Glossary

Every term Plotra and these docs use, in alphabetical order, with a link to the page that covers it.

Plotra has its own words for things, and a few words that mean two things depending on where you are. This page lists them all. Each entry says what the term means in one or two sentences and links to the page that covers it.

The terms are written as the interface writes them. Where the interface or the docs use two words for one thing, the entry says so.

A

Term	What it means
Action	One of the five things a role may do in a project: read, comment, edit, delete and manage. Every permission check comes down to one of them. In a script, Action is also the element for what is seen and done. See The five actions.
Activity	The view that lists what happened in a project and who did it, newest first. The docs also call it the activity feed. See The activity feed.
Admin	A workspace role. An admin can do everything a member can, and also manages each project's settings and sharing, the workspace's members and its AI switch, but not its plan. See Members.
Agent	The AI assistant that works inside a project as you, with your permissions. It is off until the workspace and the project both switch it on. The module is called AI agent. See The AI agent.
Alias	Another name a note goes by. Links, the link picker and unlinked mentions match aliases as well as titles. See The Properties panel.
Approval	A tick on a workflow stage. A note can only enter that stage once every required reviewer has approved it. See Workflow.
Approver	Someone who may change a locked note or move it out of its locked stage: the note's required reviewers, and the people who manage the project. See Locked content.
Attachment	A file attached to a research note: a PDF, a scan, a photograph. The interface lists them under Files. See Attachments and files.

B

Term	What it means
Backlink	A note that links to the note you have open. Embeds, properties that point at the note and citations count as well. See Backlinks.
Beat sheet	A known story structure (Save the Cat, Hero's Journey, Three-act structure) laid out as a folder of chapters and scenes for you to fill in. See Starting from a structure.
Beta	A tag on four modules (Script formats, Production, Interactive narrative, Localization) and on the project types built around them. They are the newer modules, and are open to everyone on every plan. See Beta modules.
Beta reader	Someone a project is shared with to read, or to read and comment, without being able to edit. A beta reader is an ordinary project share with the viewer or commenter role. See Beta readers.
Bibliography	Every source in the project as a reference list, in the project's citation style. It is the Sources view, and can be downloaded as Markdown, plain text or BibTeX. See The bibliography.
Binder	The tree on the left that holds every note in the project. See Working in the binder.
Block	One piece of a note's text: a paragraph, a heading, a list item, a table, an image. See Blocks.
Block tag	Settings on one block that differ from its note: its own canon status, its own reveal, a knowledge layer, a fact-check status. The docs also say "tagged passage", which is the name of the list in the Story tab. See Block tags.
Breakdown	The Production view's list of what each scene of a script needs: cast, props, wardrobe and the other categories. A breakdown tag marks the words that name such an element. See Script breakdown.

C

Term	What it means
Calendar	How a timeline reads dates. A timeline uses the Gregorian calendar until you give it one of your own, with its own months, day length and eras. See Calendars.
Canon status	Whether a note is part of the story's continuity: Canon, Draft, Speculative, Retconned or Non-canon. A new note is Draft. See Canon status.
Canvas	A kind of note that opens as an endless board for arranging cards by hand. The docs also call it a storyboard, and the read-only link calls it a board. See Canvas.
Card	Three things, by view. On the Corkboard, a note shown as an index card. On a canvas, a note card, a text card, an image or shot panel, or a group. In a dialogue, one step of the conversation: Start, Line, Choice, Condition, Set or End. See Corkboard, Kinds of card and The six kinds of card.
Changelog	A tab of the Reviews view that lists what was added, changed, removed and retconned since a release was cut. See The changelog per release.
Channel	Where the audience learns something: the main text, a trailer, an interview. Channels are labels for planning and do not change what the spoiler horizon hides. The settings call them Reveal channels. See Channels.
Chapter	A kind of note that groups scenes. A project can call it something else, such as "Session" or "Sequence". See Kinds of note.
Citation	A reference to a research note placed in the text by typing `[@`. It is shown in the project's citation style and follows the source when its details change. See Citations in the editor.
Claim	A block marked for fact-checking. See Fact-check.
Clip	A web page saved as a research note, with the details the page gives about itself filled in. See Clipping a web page.
Codex	The view that lets you read characters, locations and other world pages like a wiki, grouped by kind. See Codex.
Cold open	The set of questions at `/start` that builds a first project from your answers. See The cold open.
Command palette	The searchable list of every command in the project, opened with `⌘P`. See The command palette.
Comment	A remark on a passage or on a whole note, kept in a thread in the inspector. See Comments.
Commenter	A project role. A commenter can read everything and comment, and cannot edit. See The roles.
Condition	A dialogue card that goes one way when its expression is true and another when it is false. See Conditions.
Continuity check	One of the plain rules the Continuity view runs over the project, such as "Appears after death" or "In two places at once". No AI is involved. See Continuity checks.
Continuity sheet	A sheet built for one character: every scene they are in, their age then, where, and what they learn. The tab is called Character sheets. See Continuity sheets.
Corkboard	The view that shows the notes of one folder as index cards you can reorder. See Corkboard.
Credit	The unit hosted AI is paid in on the Pro plan. One credit is 1,000 input tokens, and output tokens count five times. See Hosted AI and credits.
Customize	The dialog that holds what is yours alone: your ribbon, your inspector, the look of the page, the project home and the guidance. See Customize.
Cut a release	To snapshot every note as it stands, so the changelog can compare against it later. See Cutting a release.

D

Term	What it means
Dialogue	Two things. A kind of note that holds a branching conversation, which the docs also call a dialogue tree; it needs the Interactive narrative module. In a script, the element for what a character says. See Dialogue notes and Writing in a script.
Digest	One email a day that lists the notifications you haven't read. It is the default email setting. See The digest.
Draft	Three things. The first stage of the default workflow. A canon status, the one a new note has. The ribbon's short name for the Manuscript view. See Workflow, Canon status and Manuscript.

E

Term	What it means
Editor	Two things. The page a note opens in. Also a project role: someone who can read, comment and edit in one project. See The editor and The roles.
Element	Two things. A line of a script with a job: scene heading, action, character, dialogue. In the Production module, a thing a scene needs, such as a prop, tagged in the text. See Writing in a script and Tagging an element.
Embed	Another note shown inside the one you are writing, live and read-only, made by typing `![[`. See Embeds.
Entity type	See World entry.
EPUB	The e-book the Publish view builds from the manuscript. See EPUB.
Event	Something on a timeline that is not a scene: a war, a birth. It belongs to that timeline only. Event is also one of the starting world-entry types. See Events.
Export	Taking text out as Word, Markdown, plain text or PDF. Export is never blocked by a plan limit. See Export.
Expression	What a Condition or a Set card is written in: a small language of values, variables and operators, such as `gold >= 5`. See The expression language.

F

Term	What it means
Fact-check	A status on a block that marks it as a claim: Unverified, Verified or Disputed, with the source it rests on. See Fact-check status per claim.
Field	See Property.
Focus mode	Hides the ribbon, the binder, the inspector and the status bar, leaving the pane you are writing in (`⌘⇧F`). See Focus mode.
Folder	A kind of note for grouping. A folder has a page of its own and can stand for a book, an act or a season. See Kinds of note.
Format	See Script format.
Fountain	A plain-text format for screenplays that other screenwriting apps open. Plotra reads and writes it through two commands in the command palette. See Fountain.

G

Term	What it means
Getting started	The checklist of five steps shown in a project that was started from the cold open. See The getting-started checklist.
Glossary (localization)	The project's term base: the official translation of each name and invented word in each language, and the words that must not be translated. It is a tab of the Translate view. See The glossary.
Goal	A number of words to reach: a daily goal and a session goal, which are yours, and a project target, which is the project's. See Goals.
Graph	The view that draws every note as a dot and every link as a line. A local graph shows one note and what is around it. See Graph.
Guest	Someone a project is shared with who is not a member of its workspace. A guest sees only the projects shared with them. See Guests.

H

Term	What it means
Horizon	See Spoiler horizon.
Hosted AI	The agent running on a model Plotra provides, paid for with a Pro workspace's monthly credits, so nobody in the workspace needs a key. See Hosted AI and credits.
Hosted version	Plotra as run for you at plotra.ink, with the Free and Pro plans. The other way to use Plotra is to host it yourself. See How it differs from the hosted version.

I

Term	What it means
Import	Turning Markdown, Word and plain-text files, or a folder of them, into chapters, scenes and notes. See Import.
Inline action	An AI action on a passage in the editor: Continue writing, Rewrite, Shorten, Expand or Change tone. It changes nothing until you accept the result. See In the editor.
Inspector	The sidebar on the right, about the note in the active tab. Its tabs are Note, Links, Story, Review and AI. See The inspector.
Invitation	An emailed link that lets someone join a workspace as a member or an admin. It is good for 48 hours. See Inviting people to the workspace.

J

Term	What it means
Jump	An arrow from one dialogue card to the next. See Drawing jumps.

K

Term	What it means
Kind	What sort of note something is: Folder, Chapter, Scene, Note, Character, Location, World entry, Research, Canvas, Timeline or Dialogue. The kind decides the note's icon, its fields and which view opens it. The Kinds tab of the project settings uses the same word for your own entity types. See Kinds of note.
Knowledge layer	Whether a note or a block is the Truth, or a Belief: a false version people are led to believe. Everything is truth until you say otherwise. See Knowledge layers.

L

Term	What it means
Label	A coloured mark on a note, such as "Needs research", defined per project and separate from the note's status. A note carries one. The docs also say "colour label". See Labels.
Lane	A row of a timeline. A timeline can be split into lanes by plot thread, by point-of-view character or by location. See Lanes.
Layout	An arrangement of open tabs and split panes, saved under a name so you can switch back to it. The interface says Saved layouts. See Saved layouts.
Limit	A cap on room: projects, storage, members, guests. Limits belong to a workspace's plan on the hosted version. No limit locks a feature, deletes work or blocks export. See Limits on the hosted version.
Lock	A note in a workflow stage ticked Locked is read-only for everyone but its approvers. The editor shows a Locked badge. See Locked content.
Long job	A list of up to 40 steps the agent saves for work too long for one request, such as drafting an act. Nothing changes until you start it. See Long jobs.

M

Term	What it means
Manuscript	Two things. The view that stitches a folder's notes into one long editable page; its ribbon button is labelled Draft and its command says "Scrivenings". In export and publishing, "the manuscript" means the project's folders, chapters and scenes. See Manuscript and What is included.
Member	A workspace role. A member can open and edit every project in the workspace and create projects. "Member" is also used for anyone in the workspace, whatever their role. See Members.
Mention	Typing `@` and a name in a comment, which notifies that person. Only workspace members can be mentioned. See Mentions.
Mode (Ask, Suggest, Auto)	What the agent may do. Ask reads and changes nothing. Suggest makes text edits as suggestions and asks before anything else. Auto applies changes, and still asks before trashing and before changing canon status. See The three modes.
Module	A set of views, commands and inspector sections that a project switches on when it needs them. There are ten. The ribbon's More menu calls the ones that are off More tools. See Modules.
More	The ribbon menu that holds every view not pinned to your ribbon, the modules that are off, and a few switches. See The More menu.

N

Term	What it means
"Never" passage	A block tagged as never revealed to the audience. It is hidden under every spoiler horizon and left out of file exports, EPUB and the wiki. The read-only link and a PDF printed with no horizon still show it. See Passages marked Never.
Note	Two things. Anything in the binder: every item is a note of some kind. Also one kind among them, Note, for anything that is not a scene, a character or another specific kind. See Kinds of note.
Notification	A message addressed to you under the bell: a mention, a reply, a share, an accepted invitation, a review request or a review decision. See The bell.

O

Term	What it means
Orphan	A note with no links to or from it. The graph can show or hide them. See Filters.
Outline	Two things. The view that shows every note as a row of a table, with properties as columns. Also a panel of the inspector that lists the open note's headings. See Outline and The inspector.
Owner	A workspace role. An owner can do everything an admin can, and also manages the plan and billing. Whoever creates a workspace is its owner. See Members.

P

Term	What it means
Pane	A part of the middle of the screen that holds tabs. Panes can be split right or down. See Tabs and panes.
Plan	Free or Pro, on the hosted version. A plan belongs to a workspace, not to a person. A Plotra you host yourself has no plans. See The plans.
Play-through	Walking a dialogue from its Start card the way a game would, to test it. Nothing about it is saved. See Playing a dialogue.
Plot grid	The view with scenes down the side and plot threads across the top. Each cell says what happens to that thread in that scene. See Plot grid.
Project	One story or one world: a novel, a series, a campaign. A project lives in a workspace. See Workspaces and projects.
Project home	What the middle of the screen shows when no tab is open: recent notes, this session's words, the next checklist step and a few shortcuts. See The project home.
Project type	A preset chosen when a project is created: novel, web serial, tabletop RPG, screenplay and seven more. It picks the starting modules, the format of new scenes and what a release is called, and locks nothing. See Project types.
Property	A field about a note, shown in the inspector: status, synopsis, tags and aliases on every note, plus the fields of its kind, plus fields you add. The docs use "property" and "field" for the same thing. See Properties.
Publish	The view, from the Publishing module, that builds an EPUB, a series bible and a public wiki, and leads to the Read view for PDFs. See The Publish view.

Q

Term	What it means
Quest	A world entry of the Quest kind, with a giver, prerequisites, objectives, a reward and what it reveals. The Quests view, which its command calls the quest designer, maps which quest unlocks which. See The Quests view.
Questionnaire	A set of questions for your readers about a chapter, a folder or the whole project. See Questionnaires.
Quick switcher	Jump to a note by typing part of its name, opened with `⌘O`. See The quick switcher.

R

Term	What it means
Rate limit	A cap on how often one person does one thing in a stretch of time. Rate limits are the same on every plan and on a self-hosted server. See Rate limits.
Reaction	A one-click response to a passage, such as "Loved it" or "Confused". Anyone who can comment can react. See Reactions.
Read-only link	One link per project that opens without an account, for reading only. It shows everything, whatever the spoiler horizon. The share dialog calls it Anyone with the link, and the docs also say "public link". See A read-only link.
Read view	The view that lays a folder out as printed pages. It is how Plotra makes PDFs. See Read.
Recording sheet	A list of every line of dialogue in a script, with who says it, its direction and a status of Written, Approved or Recorded. See Recording sheets.
Relationship	A labelled line between two characters on the Relationships map: ally, rival, parent of. The ribbon button is labelled Relations. See Relationships.
Release	Whatever the story ships in: a book, a chapter, an episode, an issue, a patch, a session. Releases have an order, and that order is what "before" and "after" mean to the spoiler horizon. See Releases.
Release roadmap	The view that lists the releases and what each reveals through each channel. The ribbon calls it Releases. See The Release roadmap view.
Research	A kind of note that holds a source or a clipped page. See Source.
Retcon	Changing something that was canon. Setting a note to Retconned asks for a reason, saves the old text as a version and keeps an entry in the note's retcon history. See Retcons keep their history.
Reveal	When the audience learns something: the release that reveals a note or a block, and optionally the channel. See Reveals.
Review	A request to a note's required reviewers to approve it, naming the stage the note moves to once they all have. See Requesting a review.
Review rule	A rule that names one workspace member who must approve a folder, a tag or the whole project. The people named are the required reviewers. See Required reviewers and review rules.
Ribbon	The strip of buttons at the far left: a few views, More, the project settings and the sidebar toggles. Its arrangement is yours. See The ribbon.
Role	What someone may do. The workspace roles are Owner, Admin and Member; the project roles are Editor, Commenter and Viewer. Each has its own entry on this page. See Roles and permissions.

S

Term	What it means
Sample project	A small finished project to look around in, with one mistake to find: Romeo and Juliet, or a tabletop campaign. See Sample projects.
Scene	A kind of note that holds the text of the story. In the Production view, a scene is also the stretch of script under one scene heading. See Kinds of note and What a scene is.
Script format	How a note is laid out and what `Enter` and `Tab` do in it: Prose, Screenplay, Stage play, Comic script or Audio script. A format belongs to a note. The docs often say just "format". See The five formats.
Secret	Any note you track in Who knows what, with the characters who know it and the scene where each learns it. See Who knows what.
Secrets & setups	The view that tracks knowledge inside the story: knowledge layers, who knows what, and setups and payoffs. The ribbon calls it Secrets. See Who knows what.
Self-hosted	A Plotra you run on your own server. It has no plans and no limits on projects, storage or members. See Self-hosting.
Series bible	A pitch document the Publish view saves as one web page: the story's outline, plot threads, characters, places, world entries and the release plan. See Series bible.
Session	The words you have typed in this browser tab since you opened the project. A tabletop project also uses "Session" as its word for a chapter and as its kind of release. See How a session works.
Setup and payoff	Something you plant and the place it pays off: foreshadowing, a Chekhov's gun, a clue, a red herring or a mystery. See Setups and payoffs.
Share	To let one person into one project by email, as a viewer, a commenter or an editor. See Sharing a project.
Shared world	Another project of the same workspace whose characters, locations and world entries this project borrows. The setting is called Shared world bible. See Shared worlds.
Shot list	A storyboard read off in order: every image or shot panel on a canvas with its shot type, camera move, duration and description. See Shot lists.
Snapshot	A version made without anyone asking. An automatic snapshot is taken while a note is being edited, at most once every half hour. Cutting a release snapshots every note. See How versions are made.
Source	A research note read as a reference: its title is the title of the work and its properties hold the rest. See Research notes are sources.
Spoiler horizon	A way of looking at the project as the audience knows it once a given release is out. The interface calls it World as of, and export and publishing say As of. It is a filter, not a permission. See The spoiler horizon.
SRT	The subtitle file the Translate view exports from a script's dialogue lines, with timings estimated from reading speed. See Subtitles.
Stage	One step of the project's workflow, such as Draft, Revised or Final. See Status.
Stats	The view with words per day, the streak, and progress towards your goals. See The Stats view.
Status	Where a note stands in the project's workflow. A note's status is one of the workflow's stages, so "status" and "stage" name the same thing from two sides. It is separate from canon status. See Workflow.
Status bar	The bar along the bottom of a project: where you are, word counts, your session, whether you are synced, who else is here, the bell and your account menu. See The status bar.
Storage	The uploaded files and version snapshots of every project in a workspace, added together. See Storage.
Story brief	A top-level note called "Story brief" that is sent with every agent run and inline action: voice, tense, rules of the world, things to avoid. See The story brief.
Story date	The property that says when a scene happens in the story. It places the scene on a timeline and feeds the continuity checks. See Story dates and durations.
Story tab	The inspector tab with a note's canon status, its reveal and its tagged passages. It appears when World bible, Releases & reveals or Research & sources is on. See The Story tab.
Streak	The number of days in a row that reached your daily goal or, without a goal, had any words added. See Streaks.
String	A short text that has to fit somewhere: a button label, an item description, a caption. The interface also says "short-text field". Each has a String ID and can have a character limit. See The Strings view.
String ID	The stable key of a string, a dialogue line or a choice. Exports carry it and translations are attached to it. See String IDs.
Suggestion	A tracked change: an insertion or a deletion that is not final until someone accepts or rejects it. The mode is called suggesting, and the command says "track changes". See Suggestions.
Synopsis	What happens in a note, in a line or two. The corkboard, the outline and the plot grid show it. See The Properties panel.

T

Term	What it means
Tab	A note or a view open in a pane. The inspector's sections are also called tabs. See Tabs and panes.
Tag	A word that groups notes across folders, set in the inspector or written in the text as `#tag`. Tags can be nested with a slash. Not the same as a block tag. See Tags.
Target	A word count to reach. The project target is for the whole project; Target words is a property of a chapter. See Targets for chapters.
Template	A project offered as a model for new ones in its workspace. A project started from it gets the template's structure and settings and none of its text. See Templates.
Thread	Two things. A plot thread: a storyline that is a column of the plot grid and can be a lane of a timeline. A comment thread: a comment and its replies. See Threads and Threads.
Timeline	A kind of note that opens as a view of story time, with scenes placed by their story date and events added by hand. See Timeline.
Track	The route a project type takes through the cold open: its extra questions, its first page and its checklist. Novel, Tabletop RPG and Screenplay each have one; the other types share the novel's. See What else the cold open sets by type.
Translation status	Where one unit stands in one language: To do, Translated, Reviewed or Approved. See Status.
Trash	Where a note goes when you remove it from the binder. Nothing is deleted until someone chooses Delete forever or Empty trash. See The trash.
Typewriter scrolling	Keeps the line you are writing in the middle of the pane (`⌘⇧T`). See Typewriter scrolling.

U

Term	What it means
Unit	One row of the Translate view: a block of a document, a string, a dialogue line or a choice. See Units.
Unlinked mention	A place where a note's name or alias appears as plain text without a link. See Unlinked mentions.

V

Term	What it means
Variable	A value a dialogue remembers during a play-through, such as how much gold the player has. Conditions test variables and Set cards change them. See Variables.
Vault	A project seen as a set of notes that link to each other. "Vault" and "project" are the same thing. See The vault and the binder.
Version	A complete copy of one note at one moment, kept in its history. You save one by hand, or it is made as an automatic snapshot. See Version history.
View	A way of looking at the project that opens as a tab: graph, codex, outline, corkboard and the rest. All views read the same notes. See Views.
Viewer	A project role. A viewer can read everything in the project, and export it, and cannot comment or edit. See The roles.
Vocabulary	The project's own words for the kinds of note: "Session" for a chapter, say. They are set in the Words tab of the project settings. See Words.

W

Term	What it means
Wiki	A small static website about your world that the Publish view saves as a zip: a page for every character, place and world entry, holding only what the audience has been told. Plotra does not host it. The interface says Public wiki. See Public wiki.
Wiki-link	A link from one note to another, made by typing `[[`. The docs mostly say just "link". See Making a link.
Workflow	The project's list of stages that a note's status moves through. See Workflow.
Workspace	Where projects live and where the people you write with are gathered. Its members can open every project in it, and the plan belongs to it. See Workspaces.
World bible	The module that adds entity types of your own, canon status with retcon history, and the Continuity view. Also, loosely, the pages that describe your world. See The world bible.
World entry	A page of a type you define: a faction, an object, a magic system. In menus it goes by the name of its type. The type itself has four names for one thing: "entity type" in the canon docs and the module's description, "kind" in the Kinds tab of the project settings, "type" in the Codex (New type…), and "world-entry type" on the world views page. See The world bible.
Writer's note	Grey text between double square brackets in a script, brought in from a Fountain file. It shows while you write and is left out of printed pages and exports. See Writer's notes.

X

Term	What it means
XLIFF	A file format for translation tools. The Translate view exports and imports XLIFF 1.2. See XLIFF.

ACopy Anchor Link

BCopy Anchor Link

CCopy Anchor Link

DCopy Anchor Link

ECopy Anchor Link

FCopy Anchor Link

GCopy Anchor Link

HCopy Anchor Link

ICopy Anchor Link

JCopy Anchor Link

KCopy Anchor Link

LCopy Anchor Link

MCopy Anchor Link

NCopy Anchor Link

OCopy Anchor Link

PCopy Anchor Link

QCopy Anchor Link

RCopy Anchor Link

SCopy Anchor Link

TCopy Anchor Link

UCopy Anchor Link

VCopy Anchor Link

WCopy Anchor Link

XCopy Anchor Link

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