Tape

A Tape (Holotape or Holodisk)
A Holotape. A tape on which you can write your own message or upload existing ones to your Pip-Boy.
Primary use	Upload text to Pip-Boy Archives
Alternative uses	(not documented)
Weight	1814 grams
Base price	?? caps

Obtaining Tapes

You can buy them at Followers of the Apocalypse's Library in Boneyard area, and sometimes find them for sale by regular NPC merchants. You can acquire 2 holotapes by doing the Deliver Message for Elmer quest in Necropolis, and 1 tape from a message-delivery quest in Shady Sands.

Uses

To upload a Holodisk message to your Pip-Boy, select "Hand" icon on tape in inventory. To read messages in your Pip-Boy, look in your Pip-Boy Archives. To write your own message into a holotape, select "Skilldex" icon on holodisk in inventory and then choose "Science" from list. You can delete an existing message from a tape by using your Delete key although text characters can only be deleted one at a time.

Functional Limitations

• Each Holotape has a 2000-character limit, but you can rarely get the full 2000 into a tape
• The editing interface does not scroll down so it is difficult to write long messages
• Size of editing window is not scaled to the width of a record so formatting is tough to get right
• No mouse control, so cursor placement is via keyboard only
• No way to delete or overwrite records once uploaded (no overwrite prompt)
• No way to re-order or sort or filter records once uploaded

For longer messages, players should write their text in an external text file, copy it and then paste into the tape.

NOTE: In order to paste text into a tape, the character's chat bar must be open

Using holotapes can be fun though and effective, but getting tapes to look good in a Pip-Boy requires some practice.

Note
This feature is hard-coded into the game's engine so players should not expect these limitations to be fixed anytime soon.