The vault and the binder

Everything your story needs lives in one project, so nothing is left in a file you can't find. 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.

This page covers the binder and the frame around it: tabs and panes, the inspector, the status bar, the command palette and the quick switcher. The page you write on has its own: The editor.

Kinds of noteCopy Anchor Link

Everything in the binder is a note of some kind. The kind decides its icon, its template and which view opens it.

Any note can hold other notes, not only folders and chapters. Folders and chapters are the two the binder shows as containers, and the two a new note goes inside when one of them is selected.

A project can use its own words for the kinds: "Session" or "Sequence" for a chapter, say. The binder, the menus and the commands then use those words. See Project settings.

Changing a note's kindCopy Anchor Link

Right-click the note and choose Change kind, or use the Kind field at the top of the Properties panel.

• Folders, chapters, scenes, notes, characters, locations and research notes can be turned into one another. With the World bible module on, the list also has your entity types.
• A canvas, a timeline or a dialogue can't change kind, and a text note can't become one.
• The text stays as it is. The properties shown become those of the new kind; the values of the old kind's fields are kept and come back if you change the kind back.

Working in the binderCopy Anchor Link

CreatingCopy Anchor Link

The buttons at the top of the binder:

Where a new note lands:

1. Inside the selected folder or chapter, at the end.
2. Otherwise beside the selected note, or the note you have open, in the same folder.
3. Otherwise at the end of the top level.

To choose the place yourself, right-click any note and use New inside.

A new note is called "Untitled" and its kind ("Untitled scene"), opens in a new tab, and its name is ready to be typed over in the binder. A new scene is written in the project's format: prose, or the script format of a screenplay project.

There is also a command for each kind in the command palette ("New scene", "New character"), and the quick switcher creates a note from a name that doesn't exist yet.

In an empty project the binder offers two links instead of a tree: Write a scene and start a chapter.

OpeningCopy Anchor Link

Clicking a folder opens and closes it in the tree. ⌘-click a folder to open its own page.

KeysCopy Anchor Link

Click in the binder, then:

MovingCopy Anchor Link

Drag a note in the binder. A line shows where it will go if you drop it above or below another note, and the row is outlined if you drop it inside.

• Drop on the top or bottom edge of a row to put the note before or after it.
• Drop on the middle of a row to put it inside, at the end. This works on any note, not only folders. The row opens to show it.
• Drop on the empty space under the tree to move it to the end of the top level.
• A note can't be dropped into itself or into something inside it.

A move takes everything inside the note with it. You can also drag a note from the binder onto a canvas or a timeline; see Timeline and canvas.

The context menuCopy Anchor Link

Right-click a note. Which items are there depends on the note.

New inside, Rename, Change kind, Status and Import… are greyed out if you can't edit. Move to trash is greyed out if you can't delete. See Roles and permissions.

DuplicatingCopy Anchor Link

Duplicate makes a copy called "name copy" directly below the original, with its name ready to be changed. The copy has the same text, kind, status, synopsis, tags, aliases, properties and canon settings, and so does a copy of every note inside it. Notes in the trash are left out. Comments and version history belong to the original and are not copied.

The trashCopy Anchor Link

Move to trash takes a note, and everything inside it, out of the binder and closes its tabs. Nothing is deleted yet. Links to a trashed note are struck through, and the note is left out of the views and the word count.

The Trash is at the bottom of the binder, with a count. Open it to see what is there, newest first. Point at a row for its two buttons:

Empty trash deletes everything in it, after asking. It is for people who may delete in the whole project; anything you aren't allowed to delete stays, and a message says how many items stayed.

A note has to be in the trash before it can be deleted forever. A note that a review stage has locked, or a folder with a locked note inside, can't be trashed by anyone but its approvers; see Review and editorial.

What a row showsCopy Anchor Link

Which folders are open is remembered per project in your browser. Drag the edge of the binder to make it wider or narrower; the inspector has the same edge.

Tabs and panesCopy Anchor Link

Notes and views open as tabs in the middle of the screen.

The command palette has three more that have no keys to begin with: Split down, Pin or unpin tab and Close all tabs.

• Splitting moves the active tab into a new pane, so the pane needs at least two tabs.
• Drag a tab to another pane, or to the edge of one to make a new split.
• Middle-click a tab to close it.
• A pinned tab stays open: opening another note from the binder goes beside it instead of replacing it. It shows a pin where the close button was. Unpin it, or use ⌥W, to close it.
• Coloured dots on a tab are the other people who have that note open. A single dot in place of the close button means the note has changes that haven't reached the server yet; see Saving and working offline.

With no tab open, the middle of the screen is the project home: the notes you last worked on, this session's words against your goal, the next step of the getting-started checklist, and a few shortcuts. Choose which of these it shows under Customize.

On a phone-sized screen there is one pane at a time; the splits come back when there is room. The binder and the inspector open over the page as drawers, and the ribbon becomes a bar across the top.

Saved layoutsCopy Anchor Link

Your open tabs and splits are remembered per project in your browser, along with which tabs are pinned. To keep more than one arrangement, for example "Drafting" and "Plotting", save it as a layout.

1. Press ⌘⇧L, or choose Saved layouts under More in the ribbon.
2. Type a name and press Enter to save the current arrangement. Typing the name of a layout you already have replaces it.
3. To switch, open the list again and pick one. The bin icon on a row deletes it.

Saved layouts are stored with your account, per project, so they follow you to another computer and nobody else sees them. A name can be 60 characters. When a layout is opened, tabs for notes that have since been trashed or deleted are left out.

The inspectorCopy Anchor Link

The inspector is the sidebar on the right. It is about the note in the active tab. Show or hide it with ⌘⇧\.

The gear at the right of the tabs opens Customize, where you can give each panel a tab of its own, hide panels and change their order.

The Properties panelCopy Anchor Link

From top to bottom:

With the Review & editorial module on, the panel also has the note's review controls.

Without edit access the fields can be read but not changed.

PropertiesCopy Anchor Link

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, a first appearance, and dates of birth and death. A location has a type and a region. A chapter has a target word count. A research note has the fields of a reference: type, authors, publisher, year, URL and so on.
• You can add your own fields per kind.

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.

Custom fieldsCopy Anchor Link

The fields belong to the kind, not to one note: add "Mood" to one scene and every scene in the project has it.

1. Open a note of the kind and go to Properties in the inspector.
2. Click Add property to scenes (the button names the kind).
3. Give it a name, up to 60 characters, choose a type, and click Add.

Point at a field's name for its menu: Rename, Move up, Move down and Remove from template. Removing a field hides it on every note of the kind; the values are kept and return if you add a field with the same name again.

Adding and changing fields needs edit access to the project. For an entity type, the fields are the type's own; they can also be edited where the type is defined, see Canon.

TagsCopy Anchor Link

Tag a note to group it across folders. Tags can be nested with a slash, like subplot/romance.

There are two ways to tag a note:

• In the inspector, under Tags: type a tag and press Enter or a comma.
• In the text: write #subplot anywhere. See Tags in the text.

A tag is stored in lower case, with spaces turned into hyphens. A note can have 50 tags.

The Tags tab at the top of the left sidebar, beside Binder, lists every tag in the project with the number of notes that carry it. Nested tags are shown as a tree, and a parent counts the notes of its children. Click a tag to list its notes underneath; click a note to open it, ⌘-click for a new tab. The command "Show tags" opens the pane.

The editorCopy Anchor Link

Notes open in the editor. In short:

• / opens the block menu: headings, lists, tables, callouts, images and dividers.
• 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.
• Focus mode (⌘⇧F) hides everything but the text. Typewriter scrolling (⌘⇧T) keeps the line you are writing in the middle of the screen.

All of it, with tables, images, block tags, word counts and working offline, is on The editor.

Starting from a structureCopy Anchor Link

A beat sheet lays out a known story structure as notes you can fill in. Choose Beat sheet… in the binder's New… menu, or run "New beat sheet (Save the Cat, Hero's Journey…)" from the command palette.

The dialog shows the acts and beats of the one you pick, with roughly how far into the story each beat falls. Add builds a folder named after the beat sheet, with a chapter for each act and a scene for each beat. Each scene's synopsis says what the beat does, so the corkboard, the outline and the plot grid show the structure straight away. The folder goes inside the selected folder or chapter if you can edit it, and otherwise at the end of the top level. The first beat opens in a tab.

The result is ordinary notes: rename them, reorder them, delete the ones you don't need.

To start a whole project from the shape of another, with its folders, kinds and fields but none of its writing, use a project template; see Project settings.

Finding thingsCopy Anchor Link

The command paletteCopy Anchor Link

⌘P opens the command palette: every command in the project, grouped, with its shortcut. Type to filter, ↑ ↓ to move, ↵ to run, Esc to close. Commands that belong to a module are only listed while it is on. The full list is on Keyboard shortcuts.

The quick switcherCopy Anchor Link

⌘O opens the quick switcher. Type part of a note's name, or of a folder it is in.

If nothing has exactly the name you typed, the last row offers to Create a note with it. Folders are not listed.

⌘⇧O searches the text of every note instead of the names.

The ribbonCopy Anchor Link

The ribbon is the strip of buttons at the far left.

• At the top: back to the workspace, Toggle binder (⌘\), Quick switcher and Command palette.
• In the middle: a few views, each with its name. Which ones a project starts with depends on what it is for.
• More: every other view, grouped; the tool sets this project hasn't switched on, for people who manage it; Saved layouts, Focus mode, Typewriter scrolling, Keyboard shortcuts and Customize….
• At the bottom: Project settings and Toggle inspector (⌘⇧\).

Right-click a view in the ribbon for Move up, Move down, Remove from ribbon and Customize….

CustomizeCopy Anchor Link

Customize is where you set up the frame for yourself. Nothing here changes anyone else's screen, and it follows you to every project and device.

Each section has Reset to default once you have changed it, and Reset everything to how a new project starts is at the bottom.

The status barCopy Anchor Link

The bar along the bottom of the window, from left to right:

The counts and the sync states are explained on The editor.

The user menuCopy Anchor Link

Click your avatar at the right of the status bar.

Things to knowCopy Anchor Link

• Limits. A name can be 200 characters, a synopsis 2,000. A note can have 50 tags and 50 aliases.
• Who can do what. Viewers and commenters can open everything and change nothing in the binder. Editors and workspace members can create, move, rename, trash and delete. Sharing the project is for workspace owners and admins. See Roles and permissions.
• Other people's changes to the binder show up in yours within a moment, without reloading.
• Offline, the binder can't be changed: a new note, a rename or a move is undone with a message if it can't reach the server. The text of notes you have opened before can still be edited; see Saving and working offline.
• Kept in your browser, not your account: which folders are open, the widths of the sidebars, the open tabs and splits, pinned tabs, and changed keyboard shortcuts. Saved layouts, the ribbon, the inspector's tabs and the look of the page are kept with your account.