The vault and the binder
How a project is organised: notes, kinds, properties, tags, tabs and panes.
A project is a vault: a set of notes that link to each other. The binder is the tree on the left that holds them.
Kinds of note
Everything in the binder is a note of some kind. The kind decides its icon, its template and which view opens it.
| Kind | For |
|---|---|
| Folder | Grouping. A folder can also stand for a book, an act or a season. |
| Chapter | A group of scenes. |
| Scene | The text of the story. |
| Note | Anything else you want to write down. |
| Character, Location | The people and places of the story. |
| Entity | A page of a type you define: a faction, an object, a magic system. See Canon. |
| Research | A source or a clipped page. |
| Canvas | A storyboard. |
| Timeline | A timeline. |
| Dialogue | A branching conversation (interactive projects). |
You can change a note's kind later from its context menu.
Working in the binder
- Create with the buttons at the top of the binder (new note, new folder, and a menu with the other kinds), or right-click a folder and choose "New inside".
- Move by dragging. Drop a note before, after or inside another one.
- Rename with
F2, or from the context menu. - Duplicate copies a note together with everything under it.
- Trash moves a note to the project's trash. From there you can restore it or delete it forever. Deleting forever can't be undone.
Right-click a folder or a chapter to open it as a corkboard, a manuscript, a read view or a plot grid.
Tabs and panes
Notes and views open as tabs in the middle of the screen.
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
⌘⌥\ | Split the pane to the right |
⌘⌥→ / ⌘⌥← | Next and previous tab |
⌥W | Close the tab |
⌘⇧M | Make the pane fill the window, and back |
Drag a tab to another pane, or to the edge of one to make a new split. A tab can be pinned so it stays open.
Your layout is remembered per project in your browser. To keep more than one arrangement, for example "Drafting" and "Plotting", save it as a layout with ⌘⇧L. Saved layouts are stored with your account.
Properties
Every note has properties: fields about it, shown in the inspector under Properties.
- Every note has a status (Draft, Revised, Final to begin with), a synopsis, tags and aliases. Aliases are other names the note goes by.
- Each kind has its own fields. A scene has a point of view, a location, a story date, a duration and plot threads. A character has a role, an age, an arc, and dates of birth and death. A chapter has a target word count.
- You can add your own fields per kind. A field has a type: text, number, date, checkbox, web address, a choice, several choices, or a link to another note.
Properties are what the other views are built from. The outline shows them as columns. The timeline places scenes by their story date. The corkboard shows each synopsis.
Tags
Tag a note to group it across folders. Tags can be nested with a slash, like subplot/romance. The tags pane lists every tag and the notes that carry it.
The editor
/on an empty line opens the block menu.- Markdown-style shortcuts work as you type:
#and a space for a heading,-for a list,>for a quote. - Selecting text shows a toolbar for bold, italic, links and comments.
- Blocks can be dragged by the handle on their left.
- Images are added by address (URL) for now.
- Focus mode (
⌘⇧F) hides everything but the text. Typewriter scrolling (⌘⇧T) keeps the line you are writing in the middle of the screen.
Starting from a structure
"New beat sheet" in the command palette builds a folder of acts and beats with a short synopsis in each, from Save the Cat, the Hero's Journey or a three-act structure.