# Activate and Deactivate Characters

Characters in a scene can be temporarily disabled, which will prevent them from being included in the scene's dialogue generation. This can be useful when a character is out of the scene for a moment.


## Take a character out of the scene

To deactivate a character, first select the character on the left hand side in the :material-earth-box: **World Editor** under the :material-account-group: **Characters** tab.

Then click on the :material-exit-run: **Deactivate** button, beneath the character's image.

Deactivating a character like this will be instant and not generate any narration to explain the character's absence.

!!! tip "Can also be done through the scene tools"
    A character can also be deactivated while engaging with the scene, using the scene tools.

    See [Scene Tools -> Take character out of scnee](/talemate/user-guide/scenario-tools/#take-character-out-of-scene) for more information.

    Using this method will generate a narration to explain the character's absence.

## Reactivate a character

To reactivate a character, select the character on the left hand side in the :material-earth-box: **World Editor** under the :material-account-group: **Characters** tab.

Then click on the :material-human-greeting: **Activate** button, beneath the character's image.

Activating a character like this will be instant and not generate any narration to explain the character's return.

!!! tip "Can also be done through the scene tools"
    A character can also be reactivated while engaging with the scene, using the scene tools.

    See [Scene Tools -> Call character to scene](/talemate/user-guide/scenario-tools/#call-character-to-scene) for more information.

    Using this method will generate a narration to explain the character's return.