Difference between revisions of "Overview manipulation"

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m (Edited the Important Note box to take out the statement that you must be in space to edit your overview, and added directions below it on setting up a shortcut so that you can edit your overview from inside a space dock.)
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[[Category:User Interface]]
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This page contains information on what's possible to manipulate when it comes to the [[overview]] in EVE Online as well as some practical examples. The overview is essential in showing you what's happening around you. More information about how to set it up according to EVE University standards can be found on the [[Installing the EVE University Overview]] page.
[[Category:Guides]]
 
= Overview manipulation =
 
This page contains information on what's possible to manipulate when it comes to the overview in EVE Online as well as some examples of how to go about it. The overview is essential in showing you what's happening around you. More information about the overview in general and how to set it up according to EVE University standards can be found on the [[Overview Guide]] page.
 
  
 
== What can you manipulate? ==
 
== What can you manipulate? ==
 
[[image:overview_manipulation.png|thumb|Most people edit the overview file to change the appearances of the '''tabs''' and the '''labels'''.]]
 
[[image:overview_manipulation.png|thumb|Most people edit the overview file to change the appearances of the '''tabs''' and the '''labels'''.]]
 
While you can make any number of changes to the overview through the .yaml file, almost all of the things that can be changed ingame is much easier and more reliable to change ingame, with the exception of changing colours, font sizes, styles etc of the tab names and the ship labels / brackets in space.
 
While you can make any number of changes to the overview through the .yaml file, almost all of the things that can be changed ingame is much easier and more reliable to change ingame, with the exception of changing colours, font sizes, styles etc of the tab names and the ship labels / brackets in space.
=== Tab appearance ===
+
 
 +
===== Tab appearance =====
 
The ''Overview Tabs'' settings ingame will allow you to add html-formatting, but most people prefer to edit this outside the client anyway due to the highly restrictive input fields. It's much easier to edit those values in a proper text-editor than trying to do it in a tiny little window that shows but a few letters at a time.
 
The ''Overview Tabs'' settings ingame will allow you to add html-formatting, but most people prefer to edit this outside the client anyway due to the highly restrictive input fields. It's much easier to edit those values in a proper text-editor than trying to do it in a tiny little window that shows but a few letters at a time.
=== Ship labels / brackets in space ===
+
 
 +
===== Ship labels / brackets in space =====
 
Whenever you select a target or hover over a bracket in space you'll get some information about the entity. By manipulating the .yaml file you can customize this to show the information in different colours, font sizes or even with personalized linebreaks etc. These changes will affect your combat notifications as well and show the parts regarding players and player owned entities appropriately formatted, which is an added bonus that leads to improved readability of onscreen combat messages. If you decide to add manual linebreaks or other formatting code, be sure to check that the onscreen combat messages are still readable.
 
Whenever you select a target or hover over a bracket in space you'll get some information about the entity. By manipulating the .yaml file you can customize this to show the information in different colours, font sizes or even with personalized linebreaks etc. These changes will affect your combat notifications as well and show the parts regarding players and player owned entities appropriately formatted, which is an added bonus that leads to improved readability of onscreen combat messages. If you decide to add manual linebreaks or other formatting code, be sure to check that the onscreen combat messages are still readable.
  
 
You can only change the appearance of players and player items (like mobile depots) this way, celestials, anomalies, NPC ships etc will have their default appearance no matter what you do.
 
You can only change the appearance of players and player items (like mobile depots) this way, celestials, anomalies, NPC ships etc will have their default appearance no matter what you do.
 +
 
== How do you go about manipulating the overview? ==
 
== How do you go about manipulating the overview? ==
[[image:overview_settings.png|thumb|Access your overview settings with your [[Keyboard_controls#Modifying_Shortcuts|shortcut]] or through the right-click context manu.]]
+
[[image:overview_settings.png|thumb|Access your overview settings with your [[Keyboard_controls#Modifying_Shortcuts|shortcut]], chat-channel command or through the regular right-click context menu.]]
 
[[image:overview_settings_window.png|thumb|'''Importing''' and '''exporting''' settings is done by clicking the buttons at the bottom of the ''Misc'' tab in the overview settings window.]]
 
[[image:overview_settings_window.png|thumb|'''Importing''' and '''exporting''' settings is done by clicking the buttons at the bottom of the ''Misc'' tab in the overview settings window.]]
 
{{important note box|It's highly recommended that you make a backup of your current overview first and work from a copy instead.}}
 
{{important note box|It's highly recommended that you make a backup of your current overview first and work from a copy instead.}}
  
 +
The easiest way to manipulate your overview is to save your current overview and then export it into your documents folder. Then you can open the overview file in a text editor and quickly view your changes ingame by saving the file and importing the new settings. That way you can easily tinker with your overview until you have it just the way you like it.
  
The easiest way to manipulate your overview is to save your current overview and then export it into your documents folder. That way you can open the overview file in a text editor and quickly view your changes ingame by saving the file and importing the new settings. That way you can easily tinker with your overview until you have it just the way you like it.
+
===== Managing your overview settings while docked in a station =====
 +
You can set up your initial overview while still being safely docked in a station. To open your overview settings without being in space you can use the channel-command {{co|violet|/open overview settings}} or by setting up a [[Keyboard_controls#Modifying_Shortcuts|shortcut]] for your '''Overview Settings''' window (you'll find it in the escape menu's '''Shortcuts''' tab under '''Window''').
  
You do NOT have to be in space to edit your overview!  By setting a keyboard shortcut, you can edit your overview in the safety of spacedock.  Go to Neocom Menu > Settings (gear icon at the bottom) > Shortcuts Tab > Window Tab > scroll down to Overview Settings.  Assign the Overview Settings a shortcut key (ALT-O is available by default), click the Close Window button, and you can open your Overview Settings for editing from anywhere.  You will still have to launch into space to see the changes, but that is a much faster procedure than sitting undocked in space editing your Overview and not watching your d-scan.
+
You will still need to undock in order to verify and get used to your new overview settings, but this way you can avoid actually being in space while alt-tabbed or fiddling with your game menus.
  
=== Exporting your current settings ===
+
===== Exporting your current settings =====
 
Open your ''Overview Settings'' window and go to the ''Misc'' tab. At the bottom of the tab you'll see two button, ''Import Overview Settings'' and ''Export Overview Settings''. It's '''highly recommended''' that you start by making a backup of your settings by exporting them into one file first, before making another export with another name, with the intention of using the second copy as a work-in-progress file.
 
Open your ''Overview Settings'' window and go to the ''Misc'' tab. At the bottom of the tab you'll see two button, ''Import Overview Settings'' and ''Export Overview Settings''. It's '''highly recommended''' that you start by making a backup of your settings by exporting them into one file first, before making another export with another name, with the intention of using the second copy as a work-in-progress file.
=== Location of your overview files ===
+
===== Location of your overview files =====
 
The files will end up in your personal Documents folder along with screenshots, chatlogs etc (not to be confused with the application data folder where your other settings are stored). The folder is created automatically the first time you export your settings, so normally you won't have to do that yourself.
 
The files will end up in your personal Documents folder along with screenshots, chatlogs etc (not to be confused with the application data folder where your other settings are stored). The folder is created automatically the first time you export your settings, so normally you won't have to do that yourself.
  
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|-
 
|-
 
| {{icon|mac|38}}
 
| {{icon|mac|38}}
| For Macintosh users the files will be in the following folder:<br>{{co|orange|<username>/Library/Application Support/EVE Online/p_drive/User/My Documents/EVE/Overview}}
+
| For Macintosh users the files will be in the following folder:<br>{{co|orange|<username>/Documents/EVE/Overview}}
 
|}
 
|}
  
=== Editing the overview file ===
+
== Editing the overview file out-of-game ==
The overview is saved in the .yaml file format and can be edited in pretty much any kind of text-editor, like the commonly used [http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/ Notepad++], but of course the standard notepad editor that comes comes with Windows works as well. Simply right-click the file and open it with your favourite text-editor to start editing. The majority of the changes you're likely to make (tab and label edits) will be at the very end of the file.
+
The overview is saved in the .yaml file format and can be edited in pretty much any kind of text-editor, like the commonly used [https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ Notepad++], but of course the standard notepad editor that comes with Windows works as well. Simply right-click the file and open it with your favourite text-editor to start editing. The majority of the changes you're likely to make (tab and label edits) will be at the very end of the file.
==== File structure ====
 
The overview used to be stored in .xml files where you had to hide brackets, tags and other things by rewriting them as {{co|violet|&lt}}{{co|violet|;}} or {{co|violet|&gt}}{{co|violet|;}} for it to parse correctly by the game engine. With the new .yaml files you can write plain html-code and it'll be parsed just fine.
 
  
Attributes and values are split across individual lines, with {{co|violet|-}} markups identifying and grouping the variables. Here's an example with colour-coded comments:
+
===== File structure =====
 +
The overview is stored in .yaml files where you can write plain html-code and it'll be parsed just fine. Attributes and values are split across individual lines, with {{co|violet|-}} markups identifying and grouping the variables. Here's an example with changes {{co|slateblue|highlighted in blue}} and comments in {{co|lightgreen|-- green}}:
 
{| style="font-size:90%;"
 
{| style="font-size:90%;"
 
| valign="top" |
 
| valign="top" |
<pre&lt;noinclude&gt;&lt;/noinclude&gt;>
+
<pre<includeonly></includeonly>>
 
tabSetup:  {{co|lightgreen|-- This identifies the start of the code handling tabs.}}
 
tabSetup:  {{co|lightgreen|-- This identifies the start of the code handling tabs.}}
 
- - 0  {{co|lightgreen|-- First tab.}}
 
- - 0  {{co|lightgreen|-- First tab.}}
Line 54: Line 55:
 
       - null
 
       - null
 
     - - name
 
     - - name
       - <b&gt;.  PvP  .</b&gt;  {{co|lightgreen|-- This is the value for 'name', which is the label for the tab.}}
+
       - {{co|slateblue|<b&gt;.  PvP  .</b&gt;}} {{co|lightgreen|-- This is the value for 'name', which is the label for the tab.}}
 
     - - overview
 
     - - overview
       - 1a - pvp + drones  {{co|lightgreen|-- This is the name of the setting that's loaded into this tab.}}
+
       - {{co|slateblue|1a - pvp + drones}} {{co|lightgreen|-- This is the name of the setting that's loaded into this tab.}}
 
- - 1  {{co|lightgreen|-- Second tab.}}
 
- - 1  {{co|lightgreen|-- Second tab.}}
 
   - - - bracket
 
   - - - bracket
 
       - null
 
       - null
 
     - - name
 
     - - name
       - <b&gt;.  PvP Travel  .</b&gt;
+
       - {{co|slateblue|<b&gt;.  PvP Travel  .</b&gt;}}
 
     - - overview
 
     - - overview
       - 2 - pvp travel
+
       - {{co|slateblue|2 - pvp travel}}
  
 
{{co|lightgreen|-- Skipping to the next interesting part.}}
 
{{co|lightgreen|-- Skipping to the next interesting part.}}
Line 95: Line 96:
  
 
{{co|lightgreen|-- Etc, etc.}}
 
{{co|lightgreen|-- Etc, etc.}}
</pre&lt;noinclude&gt;&lt;/noinclude&gt;>
+
</pre<includeonly></includeonly>>
 
|}
 
|}
==== Reloading settings while in space ====
+
 
 +
===== Reloading settings while in space =====
 
You can easily purge or load new settings while, but in order for the new settings to take full effect (especially ship labels) you'll need to load a tab that doesn't have ships or player owned entities on them (to sort of "purge" them from memory) and then swap back to a tab that does show them. Once you do that, the new settings will be in full effect.
 
You can easily purge or load new settings while, but in order for the new settings to take full effect (especially ship labels) you'll need to load a tab that doesn't have ships or player owned entities on them (to sort of "purge" them from memory) and then swap back to a tab that does show them. Once you do that, the new settings will be in full effect.
  
 
The '''podsaver''' tab is excellent for this, as it shouldn't contain any player entities, so swapping to the podsaver and back everytime you reload your settings should be enough.
 
The '''podsaver''' tab is excellent for this, as it shouldn't contain any player entities, so swapping to the podsaver and back everytime you reload your settings should be enough.
  
= Example =
+
== Modifying the tab appearance and ship labels ingame ==
 +
By opening up the '''Overview Settings''' page and going to the various tabs you can quickly change some of this directly. The '''Tab Name''' text-field on the '''Overview Tabs''' page will only show you a maximum of 17 characters at a time and the text-fields for the '''Ships''' tab is even worse, only showing a maximum of 3 characters at a time. This is why why many prefer to edit this directly in the overview file, where there are no limits or restrictions.
 +
{|
 +
| valign="top" | [[image:overview_settings_overview_tabs.png|thumb|320px|In the '''Overview Tabs''' you can quickly edit the name and formatting of your tabs.]]
 +
| valign="top" | [[image:overview_settings_ships.png|thumb|320px|In the '''Ships''' tab you can change the pre- and post-formatting for ship labels and brackets in space.]]
 +
|}
 +
 
 +
= Format and style =
 +
The overview supports a video variety of style formatting in plain html-code.
 +
; {{co|coral|Text formatting}}
 +
:You can use simple html-coding such as normal {{co|violet|<color&gt;</color&gt;}} and {{co|violet|<font&gt;</font&gt;}} tags, but also things like linebreaks {{co|violet|<br&gt;}}, bold {{co|violet|<b&gt;</b&gt;}}, italic {{co|violet|<i&gt;</i&gt;}} etc.
 +
; {{co|coral|Colours}}
 +
:For colours, either use the simple '''colour name''' or the '''HEX-based''' {{co|violet|0xFF}}{{co|magenta|RRGGBB}} format, so if you wanted the colour {{co|green|green}} you could either do {{co|violet|<color&#61;green&gt;}} or {{co|violet|<color&#61;0xFF}}{{co|magenta|008000&gt;}}.
 +
; {{co|coral|Symbols}}
 +
: You can also use various ASCII- and HTML-codes, like rooks ♜ ♖, kings ♚ ♔, horses ♞ ♘, airplane ✈, skull ☠, yin and yang ☯, stars ★ ☆ or whatever else you might find. Not all symbols will work, or even turn out the way you thought they would, but you can easily just check that out in a chat window beforehand.
 +
 
 +
See '''w3schools'''' [https://www.w3schools.com/html/html_formatting.asp text formatting] or [https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_names.asp colour names] pages, or '''wikipedia's''' [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors web colours] page if you're new to html-coding.
 +
 
 +
For a list of symbols that work in EVE you can check [[User:Cassiel_Seraphim/Symbols|Cassiel's Symbols]] page. It's possible there are more symbols that might work, so feel free to check out [https://www.theasciicode.com.ar/ ASCII Codes] or [https://copypastecharacter.com/symbols Symbols] for inspiration, but remember that some of those symbols won't work in EVE.
 +
 
 +
== Example ==
 
This is an example of one of the pre-saved overviews that were available at the time of writing this guide. On the left is the unedited version of the overview, on the right is the code with the changes {{co|slateblue|highlighted in blue}} that enables the colour-coding and font-changes.
 
This is an example of one of the pre-saved overviews that were available at the time of writing this guide. On the left is the unedited version of the overview, on the right is the code with the changes {{co|slateblue|highlighted in blue}} that enables the colour-coding and font-changes.
  
The changes are simple html-coding using normal {{co|violet|<color&gt;</color&gt;}} and {{co|violet|<font&gt;</font&gt;}} tags, but can include things like linebreaks {{co|violet|<br&gt;}}, bold {{co|violet|<b&gt;</b&gt;}} etc. For colours, use the {{co|violet|0xFF}}{{co|magenta|RRGGBB}} format, so if you wanted the colour {{co|green|green}} you'd use {{co|violet|0xFF}}{{co|magenta|008000}}. You can also use various ASCII- and HTML-codes, like rooks ♜ ♖, kings ♚ ♔, horses ♞ ♘, airplane ✈, skull ☠, yin and yang ☯, stars ★ ☆ or whatever else you might find. Not all symbols will work, or even turn out the way you thought they would, but you can easily just check that out in a chat window beforehand.
+
===== Tab appearance =====
 
 
See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors Web colors], [http://www.theasciicode.com.ar/ ASCII Codes] or [http://copypastecharacter.com/symbols Symbols] for inspiration.
 
== Tab appearance ==
 
 
These changes are possible to do ingame, albeit tricky since the window and editing fields are extremely limited. But the game will accept and change these values from inside the game, so there's technically no need to export and edit the files if this is all you want to edit.
 
These changes are possible to do ingame, albeit tricky since the window and editing fields are extremely limited. But the game will accept and change these values from inside the game, so there's technically no need to export and edit the files if this is all you want to edit.
  
Line 158: Line 177:
 
The formatting here is purely for presenting it, the .yaml file parses it just fine as it is, so it's just for the sake of the wiki that I use the &gt; &lt; and &#61; replacements.
 
The formatting here is purely for presenting it, the .yaml file parses it just fine as it is, so it's just for the sake of the wiki that I use the &gt; &lt; and &#61; replacements.
 
-->
 
-->
<pre&lt;noinclude&gt;&lt;/noinclude&gt;>
+
<pre<onlyinclude></onlyinclude>>
 
tabSetup:
 
tabSetup:
 
- - 0
 
- - 0
Line 195: Line 214:
 
     - - overview
 
     - - overview
 
       - 5 - pod saver
 
       - 5 - pod saver
</pre&lt;noinclude&gt;&lt;/noinclude&gt;>
+
</pre<onlyinclude></onlyinclude>>
 
|}
 
|}
  
== Ship labels ==
+
===== Ship labels =====
 
The format of this is pretty straight forward. The {{co|violet|shipLabels:}} tag marks the beginning of the settings for labels and the {{co|violet|-}} indentations breaks up the various attributes. The {{co|violet|pre}} attributes add stuff before the label while the {{co|violet|post}} attribute add stuff after the label. The {{co|violet|state}} attribute is a simple integer showing if it's enabled (1) or disabled (0) while the {{co|violet|type}} attribute is the name of the attribute. The value for each attribute ends up on the line below, after the {{co|violet|-}} indentation. Text doesn't have to be wrapped in {{co|violet|&#39;&#39;}}s, but can if you feel that makes it easier to read.
 
The format of this is pretty straight forward. The {{co|violet|shipLabels:}} tag marks the beginning of the settings for labels and the {{co|violet|-}} indentations breaks up the various attributes. The {{co|violet|pre}} attributes add stuff before the label while the {{co|violet|post}} attribute add stuff after the label. The {{co|violet|state}} attribute is a simple integer showing if it's enabled (1) or disabled (0) while the {{co|violet|type}} attribute is the name of the attribute. The value for each attribute ends up on the line below, after the {{co|violet|-}} indentation. Text doesn't have to be wrapped in {{co|violet|&#39;&#39;}}s, but can if you feel that makes it easier to read.
  
Line 265: Line 284:
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
 
| valign="top" nowrap |
 
| valign="top" nowrap |
<pre&lt;noinclude&gt;&lt;/noinclude&gt;><nowiki>
+
<pre<onlyinclude></onlyinclude>><nowiki>
 
shipLabels:
 
shipLabels:
 
- - null
 
- - null
Line 321: Line 340:
 
     - - type
 
     - - type
 
       - ship type
 
       - ship type
</nowiki></pre&lt;noinclude&gt;&lt;/noinclude&gt;>
+
</nowiki></pre<onlyinclude></onlyinclude>>
 
|}
 
|}
== End result ==
+
 
 +
===== End result =====
 
The above mentioned example will end up looking like this:
 
The above mentioned example will end up looking like this:
 
{|
 
{|
Line 330: Line 350:
 
| valign="top" | [[image:overview_manipulation_combat_logs.png|thumb|Ship labels affect the combat log as well.]]
 
| valign="top" | [[image:overview_manipulation_combat_logs.png|thumb|Ship labels affect the combat log as well.]]
 
|}
 
|}
 +
 +
[[Category:User Interface]]
 +
[[Category:Guides]]

Latest revision as of 00:18, 8 August 2022

This page contains information on what's possible to manipulate when it comes to the overview in EVE Online as well as some practical examples. The overview is essential in showing you what's happening around you. More information about how to set it up according to EVE University standards can be found on the Installing the EVE University Overview page.

What can you manipulate?

Most people edit the overview file to change the appearances of the tabs and the labels.

While you can make any number of changes to the overview through the .yaml file, almost all of the things that can be changed ingame is much easier and more reliable to change ingame, with the exception of changing colours, font sizes, styles etc of the tab names and the ship labels / brackets in space.

Tab appearance

The Overview Tabs settings ingame will allow you to add html-formatting, but most people prefer to edit this outside the client anyway due to the highly restrictive input fields. It's much easier to edit those values in a proper text-editor than trying to do it in a tiny little window that shows but a few letters at a time.

Ship labels / brackets in space

Whenever you select a target or hover over a bracket in space you'll get some information about the entity. By manipulating the .yaml file you can customize this to show the information in different colours, font sizes or even with personalized linebreaks etc. These changes will affect your combat notifications as well and show the parts regarding players and player owned entities appropriately formatted, which is an added bonus that leads to improved readability of onscreen combat messages. If you decide to add manual linebreaks or other formatting code, be sure to check that the onscreen combat messages are still readable.

You can only change the appearance of players and player items (like mobile depots) this way, celestials, anomalies, NPC ships etc will have their default appearance no matter what you do.

How do you go about manipulating the overview?

Access your overview settings with your shortcut, chat-channel command or through the regular right-click context menu.
Importing and exporting settings is done by clicking the buttons at the bottom of the Misc tab in the overview settings window.
It's highly recommended that you make a backup of your current overview first and work from a copy instead.

The easiest way to manipulate your overview is to save your current overview and then export it into your documents folder. Then you can open the overview file in a text editor and quickly view your changes ingame by saving the file and importing the new settings. That way you can easily tinker with your overview until you have it just the way you like it.

Managing your overview settings while docked in a station

You can set up your initial overview while still being safely docked in a station. To open your overview settings without being in space you can use the channel-command /open overview settings or by setting up a shortcut for your Overview Settings window (you'll find it in the escape menu's Shortcuts tab under Window).

You will still need to undock in order to verify and get used to your new overview settings, but this way you can avoid actually being in space while alt-tabbed or fiddling with your game menus.

Exporting your current settings

Open your Overview Settings window and go to the Misc tab. At the bottom of the tab you'll see two button, Import Overview Settings and Export Overview Settings. It's highly recommended that you start by making a backup of your settings by exporting them into one file first, before making another export with another name, with the intention of using the second copy as a work-in-progress file.

Location of your overview files

The files will end up in your personal Documents folder along with screenshots, chatlogs etc (not to be confused with the application data folder where your other settings are stored). The folder is created automatically the first time you export your settings, so normally you won't have to do that yourself.

Where this folder is depends on your operating system.

OS Location of the folder
Icon os windows.png In Windows the files will be in your "My Documents" folder.
%userprofile%\documents\EVE\Overview
Icon os macintosh.png For Macintosh users the files will be in the following folder:
<username>/Documents/EVE/Overview

Editing the overview file out-of-game

The overview is saved in the .yaml file format and can be edited in pretty much any kind of text-editor, like the commonly used Notepad++, but of course the standard notepad editor that comes with Windows works as well. Simply right-click the file and open it with your favourite text-editor to start editing. The majority of the changes you're likely to make (tab and label edits) will be at the very end of the file.

File structure

The overview is stored in .yaml files where you can write plain html-code and it'll be parsed just fine. Attributes and values are split across individual lines, with - markups identifying and grouping the variables. Here's an example with changes highlighted in blue and comments in -- green:

tabSetup:  -- This identifies the start of the code handling tabs.
- - 0  -- First tab.
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <b>.  PvP  .</b>  -- This is the value for 'name', which is the label for the tab.
    - - overview
      - 1a - pvp + drones  -- This is the name of the setting that's loaded into this tab.
- - 1  -- Second tab.
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <b>.  PvP Travel  .</b>
    - - overview
      - 2 - pvp travel

-- Skipping to the next interesting part.

shipLabelOrder:  -- This determines the order of the different labels.
- ship type  -- If state is set to 1 for ship type, it'll show first.
- pilot name  -- If state is set to 1 for pilot name, it'll come second etc. 
- corporation
- alliance
- ship name
- null
shipLabels:  -- This identifies the start of the actual code handling ship labels, the order isn't important.
- - null  -- This is the last setting that ingame only has a pre-box and no post-box.
  - - - post  -- Anything put below the 'post' line will be added after the label/tag.
      -   -- This particular label doesn't use the post-attribute.
    - - pre  -- Anything put below the 'pre' line will be added before the label/tag.
      - '['  -- This only shows if the player has a corporation ticker.
    - - state  -- Attribute telling us if the label should show (1) or not (0).
      - 0  -- This label will not be shown since it's set to 0.
    - - type  -- The type of the label.
      - null
- - alliance  -- This is the code for the alliance tag, like <IVY>.
  - - - post
      - '>'  -- This adds the closing bracket after the alliance ticker.
    - - pre
      - '<'  -- This adds the opening bracket before the alliance ticker.
    - - state
      - 1  -- This label will be shown since it's set to 1.
    - - type
      - alliance  -- This is the alliance label (not everyone will have one).

-- Etc, etc.
Reloading settings while in space

You can easily purge or load new settings while, but in order for the new settings to take full effect (especially ship labels) you'll need to load a tab that doesn't have ships or player owned entities on them (to sort of "purge" them from memory) and then swap back to a tab that does show them. Once you do that, the new settings will be in full effect.

The podsaver tab is excellent for this, as it shouldn't contain any player entities, so swapping to the podsaver and back everytime you reload your settings should be enough.

Modifying the tab appearance and ship labels ingame

By opening up the Overview Settings page and going to the various tabs you can quickly change some of this directly. The Tab Name text-field on the Overview Tabs page will only show you a maximum of 17 characters at a time and the text-fields for the Ships tab is even worse, only showing a maximum of 3 characters at a time. This is why why many prefer to edit this directly in the overview file, where there are no limits or restrictions.

In the Overview Tabs you can quickly edit the name and formatting of your tabs.
In the Ships tab you can change the pre- and post-formatting for ship labels and brackets in space.

Format and style

The overview supports a video variety of style formatting in plain html-code.

Text formatting
You can use simple html-coding such as normal <color></color> and <font></font> tags, but also things like linebreaks <br>, bold <b></b>, italic <i></i> etc.
Colours
For colours, either use the simple colour name or the HEX-based 0xFFRRGGBB format, so if you wanted the colour green you could either do <color=green> or <color=0xFF008000>.
Symbols
You can also use various ASCII- and HTML-codes, like rooks ♜ ♖, kings ♚ ♔, horses ♞ ♘, airplane ✈, skull ☠, yin and yang ☯, stars ★ ☆ or whatever else you might find. Not all symbols will work, or even turn out the way you thought they would, but you can easily just check that out in a chat window beforehand.

See w3schools' text formatting or colour names pages, or wikipedia's web colours page if you're new to html-coding.

For a list of symbols that work in EVE you can check Cassiel's Symbols page. It's possible there are more symbols that might work, so feel free to check out ASCII Codes or Symbols for inspiration, but remember that some of those symbols won't work in EVE.

Example

This is an example of one of the pre-saved overviews that were available at the time of writing this guide. On the left is the unedited version of the overview, on the right is the code with the changes highlighted in blue that enables the colour-coding and font-changes.

Tab appearance

These changes are possible to do ingame, albeit tricky since the window and editing fields are extremely limited. But the game will accept and change these values from inside the game, so there's technically no need to export and edit the files if this is all you want to edit.

In this example I removed the bolding and simply made the font a little larger, because I have my interface scaled to 90% and my context-font set to 11 (which the tabs won't use for some reason). I also added some colours and removed the dots and just used regular space to widen some of the shorter-named tabs and rearranged the tab order itself.

Original version Modified version
tabSetup:
- - 0
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <b>.  PvP  .</b>
    - - overview
      - 1a - pvp + drones
- - 1
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <b>.  PvP Travel  .</b>
    - - overview
      - 2 - pvp travel
- - 2
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <b>.  Situational  .</b>
    - - overview
      - 3 - missioning
- - 3
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <b>.  Fleet  .</b>
    - - overview
      - 7 - fleetmates
- - 4
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <b>.  Pod Saver  .</b>
    - - overview
      - 5 - pod saver
tabSetup:
- - 0
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <color=0xffffffff><font size=11>   Travel   </font></color> 
    - - overview
      - 2 - pvp travel
- - 1
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <color=0xffff99ff><font size=11> Fleet members </font></color> 
    - - overview
      - 7 - fleetmates
- - 2
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <color=0xffff6600><font size=11>  It depends!™  </font></color> 
    - - overview
      - 3 - missioning
- - 3
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <color=0xffffffff><font size=11>   Looting   </font></color> 
    - - overview
      - 5 - looting
- - 4
  - - - bracket
      - null
    - - name
      - <color=0xff00ff33><font size=11>   Planets   </font></color> 
    - - overview
      - 5 - pod saver
Ship labels

The format of this is pretty straight forward. The shipLabels: tag marks the beginning of the settings for labels and the - indentations breaks up the various attributes. The pre attributes add stuff before the label while the post attribute add stuff after the label. The state attribute is a simple integer showing if it's enabled (1) or disabled (0) while the type attribute is the name of the attribute. The value for each attribute ends up on the line below, after the - indentation. Text doesn't have to be wrapped in ''s, but can if you feel that makes it easier to read.

Depending on the order of these labels and the fact that some labels might not show all the time (not all corporations belong to an alliance and not all players will have a corporation tag), take a few minutes to decide if and where you'd your space. In this example, I moved the space from after the player name to before the corporation ticker, so that if the player isn't in a player corporation I won't get a superfluous space added.

Original version Modified version
shipLabels:
- - null
  - - - post
      - ''
    - - pre
      - '['
    - - state
      - 0
    - - type
      - null
- - alliance
  - - - post
      - '>'
    - - pre
      - '<'
    - - state
      - 1
    - - type
      - alliance
- - corporation
  - - - post
      - ']'
    - - pre
      - '['
    - - state
      - 1
    - - type
      - corporation
- - pilot name
  - - - post
      - ' '
    - - pre
      - ''
    - - state
      - 1
    - - type
      - pilot name
- - ship name
  - - - post
      - ''''
    - - pre
      - ''''
    - - state
      - 0
    - - type
      - ship name
- - ship type
  - - - post
      - ')'
    - - pre
      - '('
    - - state
      - 1
    - - type
      - ship type
shipLabels:
- - null
  - - - post
      - ''
    - - pre
      - '['
    - - state
      - 0
    - - type
      - null
- - alliance
  - - - post
      - ')</color>'
    - - pre
      - ' <color="0xff66CCFF">('
    - - state
      - 1
    - - type
      - alliance
- - corporation
  - - - post
      - ']</color>'
    - - pre
      - ' <color="0xff33FF99">['
    - - state
      - 1
    - - type
      - corporation
- - pilot name
  - - - post
      - ''
    - - pre
      - ''
    - - state
      - 1
    - - type
      - pilot name
- - ship name
  - - - post
      - ''''
    - - pre
      - ' '''
    - - state
      - 0
    - - type
      - ship name
- - ship type
  - - - post
      - '</color> '
    - - pre
      - '<color="0xffFF3300">'
    - - state
      - 1
    - - type
      - ship type
End result

The above mentioned example will end up looking like this:

Tab appearance.
Ship labels in space and in the overview list.
Ship labels affect the combat log as well.