Show Journal Entries (Handouts) from Chat Window or Macro

Not sure where this question fits, API or here so asking... So I want to build handouts and be able to pop them on the screen from the chat window. Example: I have a Handout for a spell say Light with a spellcard and all the details of light. I want to just be able to call that from the Chat window and have it show on the screen as if I clicked on it from the navigation. I also might have a handout with details of an item, area, etc... I would be able to type a command with the handout name and show the handout on screen. Very quick access and no navigating looking through all my journal entries. Anyone know how to do this? In the example below I have a table with Light spell and a corresponding handout. I can open the book and click Light and up pops the card. What I want is to be able to type [Light] or something like that in the chat and have the handout display without clicking anything.

Unfortunately you can't do precisely what you're asking. There is not a way to trigger popping up a handout that does not involve clicking something. However, there are some options you can use to speed things up for you: You can minimize handouts so that they are on screen and you don't have to go digging in the journal to find them. You might want to do this with your Spellbook Cleric handout. That would give you 2 double clicks to view a specific handout, or 2 double clicks and a single click to show one to players. I believe you can also show a handout to players with it minimized, so you could have those ready to show. See: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Journal#Minimizing_Journal" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Journal#Minimizing_Journal</a>... Create a macro with links to the various handouts that are whispered in chat. You can right click a [Light] style link in a journal and copy the URL. printing that URL to chat gives you something you can click that will bring up a handout. You could either type the name of your index macro and then click the url of the handout you want, or you could add it to the macro bar and get to the handout with two clicks. If screen real estate is more of a problem, you could open a second window onto the campaign, with those handouts open and ready to show, then alt tab to it when you need to show one off. Combine with the minimized but show to players option and you could have quite a few ready to be shown.

Hi Aaron: Thanks for the information. Out of curiosity, is this a technical limitation of ROLL20 API or is this a broader technology limitation? Just wondering if this is something worth trying to request as a future enhancement because it would be a heck of a lot easier. Thanks Robert

There is no technical reason that the API could not trigger such an action, if it were written in by the devs. I believe there is actually a suggestion related to this, but I'm on a train, so digging in the forum to find it would be tedious. =D