Grids

A grid is an open sheet for thinking in space: a plot map, a timeline, a cast of characters and how they connect, a dashboard of where the book stands. Tiles go wherever you put them, at whatever size, and the sheet keeps going in every direction.

Tiles

• New tile: double-click empty space, or click Add tile (+) in the toolbar on the right. It opens ready for typing.
• Write in a tile: double-click it. Tiles have the same formatting as a text file.
• Move: drag a tile. A dashed outline shows where it will land; if the outline turns red the tile would cover another one, and letting go puts it back.
• Size: click a tile and drag any of the handles on its edges and corners. A tile can be as small as two squares each way, and as large as you like.

The sheet is marked with faint dots at the corners of small squares. Tiles line up with the squares, which keeps a board tidy without boxing you in.

The tile toolbar

Click a tile once to select it and its toolbar appears:

Tile color, Edit tile, Add link (to a file, a wiki entry or a web address), Group options, Add to Scratchpad and Delete tile.

Several tiles at once

• Shift-click to add or remove tiles from the selection, or drag across empty space to draw a box: every tile it touches is selected. Cmd+A selects everything and Esc lets go.
• Drag one selected tile and they all move together.
• Drag an edge of one and the others take the same width (or height): the quick way to make a row of tiles match.
• Group them from the toolbar: a colored box surrounds the group and follows its tiles wherever they go.
• Cmd+C, Cmd+X and Cmd+V copy, cut and paste, keeping the layout and the connections between them. Delete removes the selection.

Right-click a tile for Cut, Copy, Paste here and Delete; right-click empty space for New tile here, New label and Paste here.

Connections, labels and groups

• Connect: move the pointer near a tile's edge and a dot appears. Drag it to another tile to draw an arrow. Click an arrow to change its line or color, or remove it.
• Labels are sticky notes that sit anywhere, not on the squares: Add label in the toolbar puts one in the middle of the view. They take colors too.

Getting around

The sheet grows as you place tiles further out, left and upward as well, so any tile can sit in the middle of the screen.

Make it yours

Two buttons near the bottom of the toolbar change how the sheet looks while you work:

• Units shows the squares as dots, faint lines, or not at all.
• Alignment guides draws a thin line when a tile's edge lines up with another's. Turn them off when you'd rather map freely.

Undo and redo are at the top of the toolbar (Cmd+Z, Cmd+Shift+Z).

Grids made before the new grid

Grids made before Studio 1.0 keep their old row-and-column layout until you switch them. Open one and click Try the new grid (the sparkle at the bottom of its toolbar). Tiles, connections, labels, groups, colors and links all come along in the same places.

There's no button to switch back; instead, Studio saves the grid as it was in its version history, as a version called Before switching to the new grid, kept for good. Restore it to get the old grid back exactly as it was.

Tiles that were headers in an old grid keep their look; right-click one and choose Remove header style to make it an ordinary tile.

Scratch Pad, wiki and export

• Tiles can link to wiki entries, and tile text counts for wiki mentions and your project's word count.
• Add to Scratchpad copies a tile's text to the Scratch Pad.
• Export Grid in the file options downloads a spreadsheet (.csv) laid out roughly like your grid.