You can access the inventory by pressing
i
The inventory sceen shows all of the items your character is currently holding. It also shows all of the items your character is currently stood in the same tile as, on the right hand side. You can use this page to pick up and drop items, although you will be unable to drop more items than a tile can hold. A tile's holding capacity can be increased by dropping storage on the tile, for example a wooden chest, which can be useful at increasing your stockpile's maximum size. Characters will automatically use storage on a tile if there is space to do so.
Some items in your inventory have special functions that can be accessed from the inventory page. These are listed below.
Clothes, armour, and weapons can all be equipped from the inventory page. Be aware that the order you equip your clothes affects the order they appear on your character sprite - later equipped items appear 'over the top' of earlier equipped ones if they happen to overlap. It is generally adviseable to equip tops over trousers and hats over tops for this reason.
You can also equip items from the equipment sheet by pressing
q
Tools can also be equipped in the inventory page - in general however, this is unnecessary as a tool is equipped when it is needed by a character. The main exception to this is the torch. If a character's torch reaction order is toggled to off, then you will need to manually equip torches for a character to light them. This is especially important at night time, where torches will help to keep Skyshrouds at bay, or undeground, where they will help to see where dangerous monsters are.
Locks are installed from the inventory page. Stand on top of the door or tile you would like to install the lock on, and then press . whilst highlighting the lock in your inventory.
Keys are copied from the inventory page. Highlight the key and press ; to make a copy. You can see the ingredients for copying a key in the wikipedia.
Writing surfaces can be read from the inventory page with \.
Writing surfaces can be drawn on from the inventory page with /.
Writing surfaces can be written on from the inventory page with ..
Be aware that all characters can write on or draw on your writing surfaces if they can pick them up - it is best to keep noticeboards and other public containers of notes locked up if you wish to keep these notes safe from being edited by other players.