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[vassock]

Is there a way for me to label items like levers to make it easier to find out what each one does?

[Britonix]

What I do is use notes (Shift + N), I use some color and number codes to remind me which lever activate what. Explore this, it can be quite useful.

A tip: when you want to install one lever, I suggest you to make an easy to access room where you will put all of them. It can be hard to remember where is which once you have too many.

[Hans Lemurson]

I wish there were some sort of list accessible from the Lever's screen that would tell you all the devices it is linked to.  That would be nice.

[FleshForge]

Yes it would, although Shift+N is certainly better than nothing

[ThePup]

I wish there were some sort of list accessible from the Lever's screen that would tell you all the devices it is linked to.  That would be nice.

What?! And take away half the fun of a succession game?!  Bah.

[Psieye]

Decorating the lever's surroundings in a particular way is another way to achieve this. For example, I built floor tiles out of realgar (red stone) around the lever (made of orthoclase) for my front entrance gate which I also built out of realgar.

[Lord Darkstar]

I am in the habit of using Shift+N to put a note beside the levers. Names are things like: "Farm1 Fill Inlet" and "Farm1 Irrigation Gat". Then I fill in the text with a description, and go mark the floodgate, door, bridge, whatever in the same way.

I construct the first control levers in the same rooms as my bookkeeper's office and manager's office (I put all non-demanding "nobles" offices in a row, so they are all easily findable).

I use color of levers to help clue me in when possible to the use (ie, microcline levers for water controllers).

And you can always figure out what a lever is linked to if you pay attention: just try to link the lever to something. Whatever it controls will NOT be available on the list. IE, if you think it controls a floodgate, try linking it to a floodgate. You can walk the list of all built floodgates in your fortress, and if you skip any, you know it is linked (note that DF has an issue with displaying the actual item it is showing, so it can take some experience with understanding what item it is ACTUALLY supposed to be showing).

Of course, figuring it out can take a long time in a well developed fortress. But if you are worried about WHICH lever controls a door or floodgate that is holding back the magma, it is well worth taking the time to check rather than just flipping it and seeing what happened (not as dwarvenly, of course).

[gtmattz]

Even tho it is horribly inefficient, I try to place my levers in close proximity to what they operate, as well as color code them (microcline for water controls, orthoclase for magma stuff, olivine for gates and access, and bauxite/kaolinite for extra deadly things.)... Well, I try to keep the levers color coded, but sometimes I get lazy and just make a huge pile of flux stone mechanisms to get some masterworks to sell and just use the rest for whatever so everything ends up white like 30% of the time

[Kanddak]

When I build some complicated plumbing system, I tend to build a control room that's a map of the system, and put the levers in the spots on the map that correspond to the things they control.

[Proteus]

I for my part always buzild a lever room near my main dining hall (so that they are within easy reach of a dwarf without a job...very important for the levers controlling drawbridges and upright spikes ).
From the position of the lever groups within this room, their number and from their color I usually can see (for most of them) at once, what their function is.
But each lever group gets a note as well, so that, if I am unsure about the things they control, can still read about it

[Leonidas]

In putting notes on levers, it's sometimes useful to describe the location in addition to the function.  "Main Drawbridge" may seem obvious in year one, but will be meaningless in year five as your defenses have grown.  But "Main Drawbridge 30 North 7 East Up 1z" is always precise.