Found and Trash folders are specifically for items you have lost or plan to throw away. You can right-click either folder and choose Empty Lost And Found or Empty Trash, respectively, to permanently delete everything inside the folder. Lost And Found contains items that have been returned to you from being rezzed somewhere in Second Life. The Current Outfit folder has links to everything you're wearing, and actually shows the same items as My Appearance - Wearing. My Outfits contains individual folders, each with a icon and usually containing a complete avatar look. My Outfits folders can contain original items if you intentionally move them in here, but otherwise they contain links. Outfit folders themselves are not system folders; they can be moved outside of My Outfits. Learn more about creating outfits. Note: Although you can't delete, rename, or edit any system folder properties, you can put items inside of them. This feature allows you to create sub-folders within the system folders. This is a good habit to get into, as organized sub-folders help your inventory load more quickly. ⚠️ Important Tip Folders that are directly in the My Inventory folder are called "top level folders". This is the list of folders that Second Life loads when you log in and it includes both required System Folders and any custom folders you might have made. If there are too many folders in your My Inventory folder, your login may take a long time (or even fail altogether). Be sure to organize your folders! The Library While the Library appears in your inventory and can be considered a system folder in some ways, you can't alter it or its contents at all. It contains stock content provided by Linden Lab for use by all Residents. The way this folder works is similar to a "shared drive" on your computer network. All Residents share the same content at any given time. Note: You cannot use objects in the Library until you copy them to your own inventory. You can drag a copy onto the ground, your avatar, or another folder in your inventory. How to retrieve old Library items From time to time, Linden Lab adds, edits or deletes content from the Library to ensure that it remains a useful resource for all Residents. To make sure that any changes to your Library cause a minimum amount of inconvenience, we've archived all of the content and made it available for you at any time at the following inworld location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stillman/136/75/23 Simply click on the wooden box that says Old Library Content to retrieve a package containing all items that have been removed from the Library. How to hide the Library Select World > Show > Advanced Menu to enable the Advanced Menu. Choose Advanced > Show Debug Settings. Type noinventoryLibrary. It autocompletes. Select TRUE. Close the Debug Settings window and restart the Viewer. Reducing inventory clutter If you find yourself with a large number of duplicate objects cluttering your inventory, you can use the following procedure to find and eliminate them: Open your Inventory window by clicking the Inventory button at the side of your screen. Enter the exact name of the duplicated item in the search bar at the top of the Inventory window, and press the Enter key. Wait a few moments while Second Life indexes and searches your inventory. If you have a very large number of objects in your inventory, this step may take a few minutes. Select all the duplicate items found in your search. Make sure to leave at least one for yourself! Press the delete key. To restore your normal Inventory view, click the X button in the search bar, or close your Inventory window and reopen it. Warning: Once you empty your trash, there is no way to retrieve deleted items! Be careful. Tips for recovering lost inventory items If an item mysteriously disappears from your inventory, use the the procedures below to locate it. Click the Inventory button on the toolbar and select the RECENT tab. Items returned since last log off will be stored here. Clear the Second Life Viewer's cache. Search for the item by entering its name in the Filter Inventory field of the INVENTORY window. Search the Lost And Found folder. Search the Trash folder. Search folders listed at the top of the INVENTORY window. Your filter settings may be hiding some of your inventory items. To reset them, click the Gear icon at the bottom left of the INVENTORY window and choose Reset Filters. Important Note Due to the constantly changing nature of content in Second Life, and in order to respect the copy permissions set by object creators, there is unfortunately no "backup" of a Resident's inventory that can be restored if content is accidentally deleted from the Trash or is somehow lost from the inventory. If you've experienced missing inventory that persists after clearing your cache and allowing your inventory list to completely reload, please contact our Support team for assistance. How to find the UUID of an inventory item If you make extensive use of LSL scripts, you may want to know the UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) of a texture or sound in your avatar's inventory. You can easily copy any inventory item's UUID to your computer's clipboard by right-clicking it and selecting Copy Asset UUID. This method is great for finding sound and texture UUIDs, but is not always effective for other inventory types. Here is a short list of exceptions: A notecard's UUID changes every time it is edited and saved. There is no way to find an object's UUID until it is rezzed inworld. There is no way to find an LSL script's UUID while it is in your inventory. You must have full permissions on any inventory item to copy its UUID; this also applies to calling cards, which are by nature "no-transfer" items. LSL has several detection functions that can help determine an object or avatar's UUID. If you are interested in learning to use LSL for this purpose, see the LSL Portal.

How to set permissions on an object Getting permissions back on a transferred object Next owner permissions Bulk-setting permissions Setting default permissions Setting bulk permissions in an object's contents Tip: To see who created a particular object, right-click the object, select Edit > General, and look for the Creator. You will also find the object's Owner listed here. How to set permissions on an object Permissions enable you to control what other people can do with the things you create. Permissions control: Copying: whether someone can make copies of your work. Modifying: whether someone can change your work. Transferring: also known as "Resell/Give Away." If the the object is inworld (rezzed), right-click it and choose Edit, then navigate to the General tab. If the object is in your inventory, right-click it and choose Properties. Permissions refers to the abilities the next owner will have over the object or item. They are: Modify: Checking this lets the next owner modify your creation. Unchecking it denies any modifications. Copy: Checking this lets the next owner copy your creation. If they drag the object from inventory to inworld, they will retain a copy in inventory. Unchecking it denies any copies; if they drag the object inworld it will leave their inventory until taken back into inventory. Transfer: Checking this lets the next owner give your creation to someone else. If the object permits copying, they can sell copies. If the object does not permit copying, they can only sell the original. Unchecking this means the next owner cannot give the object to anyone else. If the object permits copying but not transferring, they can make as many copies as they want for their own uses, but can never give a copy away or sell it. Important: Permission settings set while object is in your inventory are not cross-checked with contents until rezzed. For example if you place a no-copy item in a copy enabled prim the prim becomes no-copy. If you place that prim in your inventory and change back to copy enabled this state persists even after transferring to another resident because permissions are not cross-checked with contents until the object is rezzed. If you are not careful you can allow receiving resident to copy no-copy items. For safety, always make permission changes to rezzed objects only. First, rez a copy of an object to confirm the permissions look the way you want, then take that object back to your inventory. You can now use this verified copy in vendors, in your Marketplace store, or simply to give away to others, knowing that the permissions are correct. 💡 Tip: Use the object's Name to keep track of changes you make by adding a version number at the end of the name. If you have 14 copies of "Fancy Couch" in your inventory, it can be hard to track which one is the most recent. If you add a version number to the end of the name and update it when you make changes, you'll know which copy is the most recent -- "Fancy Couch v.1.1" is newer than "Fancy Couch v.1.0". Getting permissions back on a transferred object Unfortunately, you cannot regain permissions for an object you have given to someone else. Linden Lab is unable to reset permissions on an object; the permissions you give the next owner are permanently marked as the most lenient permissions the object can ever have in the future. If permissions allow, it is a good idea to create a backup copy of an object before you give it to someone else. This way, you always have a copy of the "most permissive" version of the object! Important: Default permissions are no modify and no copy! Always check permissions before giving objects to others. You can set your own preferred default permissions in the Preferences > Advanced section of the viewer settings. Next owner permissions Permissions let you control what other people can do with things you create. The basic permissions include: Copy (whether someone can make copies of your work), Modify (whether someone can change your work), and Transfer. If the object is inworld (rezzed), right-click it and choose Edit, then click the General tab. If the object is in your inventory, right-click it and choose Properties. Under Next owner: Modify - Checking this lets the next owner modify your creation. Unchecking it denies modifications. One exception to this falls under "fair use": an object can always be removed from the contents of another object, even if the container object is no-modify. Copy - Checking this lets the next owner copy your creation. If they drag the object from inventory to inworld, they retain a copy in inventory. Unchecking it denies any copies; if they drag the object inworld, it leaves their inventory until taken back into inventory. Transfer: Checking this lets the next owner transfer your creation to someone else. If the object is also copy-enabled, they can sell copies. If the object doesn't permit copies, they can only sell the original. Unchecking Transfer means the next owner can't give the object to anyone else. If the object is set to Copy but not Transfer, they can make as many copies as they want for their own uses, but can never give a copy away or sell it. Tip: A firsthand way to learn permissions "in the wild" is to visit stores and see how they display permissions. For instance, the shorthand of "MCT" for "Modify, Copy, and Transfer (Resell/Give away)" is often used on packaging. If a couch is modifiable and transferrable but not copyable, it may look like this: Important: Permissions changes to an object in your inventory are not fully applied to contents until that object is rezzed. This can be problematic if you intended to make an object entirely no-copy but gave it away without confirming the contents were restricted. As a safety precaution, make sure to rez and retake objects before distributing them. Other relevant permissions are: Share with group - If an object is set to a group, this allows other members of the same group to edit it, dependent on restrictive permissions. This can make collaborative building easier since for example, group members can move shared objects. As with permissions in general, be careful of who else has access to your objects, and don't enable this if it's not needed. See also "How do I manage objects on group-owned land?". Allow anyone to move - If this option is checked, anyone can move your object. This is rarely used because most people don't want complete strangers either unintentionally or maliciously destroying their building projects. Allow anyone to copy - Anyone can take a copy of the object by right-clicking it, then choosing More > Take Copy from the pie menu. However, this feature can be confusing to use because the object and all of its contents must be fully-permissive and also have Allow anyone to copy checked. As a result, most people opt to use an easier alternative: set the object for sale as a free (L$0) copy instead. Tip: An object or contents item that is modifiable, copyable, and transferrable is "fully-permissive", or in Second Life lingo, "full perms" for short. Setting default permissions The Second Life Viewer includes some features for setting your default permissions. When you create new items, they'll have your chosen permissions set on them by default. Setting default permissions preferences Go to Me > Preferences > Advanced > Default Creation Permissions. A window appears allowing you to specify Next owner permissions. Check the ones you want to enable for each item type; you can set different defaults for different types of items, like Notecards, Scripts or Objects. Uploads refers to both Textures and Screenshots; Settings are Environmental Settings like skies, water, or day cycles. Click OK to save your selected preferences. Setting bulk permissions in an object's contents The second way to bulk-set permissions is when the items are in an object's contents: Right-click an object with contents you want to change. Click the Content tab. Click Permissions button. Check or uncheck content (item) types whose permissions you want to change. You can also click All or uncheck All to select or deselect them globally. By the way, "Textures" and "Snapshots" are essentially the same thing and both are represented under Textures. (Click Help in the "Bulk change content permissions" window for more technical background and caveats.) Similar to setting default permissions when uploading, there's a Next owner section here. Check the ones you want to enable or disable. Doing this is dependent on an item's already-restricted permissions: you can't make a no-copy object copyable. When you're satisfied with your settings, click Apply and wait a few seconds. The permissions are applied.

Basics Organizing your inventory Settings & Filtering Working with outfits Working with inventory links Creating a link Finding links in your inventory Updating links with a new object Sorting Giving and receiving inventory items Sharing with a friend Sharing with any Resident Receiving an object Problems with inventory Basics You can access your Inventory in several ways: From the Me > Inventory menu option Using the keyboard shortcut Control-I (Windows) or ⌘I (Mac) Click 💼 in the toolbar to open the Inventory window. You can use the Inventory window to manage your inventory -- all the virtual "stuff" you have in Second Life, including clothes, your avatar, and other belongings. Your Inventory items are stored on the central Second Life systems, not on your personal computer. Organizing your inventory Note: You can't move the Library folder, Trash folders or main system folders (those with special icons like Body Parts and Objects). Settings and Filtering Click the Gear icon at the bottom left of the Inventory window to open the Inventory Settings panel, where you can open the 'Show Filters' settings, fix item links, or change how you sort your inventory folders altogether. Filters let you limit which inventory items are visible at a time, helping to make it easier to locate particular types of content. You can also toggle all item types with a single click by using the All and None buttons in the Filters window. Below these is Always show folders, which displays all folders when doing a search. Unchecking it displays folders containing matches. Tip: If ever you think you've lost inventory, check that your filters are showing everything! Try selecting Reset Filters from the Gear icon menu in the INVENTORY window. Working with outfits You can save your clothing and attachments as an outfit (a folder containing everything you wish to wear). When you drag the outfit folder onto yourself, you'll instantly switch to the avatar shape, clothing, and/or attachments in the folder. Creating outfits is a great way to organize your inventory and makes it easy to quickly change your avatar's appearance. To create an outfit: Attach or wear the clothing items you wish to make inito an outfit. Right-click your avatar and choose My Appearance. Click the Save As button. Enter the name of your outfit in the dialog box. Click OK. Your new outfit folder will be located in your Clothing folder in your inventory. Making a new outfit creates an inventory link to each original inventory item in the outfit. This allows you to create multiple links to a single item. A link is shown in italics with the word (link) beside it. Each link is entirely dependent on an original item, and any changes to that item will affect all links. If you copy an item and then modify it, links created to each copy are independent. Note: Any item in your outfit that is no-copy is moved to the new outfit folder. Other items are copied instead. Warning: Be careful when deleting original items if you've made links to them. Deleting an original item breaks all links to it. Working with inventory links An inventory link is a reference to an original inventory item. A link is entirely referential, dependent on the original, and carries no unique properties that can be modified independently of the original. The Inventory window shows links in italics with the word (link) beside them. A link is different from a copy: copying an item creates a unique instance that can be copied further, and, dependent on permissions, modified or transferred. Wheras links are references without unique properties. For example, you can rename a copied item, but you can't rename a link. Creating a link To create links: Wear the items for which you wish to create links. Right-click your avatar. Select the WEARING tab in the APPEARANCE window. Click Save As. When prompted, give your new outfit a name that will help you easily identify it later. To delete a link from your inventory: Click the Inventory icon on the left side of the Viewer window. Click the My INVENTORY tab. Find the link you want to delete. It may be in the My Outfits folder. Press the Delete key or right-click the link and choose Delete. Note: If the item is worn, choose Detach From Yourself or Take Off, then right-click again to see Delete. This throws the link in your Trash. Important: Links are not copies! They are always dependent on original items, never the other way around. Deleting a link doesn't affect the original in any way. The reverse isn't true: deleting an item breaks all links to it. Finding links in your inventory Search your inventory for "(link)" to see all links. To find the original item that a specific link is connected to, right-click the link and choose Find Original. Inversely, if you click an original item in inventory, you can find all links pointing to it by clicking at the bottom and choosing Find All Links. Updating links with a new object You can change which object a link points to, allowing you to simultaneously update many outfits with an updated item. To update a link with a new object: Open your inventory by clicking the Inventory button. Find the original object you used in your outfits (the one all your links point to). Right-click the object in your inventory and choose Replace Links to open the Replace Inventory Links window. The window also shows how many links have been made to this original object. In your Inventory, find the new object you wish to replace your old object with. Drag the new object onto the New field in the Replace Inventory Links window. Click Start to update all links with the new object. Sorting To sort your items, click on the Gear on the lower left of the Inventory window. Sort Folders Always by Name: Forces your folders to display alphabetically, even if Sort by Most Recent is also selected. If you uncheck Sort Folders Always by Name, folders with the newest received items appear at the top of the list. Try sorting folders alphabetically and by date and see which method you like best. Sort System Folders to Top: Selecting this option places all system folders on top. Show Filters: Lets you modify and reset the current filters, showing and hiding categories of inventory items to declutter your view. You can also choose to show only items added Since Logoff or since a certain number of Hours Ago or Days Ago. Giving and receiving inventory items There are several ways you can transfer objects with transfer permissions from your inventory to another Resident. Sharing with a friend To share an item with a someone on your Friends list: Click the Inventory button on the toolbar to open the INVENTORY window. Select the item you wish to share. Click Share at the bottom of the INVENTORY window. The CHOOSE RESIDENT window opens. Choose a recipient from your Friends list. To choose more than one, hold down Ctrl while clicking additional names with your mouse. A window opens, asking you to confirm that you wish to share the item with the Resident indicated. Click Ok to complete the transfer. If the Resident is online, the item is delivered immediately. If not, it is saved to the recipient's inventory. Sharing with any Resident If the intended recipient is not on your Friends list: Open My Inventory and click on the item you wish to share. Click Share at the bottom of the INVENTORY window. The CHOOSE RESIDENT window opens. In the CHOOSE RESIDENT window, select the Search tab. Type part of the person's name into the search field and click Go. Choose the desired recipient from the search results, click on his or her name, and hit Select. A window opens, asking you to confirm that you wish to share the item with the Resident indicated. Click Ok to complete the transfer. If the Resident is online, the item is delivered immediately. If not, it is saved to the recipient's inventory. Tip: You can also use the Near Me tab in the CHOOSE RESIDENT window to locate nearby Residents. If you are within view of the person's avatar, you can drag the object from your inventory directly onto the avatar or the avatar's name tag. Just be careful when using this method, as it's possible to drop the object on the wrong avatar by accident, especially in crowded areas. Receiving an object To prevent possible inventory losses, Second Life automatically accepts all inventory offers. Whenever you receive an inventory item, Second Life presents you with a dialog containing the following options: Show - Opens your inventory and highlights the received item. Discard - Sends the newly accepted inventory item directly to your Trash folder. Block - Blocks the Resident who sent you the object. Problems with inventory If you are experiencing inventory loss or other inventory issues, please see Advanced inventory management.

Finding land on which to rez objects Find the box in your inventory Open and unpack the box Wear or rez your purchased items Why does it tell me "Can't rez object..."? Unpacking a box on your avatar In other languages: Deutsch Español Français Italiano 日本語 Português Русский Did you buy something from the SL Marketplace or inworld and wonder why you received a box? As in, "I bought a necklace but all I got was a picture of a necklace on a box?" Don't worry! Second Life items are sometimes sold in simple containers that require you to "open" them to get the contents. For example, if you purchase clothing that comes in a box, you must extract the clothing objects from the box container, then transfer them to your inventory so you can wear them. Don't wear the box. Remember, you have to open the box and use its contents. If you accidentally wear the box and it's attached to your avatar, simply right-click the box and choose Detach. Finding land on which to rez objects To open and unpack the box your purchase was delivered in, you need to be on land where you have permission to rez the box. If you're unsure if you have permission to do this where you are, just visit a sandbox where everyone has permission to rez objects. Click on a sandbox from this list, such as Sandbox Island. On the SLurl page that appears, click Teleport Now. A Place Information window appears in your Second Life Viewer. Click Teleport to travel to the sandbox you've chosen. Many stores also have a specially-sectioned "rez zone" inside, where autoreturn time is often set to a few minutes prevent litter from accumulating while giving you enough time to unpack. Find the box in your inventory Recently received items appear in the expandable Received items pane in the INVENTORY window. To access them, open your inventory and click the Received items bar to expand the pane and view your recently received items. You may click and drag these items into your main inventory or rez them by dragging them to the ground. Open and unpack the box Remember, you must be on land where you have permission to make your box appear by rezzing it. Once you have a place to rez your box, watch this video tutorial to see the steps below in motion: Drag the box from your inventory to the ground to rez it. Right-click the box and choose Open. A window opens. If the box has many contents, it can take a moment. Click Copy To Inventory to transfer the box's contents to your inventory. If the box contains an outfit you'd like to wear immediately, select Copy and Wear instead. Once the items are copied, they appear in your inventory as a folder with the box's name. If you don't see it, click the Recent tab. When you have finished unpacking your box, please remember to either Delete it or Take it back to your inventory to avoid cluttering up the area with boxes. Wear or rez your purchased items Your items are now in your inventory. Locate them and drag them inworld to rez them, or right-click and select Wear if they are clothing or other avatar attachments or components. Why does it tell me "Can't rez object..."? If you try to drag an object from your inventory to inworld and see this error: — it means building and dropping objects isn't allowed on the present parcel. How can you tell? Right-click the navigation bar and choose About Land. Hover over the cube with a universal "no" slashed circle to see "Building/dropping objects not allowed." Alternatively: Choose World menu > Place Profile > Place Profile. In the PLACES window, expand the Parcel section (if it isn't already open). This video shows the steps above: In some cases, if you're a member of the group that owns the land, activating your group title permits you to build despite the no-build icon which applies to the general public. Unpacking a box on your avatar Important: Only do this if you're comfortable dragging and dropping inventory items, or you may accidentally misplace important items. You can unpack a box if it's attached to your avatar. This may be useful if you're having a hard time getting to rezzable land, since you can always attach an object. However, this lacks the convenience of the Copy to Inventory and Copy and Wear buttons. In your inventory, right-click the box object and choose Attach To HUD or Attach To, then select an attachment point. Attach To HUD may be preferable because the box is attached to a point on your screen instead of your avatar and so is less likely to mess up your appearance. Alternatively, you can simply choose Wear, which attaches the box to its attachment point — if none has been specified by the creator, which is typically the case, it gets attached to your Right Hand. Right-click the attached box and choose Edit. In the build tools, click the Content tab. Drag each item from the object's contents to a folder in your inventory. You can also hold Shift or Ctrl to select multiple items. This doesn't work with "no copy" items in contents. Close the build tools.

Locating objects Locating attachments Locating objects If you lose an item inworld, first try to locate it in your inventory: Click in the toolbar . The INVENTORY window opens. Select MY INVENTORY > Lost And Found to see if the item has been returned. If not, enter a category or keyword into the Filter Inventory field and click Enter. If the object is copyable, search for it by name. You should see it appear in a folder, where you can rez and use it again. If you can't find the item in your inventory, go to World > Mini-map. If the object is relatively large, it will appear as a light blue square on your map. If the tips above don't work, try these advanced strategies for finding hidden objects: Select World > Show > Beacons. Beacons are colored locators that help you pinpoint special kinds of objects. From the Advanced menu (World > Show > Advanced), select Highlighting and Visibility > Highlight Transparent. This helps you see transparent objects. From the Advanced menu, select Rendering Types > Surface Patch to hide the terrain. This can make it easier to spot objects on the ground or underneath it. (Select Surface Patch again to show the ground.) If you think the object is lost in a structure you own, consider carefully moving walls around to see if anything is concealed inside of them (you will only be able to do this if you have the appropriate permissions): Right-click a wall and select Edit. Drag the colored arrows to move the wall. If you can't move a wall, it may be locked. While editing the object: Click the Object tab of the build tools. Uncheck Locked. Locating attachments Reset attachment slot Your avatar has multiple attachment slots. If you can find the worn attachment in your inventory, you can reset its slot. Doing so resets it to the default position, which means you will need to reposition it again. To reset an attachment slot: Right-click your avatar and select Edit my outfit. The APPEARANCE window opens. Click on Attachments to see all attachments. Find the one you're looking for and also remember its attachment slot, which appears in parentheses. Detach the object. Click the Inventory button on the toolbar, and search for the attachment by name or keyword. Right-click the attachment, choose Attach To, and select a different attachment point. Preferably a free one so it doesn't detach something else. Right-click the attachment again and choose Detach From Yourself. Right-click the attachment yet again, choose Attach To, and attach it back to the original attachment point. It should be visible, but positioned incorrectly. Near your avatar, right-click the attachment and choose Edit. Reposition the attachment as desired. Camera through your avatar Hold Ctrl+Alt while left-clicking to orbit your camera so it cuts into your avatar. When you're looking through your avatar, right-click the attachment and choose Edit. Carefully drag it out with the positioning arrows.

Before you move Record your About Land settings Template Tips for moving your objects Preparatory advice Advanced menu options Tips for optimizing your objects before taking them Linden trees Invisible objects Skyboxes Practice taking objects Beware of coalesced object caveats Take your objects Migrate your About Land settings Rez your objects on the destination parcel Position yourself and rez Inspect everything This article explains how to move a build, such as a house or store, from one parcel of land to another. It assumes that you have camera movement and object editing skills. Take your time, enjoy the videos, and take care with the fine details so nothing gets lost. We focus here mainly on moving large, complex builds, but the basic principles apply to builds of any size. Important: Most of the following video tutorials were filmed in Second Life® Viewer 1.23 or newer. You'll need this version to see certain features, such as primitive count (now called land capacity), as-presented. Before you move Verify that the destination parcel is at least the same size in square meters as the source parcel. A parcel's land capacity is tied to its dimensions. If your source parcel has filled up its land capacity and the new parcel is smaller, you won't be able to fit all your objects on your new parcel. Familiarize yourself with the shape of both the source and destination parcels. The transition will be easier If they are similarly shaped. Likewise, observe the terrain — for example, if the source is craggy and the destination is flat, you should terraform the destination to match. Otherwise you may need to reconsider how certain objects are positioned. Record your About Land settings Each parcel you own has different settings; if you have multiple parcels, each one's settings should be recorded individually. There are a number of ways to record settings. You can use your operating system's built-in screen capture feature, such as the Snipping Tool on Windows Vista or Grab on Mac; the disadvantage is that you must re-type the text. You can also use an external text editor like Wordpad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac. If you find this too cumbersome, use Second Life's built-in notecards: Click the Inventory icon on the toolbar to open the INVENTORY window. Click the + button at the bottom left and select New Notecard. Right-click the New Note in your inventory to rename it with your parcel name, so you can easily find it later. Double-click the note to open it. It's a simple text editor. Once you've decided whether you want to record your parcel settings in a notecard or an external text editor, make sure you open the tool you've chosen so that you can paste into it when ready. Then: Move your avatar to the desired parcel. You'll see its name in the middle of the menu bar. Right-click the the parcel and select About Land. Click the GENERAL tab (if it isn't already selected). With your mouse, select the parcel Name. Use Edit > Copy to copy the name (or the shortcut Ctrl-C). Click in the notecard or external text editor. Use Edit > Paste (Ctrl-V). Repeat the copy-and-paste steps for all parcel settings you wish to transfer. Note that a few, such as the OPTIONS tab's "Landing Point," will not apply to the new parcel (in this case, unless it's located at the same relative region coordinates). Template To make it easier for you, here is a template you can copy-and-paste directly into a notecard or text file and fill out. Adapt it to suit your needs. Tips for moving your objects Preparatory advice Proficiency at moving your camera is extremely important. Second Life objects are 3D, and it's easy to miss something obscured behind a wall when viewed only at one angle. If you're uncertain, learn more about Camera (point of view) controls before proceeding. This video shows how to select objects, either by Shift-clicking on them or dragging a selection rectangle: How to select objects from Torley on Vimeo. To simplify the process of maneuvering and taking your objects: Select Me > Preferences. Open the Graphics tab and click Advanced. Make sure the slider next to Draw distance is set to at least 128 m (the default). Tip: If you have a very powerful computer, you can increase the draw distance up to 512 m, but make sure performance is smooth — a low, choppy frame-rate makes it difficult to select objects. Under Mesh detail, set the Objects detail to High by moving the slider to the far right. To improve performance while moving, you can uncheck Atmospheric Shaders and set Water Reflections to Minimal. A more basic look is often easier to work with. Click OK to save settings. If you want to see where your parcel ends and others begin: Select World > Show > Property Lines to show your parcel's boundaries. Select World > Show > Land Owners to add a colored overlay over parcels. Parcels you own are green; parcels owned by groups of which you're a member are blue; and other parcels are red. Also, in the Tools menu: Select Tools > Enable Select Only My Objects. Tip: If you're moving a collaborative build, contact your co-builders and show them this guide to make sure you have a mutual understanding of what needs to be done. If you're having problems selecting larger objects, disable Build > Options > Select By Surrounding. Now your selection rectangle selects an object as soon as a small amount is within its range. If object outlines make it hard to tell what you're selecting, disable Build > Options > Show Hidden Selection to speed up performance. However, you may want to leave this on if you're selecting a building with objects in it, such as a house with lots of furniture. Tools menu options for selecting & moving objects from Torley on Vimeo. Advanced menu options We do not officially support these features, but they can help you immensely if you've practiced. If unsure, familiarize yourself in a public sandbox region to avoid destroying your content. Learn how to enable the Advanced menu. Enable Advanced > Disable Camera Constraints (not needed in 1.23 and later) to increase the distance you can zoom your camera out. This is useful for getting the big picture on a big build. Disable Advanced > Limit Select Distance to select objects that are further away, making it easier to select objects on a very large parcel. If you have underwater or partially submerged objects, disable Advanced > Rendering Types > Water to hide the water so you can select them without being obscured. If needed, disable object-object occlusion. Check Show Develop Menu under Advanced, then select Develop > Rendering and uncheck Object-Object Occlusion. Tip:Technically speaking, occlusion culling boosts performance by not rendering objects you can't see based on an octree, but in some cases it makes comprehensively selecting objects more difficult. Disabling occlusion culling degrades performance, so remember to re-enable it after the move is done. Tips for optimizing your objects before taking them Be sure to unlock all objects before taking them! Rezzing even a single locked object along with many unlocked objects prevents the entire selection from being moved at once — the positioning arrows won't show up. This may result in deselecting the whole batch. To unlock objects: Enter Edit mode (Build > Select Build Tool > Edit Tool or Ctrl-3). Draw a selection rectangle over as many of your objects as you can. Click the Object tab in the Tools window. If there are any objects that are locked, Locked will be checked but grayed. Click Locked once to lock every object. Wait a few moments if it's a large number of objects; then click Locked again. If every object in the selection is locked, the checkmark is solid and only requires one check to unlock all objects. Select the objects again to verify that they're all unlocked. The Locked checkbox must be unchecked. If you didn't already select all objects on your property, repeat the steps above to ensure everything is unlocked. Consecutive passes help catch anything (like a lamp in a small room) you may have missed on the first go. Unlock all objects in a selection before moving from Torley on Vimeo. Link as much as you can. This is especially important if you created the objects and/or have full permissions to them. You can safely do this on most basic structures in close proximity, like walls and roofs. Linking makes it more convenient for you to reposition objects after rezzing them. Important: Don't link different scripted objects, because that may mangle their functionality — for instance, linking a TV set to a couch may confuse which does what. Give your new linksets sensible names. Objects named "Object" in your inventory are hopelessly confusing because you need to rez them to see what they are — a waste of both time and space. Name each object descriptively before taking it. Use an object rezzing system. By using clever scripting, tools like Rez-Faux, Ilse's Big Build Rezzer, and others on the Second Life Marketplace let you package a collection of objects and reposition them neatly upon rezzing. Each one's specific usage varies, and they only work if the objects are moddable. Linden trees Linden trees are the system-provided foliage that is listed in your inventory's Library > Objects > Trees, plants and grasses folder. They have a number of tricky caveats to them, such as not being highlighted when selected. They also can't be linked to objects, making them even tougher to transport, although they can be included in a coalesced object. Watch this video to understand the caveats: The trouble with Linden trees from Torley on Vimeo. Invisible objects Don't forget about these! Objects like visitor stat counters and ambient sound generators may be invisible. Some of these are scripted to show upon command, so consult the documentation for each one. If you can't remember where you left them, Advanced > Highlighting and Visibility > Highlight Transparent shows them. Similarly but to a lesser extent, Highlight Transparent also helps find partially invisible objects, like gradient light rays and textured glass windows. Advanced > Highlighting and Visibility > Cheesy Beacon can locate other special kinds of objects. Learn more. Skyboxes There are some special things to know for moving builds that are high in the sky, often called "skyboxes": It may be easier to select your skybox than a build on the ground. Since there tends to be less clutter the further up you go, you may be able to see your build as an isolated collection instead of one very close to neighboring builds. You can't easily see parcel boundaries when you're thousands of meters up. Get the center coordinates for both the source and destination parcels: Be on the ground. Move your avatar to the center of the parcel. Look at the middle of the Viewer menu bar for the first two coordinates. For example, "Yendra 34, 54". Note this and fly up. Get a flight assist. This allows you to fly high without your avatar sinking back down. If you've built in the sky before, you probably already have one. If not, search on the Marketplace. You'll probably need to rez a guide platform on the ground. You can't rez objects mid-air by simply drag-and-dropping them from your Inventory. Unless you have special tools, you need to rez them near existing objects in the sky. Here's how: Rez a cube near the center of your destination parcel. Resize it to 10x10x0.5 m or whatever fits your needs. You may prefer to rez multiple prims so that you have a rough idea where your borders are. (You can also tell by looking at the menu bar: if the info changes to a neigboring parcel's as you fly or walk, you've obviously traveled beyond the limits.) Sit on this prim. Right-click the prim and select Edit. Under the Object tab, change Position Z to the desired height of your skybox and press Enter. This will be near the lowest or "baseline" height upon which your skybox will be rezzed. You will also be transported into the sky almost instantly. Click the Stand button towards the bottom of your screen. Try dragging a test object (not your skybox) from inventory. Notice how the cursor changes to show you can rez when you position it on top of another object. Practice this at least a few times. Tip: Follow the general rezzing advice described below, but keep in mind that your parcel boundaries aren't easily visible in the sky. Practice taking objects Reassembling pieces into the "real thing" is like a jigsaw, so you may want to sketch out an organizational strategy. Clean your inventory's Objects folder. This is where new objects you take end up, so it's a good idea to drag other stuff out of the way into a separate folder or sub-folder. Enter Edit mode: either right-click on an object and select Edit or use Build > Select Build Tool > Edit Tool. Right-click an object to test. You should see its outline highlighted (yellow for root prim, blue for all others). Click and drag to select multiple objects. Alternatively, try holding the Shift key and clicking multiple objects. The Edit Tool window says how many objects are selected and how many prims (primitive, single objects) are within them. Try to keep your selection batches small. You can't select more than 4,000 prims because more than this is highly likely to result in error. Learn more about why. Note: Selecting many objects slows performance because all of their outlines need to be rendered. In addition, rezzing many prims into a region at once causes significant slowdown, decreasing reliability. Rez a couple of cubes or a small bunch of other objects you don't care about and try selecting and taking them all at once. You'll see them appear in your inventory with a special "stack of blocks" (commonly referred to by some as a "broken Rubik's cube") icon. This is a coalesced object. Difference between 1-prim, linked, & coalesced objects from Torley on Vimeo. Beware of coalesced object caveats Coalesced objects are useful but have a number of potential problems including both perceived and actual content loss. As handy as they can be for complex builds, minimize coalesced object use unless you have a lot of practice with them. Take your objects Are you ready? The big moment is here. Hopefully you have practiced and are familiar by now with taking and rezzing objects from one location to another. Here are the steps you repeat for each object or coalesced set of objects: Enter Edit mode: either right-click on an object and select Edit or use Build > Select Build Tool > Edit Tool. Click and drag or Shift-click nearby related objects. Move your camera around the objects to make sure you haven't left out any important parts. If you have, reselect or Shift-click to add more objects. Once you've made a comprehensive selection, right-click and select Take. Wait a few moments (longer if you've selected 1,000s of prims); the objects should all disappear. Tip: For the first few times at least, you may want to open your inventory's Objects folder to confirm that the object(s) made it in. If you've taken multiple objects, the last object selected has its name shown here. Warning: You may be curious to rez and see what's in the file, but unless the objects are all copyable — and don't say "(no copy)" next to them — don't do it. Losing a no-copy object without backups likely means it's permanently gone. Move a build to another Region 1: Take your objects from Torley on Vimeo. Migrate your About Land settings After you've recorded your parcel settings: Teleport to the parcel you're moving to. If your recorded parcel settings aren't visible, open them. Right-click and select About Land to open or refresh this new parcel's settings. Start overwriting previous settings, either by typing in the same values or by copying and pasting. Rez your objects on the destination parcel Before rezzing, check the region's performance. Try to do this when there are few or no other avatars in the region, beacuse avatars add load and increase the likelihood of error. For example, if you try to move a 1,000-prim set of objects when time lag is heavy, prims move asynchronously and some may be left behind. This sad situation is best avoided altogether. Set your group tag This only applies if your source parcel is set to a group. If it is, you need to set the tag so that objects stay put instead of being auto-returned to your inventory. In About Land's General tab, make sure the ownership and group are set correctly. Otherwise you increase your risk of losing content. If applicable, ensure your own group tag is set correctly to match the parcel's: Click Communicate on the toolbar. Click My Groups. Right-click the correct group. Select Activate. If group tags are visible, you see the tag above your head. Every object you rez while you are wearing this tag is automatically set to this group. (You can assign groups retroactively, but you might forget — it's better to follow the steps above in the first place.) Set your group tag to make objects stay on a parcel from Torley on Vimeo. Position yourself and rez Move your avatar to the center of the destination parcel and fly up a fair distance to get a good vantage point. You want to be able to see your whole build without having to keep moving while rezzing it. If your parcel is very large (like over 8,192 m2) or extends high into the sky, you'll probably need to fly around and reposition yourself occasionally. You can move your camera into overhead bird's-eye view, or you may prefer to view your build isometrically. Use whichever method gives you the most perspective on your build. Go into Editmode. Warning: If you rez objects while out of Edit mode, it can be very difficult to reposition them! Repeat these steps for each object or coalesced object: Rez an object once you have a good idea of where you want it to go. Wait a few moments until the "Selected objects" count in the Tools window stabilizes. Again, this is slower with large amounts of prims and poor region performance. Move the object using the usual positioning arrows. When satisfied — and only then — click elsewhere to deselect the object, or proceed directly to rezzing another object. Note: The above doesn't apply exactly to object rezzing systems, which are more forgiving if you misplace an object. Repeat until your build is complete. You will likely need to do some fine-tuning, and the moving process may expose leftover flaws from the original build that you want to improve on — here's your opportunity! Move a build to another Region 2: Rez your objects from Torley on Vimeo. Inspect everything Once your build is in place: Fly around and check everything out from various angles. Fine-tune as necessary. Terraform the land to better fit your build. Click on scripted objects to make sure they still work as expected. (If you're familiar with scripting, you can take advantage of this opportunity to recompile for Mono.) Congratulations, you've made the big move! Invite friends over and have a party!

Giving an object Sharing with a friend Sharing with any Resident Receiving an object Giving an object There are several ways you can transfer objects from your inventory to another Resident. Keep in mind that although the Resident does not need to be on your MY FRIENDS list, the object does need to have transfer permissions. Sharing with a friend To share an item with a someone on your Friends list: Click the Inventory button on the toolbar to open the INVENTORY window. Select the item you wish to share. Click Share at the bottom of the INVENTORY window. The CHOOSE RESIDENT window opens. Choose a recipient from your Friends list. To choose more than one, hold down Ctrl while clicking additional names with your mouse. A window opens, asking you to confirm that you wish to share the item with the Resident indicated. Click Ok to complete the transfer. If the Resident is online, the item is delivered immediately. If not, it is saved to the recipient's inventory. Sharing with any Resident If the intended recipient is not on your Friends list: Open My Inventory and click on the item you wish to share. Click Share at the bottom of the INVENTORY window. The CHOOSE RESIDENT window opens. In the CHOOSE RESIDENT window, select the Search tab. Type part of the person's name into the search field and click Go. Choose the desired recipient from the search results, click on his or her name, and hit Select. A window opens, asking you to confirm that you wish to share the item with the Resident indicated. Click Ok to complete the transfer. If the Resident is online, the item is delivered immediately. If not, it is saved to the recipient's inventory. Tip: You can also use the Near Me tab in the CHOOSE RESIDENT window to locate nearby Residents. If you are within view of the person's avatar, you can drag the object from your inventory directly onto the avatar or the avatar's name tag. Just be careful when using this method, as it's possible to drop the object on the wrong avatar by accident, especially in crowded areas. Receiving an object To prevent possible inventory losses, Second Life automatically accepts all inventory offers. Whenever you receive an inventory item, Second Life presents you with a dialog containing the following options: Show - Opens your inventory and highlights the received item. Discard - Sends the newly accepted inventory item directly to your Trash folder. Block - Blocks the Resident who sent you the object.

System folders About What are the system folders? Why can't I delete system folders? What about the Library? How does the library work? How do I retrieve an item that used to be in my Library? What is the Library? Change your avatar with the Library How do I hide the Library? System folders About A system folder is a special folder in your inventory which has several unique attributes: System folders can't be moved or modified. They always reside in the top-level of your inventory (shown in the My Inventory tab of the INVENTORY window, accessed by clicking the Inventory icon on the toolbar). You can't delete, rename, or edit any system folder properties. Like regular folders, you can put items inside of them. Common usage is to create sub-folders inside of each folder. For example, "My Favorite Anims" inside the Animations folder. Inventory items you create are automatically sorted into an appropriate system folder. For example, in the INVENTORY window, if you choose the + > New Notecard menu, the notecard appears in the Notecards system folder. Similar behavior is true when you get items. For example, if another Resident or an object gives you a notecard, it appears in your Notecards folder. If you create a landmark, it appears in your Landmarks folder. If you upload a texture, it appears in your Textures folder. And so on. Snapshots appear in the Photo Album when you save them to your inventory via the Snapshot Preview. While they can be sorted independently, they're basically the same thing as textures. Receiving a folder puts it in your inventory's top level, regardless of its contents. System folders appear by default on top of all other folders, but this can be changed. In the INVENTORY window, uncheck Sort System Folders to Top. This lets other top-level folders you've created to get mixed in by sort order. No inventory item type is restricted to a single system folder. For example, if you create a pair of pants in the Clothing folder, you're free to move it into another system folder, or to a folder within a folder in the Clothing folder. Special cases: The Lost And Found and Trash folders are specifically for stuff you might throw away. You can right-click either folder and choose Empty Lost And Found or Empty Trash, respectively, to permanently delete everything inside the folder. Lost And Found contains items that have been returned to you — for example, if you left a car on a parcel with autoreturn on and it got sent back — so you may want to sort it out before deleting. The Current Outfit and My Outfits folders are specifically about your avatar's appearance. Current Outfit has links to everything you're wearing, and actually shows the same stuff as My Appearance - Wearing. My Outfits contains individual folders, each with a icon and usually containing a complete avatar look. My Outfits' folders can contain original items if you intentionally move them in here, but otherwise they contain links. Outfit folders are not system folders; they can be moved outside of My Outfits. When you create an outfit, body parts, clothing, and attached objects automatically get inventory links that refer to the original items. Tip: Learn more about inventory links. What are the system folders? Animations Body Parts Calling Cards Clothing Current Outfit Gestures Landmarks Lost And Found My Outfits Notecards Objects Photo Album Scripts Settings Sounds Textures Trash System folders are marked by a special folder icon with the Second Life hand logo visible. Why can't I delete system folders? As the name implies, the system depends on these folders to sort and help you organize your inventory. Deleting them can cause the viewer to become unstable, prevent login, or otherwise cause havoc. However, you can create additional folders, including sub-folders within system folders. What about the Library? The Library is a special case. While it can be considered a system folder in some ways, and it does appear in your inventory, you can't alter it or its contents at all. That's because it contains stock content provided by Linden Lab that isn't local to any one Resident's inventory. Think of it like accessing a read-only network hard drive you can browse, but can't modify. How does the library work? The Library folder in your inventory contains content provided by Linden Lab® for use by all Residents. The way this folder works is similar to a "shared drive" on your computer network. All Residents share the same content at any given time. You cannot use objects in the Library until you copy them to your own inventory. You can drag a copy onto the ground, your avatar, or another folder in your inventory. From time to time, Linden Lab adds, edits or deletes content from the Library to ensure that it remains a useful resource for all Residents. How do I retrieve an item that used to be in my Library? To make sure that any changes to your Library cause a minimum amount of inconvenience, we've archived all of the content and made it available for you at any time at the following inworld location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stillman/136/75/23 Simply click on the wooden box that says 'Old Library Content' to retrieve a package containing all items that have been removed from the Library. Trivia: All library items list Alexandria Linden as their owner. Last but not least, here are two video tutorials: What is the Library? What is the Library? from Torley on Vimeo. Change your avatar with the Library Change your avatar with the Library from Torley on Vimeo. How do I hide the Library? While you can't delete the Library, you can hide it: Enable the Advanced menu. Choose Advanced > Show Debug Settings. Type noinventoryLibrary. It autocompletes. Select TRUE. Close the Debug Settings window and restart the Viewer.

Inventory links About A link is not the same as a copy Finding links in your inventory Creating new links Does wearing a link also wear the original item? Can an outfit contain a mix of original items and links? If I copy an original item and modify it, will links created to each copy be independent? Do links cause inventory bloat? Caveats Inventory links About An inventory link points to an original inventory item. If you're familiar with aliases on Mac OS X and symbolic links on Windows and Linux, inventory links behave similarly. A link itself is meta, meaning it's entirely referential, dependent on the original, and carries no unique properties that can be modified independently of the original. A link is shown in italics with the word "(link)" beside it: Links were introduced to accompany the new outfit system in Viewer 2, which makes it easier to switch between sets of clothes or entire avatar looks. In Viewer 1.23 and earlier, making a new outfit would copy all copyable items and move all no-copy items into a single folder, meaning that you could not include no-copy items in multiple outfits. Now, making a new outfit creates a link to each item instead. By making multiple outfits, multiple links to a single item can be created, which simplifies keeping track of your original inventory items. Great if you have a pair of shoes you like wearing with several outfits. Here's a popular example: You go on a shopping spree and buy several clothing items, each of which comes in its own folder. Some of these items have multiple variations in their own folder which you won't be wearing all at once, like a skirt that comes in several lengths, or hair that comes in several colors. You want to wear these items as a cohesive outfit for quick future retrieval so you won't have to waste time digging around in each folder. But, you don't want to wreck the original folder structure since there may be other items in them like documentation you want to preserve. (Fashion-related goods often include a "read me" notecard, a landmark to the shop, and sometimes a texture with a picture preview.) By saving a new outfit, a folder with links to all of the items you're wearing is created. You can easily wear all the items the folder's contents are linked to in a few clicks. A link is not the same as a copy Warning: Be careful when deleting original items if you've made links to them. If you delete an original item, all links to it break since there's nothing to point to. While links may be convenient when you want to refer to the same item in several outfit folders, each link is entirely dependent on an original item. Copying an item creates a unique instance of the item that can be copied further, and, dependent on permissions, can be modified or transferred. Keep in mind that links are references without unique properties. For example, you can rename a copied item, but you can't rename a link. Finding links in your inventory Search your inventory for "(link)" to see all links. To find the original item that a specific link is connected to, right-click the link and choose Find Original. Inversely, if you click an original item in inventory, you can find all links pointing to it by clicking at the bottom and choosing Find All Links. Creating new links You can't arbitrarily create a link via the usual right-click context menus. To create links, items must be worn on your avatar, and you must create a new outfit, either by clicking the Save Outfit button in the My Appearance sidebar tab, or clicking the Make Outfit button in the Appearance editor. However, links can be deleted from your inventory just like any original item: Click the My Appearance sidebar tab. Click the My Outfits tab. Right-click a link and choose Remove Link. If the item is worn, you need to choose Detach From Yourself or Take Off, then right-click again to see Remove Link. This throws the link in your Trash. Alternatively: Click the Inventory sidebar tab. Find the link you want to delete. It may be in the My Outfits system folder. Click the link. Press the Delete key or right-click the link and choose Delete. Note: Links are always dependent on original items, never the other way around. Deleting a link doesn't affect the original in any way. The reverse isn't true: deleting an item breaks all links to it. Does wearing a link also wear the original item? Not exactly. Remember, the link merely points to the original item. You aren't actually wearing the link per se, the link tells you (1) the name of the original item and that (2) the original is worn. Therefore, if you "wear" a link, all instances of the link become bold in your inventory, as does the original item. This doesn't mean you're wearing multiple copies of the same thing, because links are not copies. Can an outfit contain a mix of original items and links? Yes. This only happens if you manually drag original items into an outfit folder. It doesn't happen if you use Make Outfit as described above, because that always creates links to original items. Similarly, an outfit can contain entirely original items with no links, which may be the case if you dragged a pre-Viewer 2.0 "outfit folder" into the current My Outfits system folder. We know being able to make an outfit that has copies of the original items is desirable in some cases, like if you're a content creator making color variations of a suit, so we're investigating future possibilities. If I copy an original item and modify it, will links created to each copy be independent? Yes. Here's why: copying an original item then modifying it results in the the copy being its own unique instance. (You can verify this by right-clicking an item in inventory, choosing Copy Asset UUID, then pasting that. For example, copy a shirt, change the copied shirt's color, then compare UUIDs.) Therefore, links to a copy of an item treat this copy as its own "original item". If you copy "item A" so that the copy is "item B" and link to "item B", deleting "item A" doesn't break the links. Updating existing links with a new object You can change which object a link points to, allowing you to simultaneously update many outfits with an updated item. To update a link with a new object: Open your inventory by clicking the Inventory button. Find the original object you used in your outfits (the one all your links point to). Right-click the object in your inventory and choose Replace Links to open the Replace Inventory Links window. The window also shows how many links have been made to this original object. In your Inventory, find the new object you wish to replace your old object with. Drag the new object onto the New field in the Replace Inventory Links window. Click Start to update all links with the new object. Do links cause inventory bloat? If you're specifically referring to the total time it shows "Fetching X items..." after you've cleared cache, links count the same as other inventory items. For example, if you were to create 100 outfits and each contains 10 links, that has the same net effect as loading 1,000 original items. You might think of this like a giant spreadsheet, where each original item and each link has a row. Keep in mind that this is a simplified example; other factors like server lag may also affect loading time. However, there are a couple advantages to using links: From your perspective, convenience is a big advantage of links. While it still takes time to load your inventory, particularly if you have 10,000s of items, it can take you less time to switch between outfits instead of micromanaging nested folders as was commonly the case before Viewer 2.0. From Linden Lab's technical perspective, by reducing the need for redundant copies of the same items worn in multiple outfits, asset space is saved. An inventory link counts as an "entry" in our database, but doesn't have a corresponding unique asset, so the original item that's referred to by a link doesn't take up twice (or more) of the space that making a copy of it would. Linden Lab strongly recommends you keep your inventory item count relatively low, just like you wouldn't want a real backpack full of clutter. Periodically archiving or trashing items you never use goes a long way towards saving you future time. Caveats Some of these limitations may be changed in the future. They include common confusions Linden Lab has been asked about frequently. As of Viewer 2.0.1, it's important to know: Links can't be copied-and-pasted freely. Any changes to an original item affects all links. In other words, no matter how many links point to an original item, there's only one original item. For example, say you have a no-copy pink hat that you've linked to from two outfit folders. You want the hat to remain pink in one outfit folder, but be green in the other outfit folder because that suits the rest of your outfit better. This doesn't work, since the link merely points to the original, and doesn't circumvent the permissions system by creating new copies. Along the same lines, renaming an original item also renames links to it. All of a link's properties are dependent on the original item. Links incorrectly show as broken in some circumstances. For example, if the target inventory item hasn't been fetched (loaded) yet. Wait and see if it resolves. If that doesn't work, try right-clicking a link and choosing Find Original to confirm. Rezzing a no-copy object that a link points to breaks the link. This is because a link depends on an object's unique key, its UUID, to refer to. By removing a no-copy item from your inventory, the link has nothing to point to. Taking the item back into your inventory doesn't restore the link. If you want to edit no-copy attachments, the workaround is to edit it while attached, rather than dropping it on the ground. You will get a warning before dropping an attachment, but it won't tell you that doing so breaks the link. Finding originals that are linked to only works in the My Inventory tab, not the My Outfits tab. My Outfits is a subset view of My Inventory that only shows original items and links that are within the My Outfits system folder, with each outfit in its own folder with this icon: