Plotra DocsProject settings
Shape a project to your medium: its type, modules, status workflow, its own words, labels and kinds, and the ribbon you see it through.
A project's type is only a preset. Everything it chose for you can be changed: which tools are on, what a new scene looks like, what a "chapter" is called, the stages a note moves through. This page covers the Project settings dialog, section by section, and the Customize dialog, which holds what is yours alone.
| Dialog | What it changes | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| Project settings | The project: type, modules, workflow, words, labels, kinds, reveal channels, languages. | Everyone in the project sees the same. |
| Customize | Your screen: the ribbon, the inspector, the look of the page, the project home, guidance. | You alone, in every project. |
Opening project settings
- The gear at the bottom of the ribbon, Project settings.
- The command palette (
⌘P): "Project settings (type, modules, workflow)…". - On a phone: the Views and commands menu in the top bar, then Project settings.
There is no save button. A change is saved when you make it: a text field saves when you press Enter or leave it. Everyone who has the project open gets the new settings at once.
Who may change what
| Who | What they can change |
|---|---|
| Workspace owner and admins | Everything. They are the people who "manage" the project. |
| Workspace members, and guests shared in as editor | The Reveals & languages tab, and the fields of the project's own kinds. Everything else is shown but greyed out, under the line "Only people who manage this project can change these." |
| Guests shared in as viewer or commenter | Nothing. They can open the dialog and read it. |
General
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Title | The project's name, up to 120 characters. It can't be empty. Renaming does not change the project's web address, so old links keep working. |
| Logline or description | One or two sentences, up to 2,000 characters. Used on the series bible and the public wiki. |
| Type | One of the eleven project types. Some types are marked "(beta)". |
| New scenes are written as | Prose, Screenplay, Stage play, Comic script or Audio script. |
| Shared world bible | Another project whose world this one borrows. |
| Template | Offers this project as a model for new ones. |
Changing the type
Changing the type changes which modules are on by default. A module you have switched on or off yourself stays as you set it. The format of new scenes follows the new type too, unless you have chosen one under New scenes are written as.
It does not touch anything you have written, the format of existing notes, the project's own words, or your ribbon.
The format of new scenes
| Format | What a page is made of |
|---|---|
| Prose | Paragraphs, headings and lists. |
| Screenplay | Scene headings, action, character, dialogue, transitions. |
| Stage play | Acts and scenes, stage directions, character and dialogue. |
| Comic script | Pages and panels with captions, dialogue and SFX. |
| Audio script | Character lines with delivery notes, sound and music cues. |
This is the default for scenes created from now on. A single note's format can be changed on the note itself. See Script formats.
Shared world bible
A book series, a show and a game can share one world. Choose another project of the same workspace here, and its characters, places and entities appear in this project's codex and can be linked from any note. "None: this project keeps its own world" is the default.
- Only projects you can open are offered.
- It goes one level deep. A project that itself uses a shared world can't be chosen: link to that world instead.
- Who can see the shared pages is still decided by the world project's own sharing.
See Shared worlds.
Templates
Tick Offer this project as a template in its workspace and the project appears in the cold open, under "Or start in the shape of one of this workspace's templates".
A project started from a template is called "Untitled, from template name". It gets the template's:
- type, modules, words, labels and workflow;
- kinds and their fields, the fields of each kind of note, and custom calendars;
- folders and chapters, empty, with one empty scene to start in.
None of the template's text is copied: no scenes, no characters, no notes. The new project is an ordinary project, not another template, and it counts towards the workspace's project limit.
Modules
A list of the project's tool sets, each with a tick box, what it adds, and up to three tags:
| Tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
| default for this type | The project's type starts with this module on. |
| set by you | Someone has switched it on or off by hand, so it no longer follows the type. Putting it back to the type's default removes the tag. |
| Beta | One of the newer modules: Script formats, Production, Interactive narrative or Localization. |
Tick a module to switch it on for everyone in the project. Its views appear under More in the ribbon. Untick it to switch it off: its views, commands and inspector sections go away, and everything made with it is kept for when you switch it back on.
AI agent is only in the list once the workspace has switched AI on. See The AI agent.
What each module adds is on the Modules page.
Workflow
Every note has a status, shown in the binder and the inspector. The status is a stage of the project's workflow. A project that hasn't set its own uses Draft → Revised → Final.
Three ready-made workflows are at the top. Clicking one replaces the stages:
| Preset | Stages |
|---|---|
| Draft → Revised → Final | The default. Nothing locked, nothing needs approval. |
| Draft → In review → Approved → Locked | Approved needs approval. Locked needs approval and is locked. |
| Draft → Beta read → Edit → Copy-edit → Proof | Proof needs approval and is locked. |
Or build your own. Each stage is a row:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| The coloured dot | Pick the stage's colour. |
| The name | Rename the stage, up to 40 characters. |
| Approval | A note can only enter this stage once every required reviewer has approved it. |
| Locked | Notes in this stage are read-only for everyone but approvers. |
| Move up, Move down | Change the order. The first stage is the one new notes start in, and it is shown without a marker. |
| Remove stage | Takes the stage out. The last remaining stage can't be removed. |
| Add a stage | Adds "New stage" at the end. A workflow has between 1 and 12 stages. |
Notes in a stage you remove keep its name until you move them.
Reviewers and approvers are set in the Reviews view, which comes with the Review & editorial module. Without it, you can still mark stages as Approval or Locked here, but there is nowhere to name the reviewers. See Review and editorial.
Words
Call the kinds of note what your medium calls them. A "Chapter" can be an "Episode", a "Session" or an "Act". The new word is used in the binder, the menus, the commands and every view, for everyone in the project.
Seven kinds can be renamed: Folder, Chapter, Scene, Note, Character, Location and Research. Type the new word (up to 30 characters) and press Enter. Clear the field to go back to the app's word. Reset to the app's words clears them all.
- Plotra makes the plural itself, by the usual English rules: "Sessions", "Stories", "Classes".
- Canvases, timelines and dialogues keep their names. World entries are named by their own kind.
- A project started from the cold open may already have a word of its own: a tabletop campaign calls chapters "Session", a screenplay calls them "Sequence".
Renaming a kind changes its label only. No note is changed.
Labels
Labels mark notes any way you like: "Needs research", "Subplot", "Cut?". They are separate from a note's status.
- Add one with the field at the bottom: a name of up to 40 characters. A project can have 24.
- Colour it with one of the seven dots.
- Rename it in place.
- Delete it with the bin. Notes that carry it lose it.
A note carries one label. Once the project has any, a Label field appears in the inspector's Properties. The label shows as a colour in the binder and on the corkboard.
Kinds
Besides scenes, characters and places, a project can have kinds of its own: a Faction, a Spell, a Case. Each has its own icon, colour and fields, appears in the binder's New menu, and has a section in the Codex.
Kinds come with the World bible module. While it is off, this tab offers Turn on World bible to people who manage the project.
With it on, the tab lists the project's kinds and how many fields each has. Edit opens a kind; New kind… adds one. Anyone who can edit the project can do both. A world bible starts with nine: Faction, Object, Event, Species, Culture, Language, Religion, System and Theme. See The world bible.
Reveals and languages
Anyone who can edit the project can change this tab.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Reveal channels | Where the audience can learn something: the text itself, a trailer, an interview. They start as Main text, Trailer, Interview, Social post and Supplementary story. Up to 20, each up to 40 characters. Used when you record a reveal. |
| Written in | The language the project is written in, as a code. en unless you change it. |
| Translated into | The languages it is translated into, as codes such as fr, de or pt-BR. Up to 30. The Localization module keeps one translation per language. See Localization. |
| Citation style | APA, MLA or Chicago, for references and the bibliography. APA unless you change it. See Research and sources. |
A language that isn't a code is refused: "Languages are codes like fr, de or pt-BR."
What is not in the dialog
| Thing | Where it is |
|---|---|
| The fields of a kind of note (a scene's POV, a character's role, your own) | The inspector's Properties, on a note of that kind. See Properties. |
| Custom calendars | The timeline. See Timeline and canvas. |
| The project's word target | The Stats view. See Writing goals. |
| Who the project is shared with | Share project… at the top of the binder. See Working together. |
| Switching AI on for the workspace | The workspace's settings. See The AI agent. |
A project can't be deleted or archived yet
The app has no button to delete, archive or move a project. Individual notes can be trashed and deleted forever from the binder, but the project itself stays in its workspace and keeps counting towards the workspace's project limit.
Customising the ribbon
The ribbon is yours, not the project's. Your arrangement is saved with your account, so it follows you to every project and every device, and your co-writers keep their own.
A project's ribbon starts with five views, chosen by how the project was started. See Project types. Every other view is under More.
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Pin a view | Open Customize and tick it. Finishing a checklist step about a view also pins it. |
| Hide a view | Right-click it in the ribbon and choose Remove from ribbon, or untick it in Customize. It moves under More. |
| Reorder | Right-click a view and choose Move up or Move down, or use the arrows in Customize. |
| Show all | In Customize, tick Show every view. Pinning, hiding and reordering are switched off while it is on, and the ribbon scrolls if the views don't fit. |
| Start again | Reset to default, beside the Ribbon heading in Customize. |
A view that belongs to a module is only offered while that module is on.
If you are offline when you change the ribbon, it stays as you arranged it in that tab and is saved with your next change.
The Customize dialog
Open it from More → Customize… in the ribbon, by right-clicking a ribbon view, or with the command "Customize: ribbon, inspector and the look of the page". Each section has its own Reset to default once you have changed something.
| Section | What you can change |
|---|---|
| Ribbon | As above. |
| Inspector | Which panels are shown and in what order: Properties, Outline, Links, Story, Comments, History, AI. Panels the project doesn't have are not offered. Tick One tab for each panel, instead of Note and Review to stop panels sharing tabs. With everything hidden, Links stays. |
| The page | How the text you write looks: see below. Printed and exported pages have their own formats. |
| Project home | Which blocks the project home shows, and their order. |
| Guidance | Suggest a way in when a note is empty, and Show "Getting started" in this project where the project has a checklist. |
Reset everything to how a new project starts, at the bottom, clears all five.
The page
| Setting | Choices (default first) |
|---|---|
| Typeface | Serif, Sans-serif, Typewriter |
| Text size | Medium, Small, Large, Extra large |
| Line width | Normal, Narrow, Wide |
| Line spacing | Normal, Tight, Relaxed |
| Paragraphs | Space between, First line indented |
The AI agent
An assistant that works inside your story and stays under your control. Turning it on, whose model it runs on, the three modes, undoing what it did, and exactly what is sent where.
Plans and billing
The Free and Pro plans on the hosted version, what an AI credit is, and how to upgrade, cancel or go back to Free.