Notes alongside the manuscript?

[anagrams48]

Hello

I've been experimenting with Storyist (looks fun), in demo mode. I'm interested in buying it, but one of my main goals is to see chapter notes in storyboard form on the left while writing the manuscript on the right. So far I haven't been able to make the content mutually exclusive; I can change form on each side but the content remains the same. My question is, how do I create notecards on the left and write the manuscript on the right.

 

I hope that made sense.

 

Thank you.

[Steakpirate]

Hey Anagrams, and welcome! Have you played with the "Split" feature under "Views" in the menubar at all? It allows you to create additional panes by subdividing existing ones, and you can arrange them however you like.

 

I, for example, tend to have one window on the left with my manuscript, and two stacked on the right with my character and plot point pages open.

 

To do what it sounds like you're asking, you'd select the primary window/pane (the only one, if you havent done this before) and go to View -> Split -> Split Active View Vertically. This will turn your manuscript window into two equally sized manuscript panes. Then, just click within the left one to ensure that it's selected, and then click on your chapter notes. There are three different view types available (page, outline, and corkboard) which can be selected at the top right of each pane's title bar.

 

Then select your right pane and change it to whatever you want it to display (or leave it on the manuscript.) If you want, you can even do what I do and split the pane with your chapter notes horizontally, and display another page as well (like characters).

 

Hope that helps.

[anagrams48]

Hello... and thank you so much for replying.

Yes I had figured out split view. I hadn't figured out how to add chapter notes. Your reply here led me to that. However I still have 2 problems. I can't get the chapter notes to display in the left hand pane. The drop down doesn't show it. But also it will only allow one note at a time. The goal is a cork board view of all notes on the left but the best I could do is (see screenshot) this.

 

I can see sections on the left on the cork board but that's sections vs. notes. Are we to use the section pages as notes if we want to see several chapter notes as once? Hope not. ; )

 

Thank you again, niya.

[anagrams48]

ps: any tricks to get a photo to post in the profile. I've tried several times in the 200 or over pixel range and it keeps failing. Thanks!

[marguerite]

Hi, Anagrams:

In this case, I think you want to edit the index cards for your notes themselves, if only to give a capsule description of what's in each note. I attached a screen shot that shows the cards displayed as a corkboard (storyboard mode).

 

What's often not clear to new users is that the index cards for the notes are not the notes themselves but visual representations of the notes. To get the view with your manuscript in the middle and the notes on one side, edit the cards one-by-one in storyboard mode, including just the essential information (to minimize repetition), then split the windows, make sure the two windows are not linked (the icon next to the + sign should look like a broken chain), click on the Note Group that contains the notes you want to display, and choose View > as Storyboard.

Best, and welcome to the forums

Marguerite

 

 

[anagrams48]

Thank you Marguerite!

That works well. I'm off to the races!