Moving Sections

[TexasRunner]

Good morning all. I ran into another confusing thing Friday (and today). After creating a Timeline Collection (Thanks Marguerite) I rearranged some of my Chapters which I realized were out of chronological order. When I attempted to drag some of the Sections into another Chapter they disappeared. Completely. I searched for phrases I knew should be there. They weren't in the Trash or anywhere. I had to retype the two sections. Not a big deal since I had printed out my manuscript, but I if I hadn't had a hard copy it would have been a big deal.

 

I assumed that if you could move Chapters around I could move Sections around. Apparently not. Or, being a Newbie, I messed up again. Anyone else encountered this?

 

I was wondering whether it might not be smarter for me to do away with the Sections entirely and work only in Chapters because they are more flexible. I am also seeing the wisdom in not making folders for the Section Sheets since, after renumbering all of my Chapters, I would have to rename all of the Chapter Notes Folders to correspond.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Steve E]

I assumed that if you could move Chapters around I could move Sections around. Apparently not. Or, being a Newbie, I messed up again. Anyone else encountered this?

I've never had any problems moving Sections around, even between Chapters, or moving Chapters around. I've certainly never had any disappear on me.

 

Could you provide a little more detail? For example, when you say "Section" are you talking about the Manuscript text or are you talking about Section sheets (Timeline Collection sheets?) where you store information about Manuscript Sections? (Either way, they shouldn't just disappear.)

 

- Thoth

[marguerite]

Good morning all. I ran into another confusing thing Friday (and today). After creating a Timeline Collection (Thanks Marguerite) I rearranged some of my Chapters which I realized were out of chronological order. When I attempted to drag some of the Sections into another Chapter they disappeared. Completely. I searched for phrases I knew should be there. They weren't in the Trash or anywhere. I had to retype the two sections. Not a big deal since I had printed out my manuscript, but I if I hadn't had a hard copy it would have been a big deal.

 

I assumed that if you could move Chapters around I could move Sections around. Apparently not. Or, being a Newbie, I messed up again. Anyone else encountered this?

 

I was wondering whether it might not be smarter for me to do away with the Sections entirely and work only in Chapters because they are more flexible. I am also seeing the wisdom in not making folders for the Section Sheets since, after renumbering all of my Chapters, I would have to rename all of the Chapter Notes Folders to correspond.

 

Thanks in advance.

You can't (currently) work using only chapters in the manuscript. You have to have at least one section in each chapter to store your text (the chapter is a folder, like a file folder). But you can set up section SHEETS and call them chapter 1, chapter 2, etc.

 

Did you try to drag a section from one manuscript to another? That isn't possible. You can copy the text in the section and paste it into a new section in another manuscript (which will then call itself the same thing as the section you pasted from), though.

 

But either way, your sections should not disappear. They might sit there sullenly staring at you, if you tried to move them into another manuscript. They might appear to disappear, if you dropped them in a place you weren't intending to due to sloppy mouse work. But the only way to make them actually disappear is to use the delete key.

 

If the sections have indeed disappeared, Steve will want to know, as that is unexpected behavior. He is probably heading for the World Wide Developers Conference this week, though.

Best,

M

[Steve E]

... But the only way to make them actually disappear is to use the delete key, and even then they should show up in the Project Trash (click on the tiny icon at the bottom of the page, second from left—it looks like a folder or an envelope—to display the contents of the trash), whence you can drag them back out.

If you highlight a Section or Chapter in the Project View and hit delete the Section or Chapter is deleted. It does not go to the trash (at least not in the version of Storyist I'm using).

 

And just to clarify a teensy bit, you can have empty (textless) Chapters in Storyist, that are nothing more than a heading (of an empty folder). I use them as place holders for future chapter ideas. You can even annotate them in Outline mode. But, if you go to a Chapter and hit return, a Section will automatically be created for you. The text you type will go there.

 

Still can't figure out where your text might have gone but I think M is on to something. Check other folders. You might have accidentally dropped them there.

- Thoth

[marguerite]

If you highlight a Section or Chapter in the Project View and hit delete the Section or Chapter is deleted. It does not go to the trash (at least not in the version of Storyist I'm using).

 

And just to clarify a teensy bit, you can have empty (textless) Chapters in Storyist, that are nothing more than a heading (of an empty folder). I use them as place holders for future chapter ideas. You can even annotate them in Outline mode. But, if you go to a Chapter and hit return, a Section will automatically be created for you. The text you type will go there.

 

Still can't figure out where your text might have gone but I think M is on to something. Check other folders. You might have accidentally dropped them there.

- Thoth

Yes, you are correct—my bad. (I edited the post above to avoid adding any more confusion to an already confusing situation.) Thanks for that, and for the clarification about chapters/sections.

 

You can delete a section SHEET and find it in the Project Trash. If you delete a section or a chapter, you need to hit "Undo" (Command-Z) right away to get it back. If you have your Storyist Preferences set to Automatic Backup (on by default, I believe), you can also retrieve a trashed section from a backup file, unless you set it up after the backup was created. (It will revert to its last-saved state, of course.) Choose File > Backups to see a list of your options.

 

It's a good idea to train yourself to back up the file before mass deletion/altering of sections, actually (File > Back Up, add comments about what you decided to nuke). User error tends to be a much bigger problem than misbehavior by Storyist.

Best,

M

[TexasRunner]

Yes, you are correct—my bad. (I edited the post above to avoid adding any more confusion to an already confusing situation.) Thanks for that, and for the clarification about chapters/sections.

 

You can delete a section SHEET and find it in the Project Trash. If you delete a section or a chapter, you need to hit "Undo" (Command-Z) right away to get it back. If you have your Storyist Preferences set to Automatic Backup (on by default, I believe), you can also retrieve a trashed section from a backup file, unless you set it up after the backup was created. (It will revert to its last-saved state, of course.) Choose File > Backups to see a list of your options.

 

It's a good idea to train yourself to back up the file before mass deletion/altering of sections, actually (File > Back Up, add comments about what you decided to nuke). User error tends to be a much bigger problem than misbehavior by Storyist.

Best,

M

Thanks for all the comments. I tried to duplicate the problem this morning and, I am happy to say, was unable to do so. I am also happy to know that I CAN move Sections around to other Chapters. I did some tests with "sloppy mousing" and found that the Sections might appear in a Chapter I hadn't intended, but I was able to find the Section by using the Search box to find a phrase in the Section. However, I will say that I did the same thing Friday (searching for a known phrase) and was never able to find the Section. I didn't try to move it to another manuscript, and I didn't hit the delete key, I was "dragging" a Section from one Chapter to another. I will see as I progress whether it's buried in another Section somewhere. FYI, I was working with Chapters and Sections and not the Section Sheets or other Collections.

 

I am set up for Auto Backup, back up at the end of every writing session, (and sometimes in between), do a RTF export and also upload the dot story file to MobileMe as an added safety measure. I am moderately (?) embarrassed to admit, however, that it never occurred me to open a back up to retrieve the missing Sections. I psychologically associate the backups with a Catastrophic Failure and losing two Sections didn't qualify as a Catastrophic Failure but an inconvenience. Probably a fuzzy brain from working for six consecutive hours on my manuscript while waiting at the car dealership for my car repairs to be completed. Which probably explains the Missing Sections as well. But, if it (or something similar) happens again, I will think of it.

 

I did not know (though it is probably mentioned someone in the User Guide) that you couldn't retrieve lost Sections from Trash.

 

And . . . I freely admit that most problems with software are User Error . . . and getting yourself in trouble because you don't understand the features of the program. Appreciate your patience with the Newbie. I shall not be defeated!

[marguerite]

In the interests of science I tried to duplicate these results with the novel template. Using only the mouse, I couldn't do it. If I dragged sections from one chapter to another, they moved. If I tried to drag them out of the manuscript, nothing happened. Either way, no sections disappeared.

 

I'm glad you weren't able to reproduce your results, Alice. Still, I'm at somewhat of a loss to guess what you did (either than dragging and dropping in an unintended place). Using only the mouse, it should not be possible to delete a section.

 

Perhaps Steve will have some ideas when he gets back from AppleLand.

 

On backups, yes, I use them as storage spaces for ideas I think I may need again someday and reflect that in the comments, as in "Last version with the nomad camp" or "Boris not dead!" Eventually I hunt the old versions down and nuke them, but only when I'm absolutely positive that I will never moan and groan about having destroyed that lovely paragraph about the Spirit Banners (or whatever).

Best,

M

[TexasRunner]

In the interests of science I tried to duplicate these results with the novel template. Using only the mouse, I couldn't do it. If I dragged sections from one chapter to another, they moved. If I tried to drag them out of the manuscript, nothing happened. Either way, no sections disappeared.

 

I'm glad you weren't able to reproduce your results, Alice. Still, I'm at somewhat of a loss to guess what you did (either than dragging and dropping in an unintended place). Using only the mouse, it should not be possible to delete a section.

 

Perhaps Steve will have some ideas when he gets back from AppleLand.

 

On backups, yes, I use them as storage spaces for ideas I think I may need again someday and reflect that in the comments, as in "Last version with the nomad camp" or "Boris not dead!" Eventually I hunt the old versions down and nuke them, but only when I'm absolutely positive that I will never moan and groan about having destroyed that lovely paragraph about the Spirit Banners (or whatever).

Best,

M

 

That makes two of us -- I'm at a loss as to what I did as well. I felt certain I dropped the Section in the wrong place while trying to move it. But, as I said earlier, when I searched on the exact phrase from the deleted Section (which I knew was exact because I was looking at it on the hard copy), I couldn't find it. Perhaps I will run into duplicate pages as I move forward. This morning I opened a copy of my manuscript and literally trashed it moving stuff around and never got the "lost in space" result. Very good news from my perspective.

 

Good idea about the comments. That would make it much easier to find something I deleted that I later think was actually pretty wonderful -- should that ever happen.

 

Again, thanks,