Outlines

An outline is where you plan: acts, chapters, scenes and beats, or parts, sections and points. It's a list with three levels, made to be typed rather than clicked, though everything works with the mouse and on a touch screen too.

The three levels

The small Roman numeral beside each row tells you which it is, and rows step to the right as they go deeper. You don't have to use all three: a list of headers is a fine outline. Three is the limit.

A new outline opens with a short note and one button, Add your first header. Click it and type.

Add rows with the keyboard

Because there are only three levels, a header that has details under it can't be moved in (they'd have nowhere to go). The outline says so and leaves things as they are.

Add rows with the mouse

• Add header, always at the bottom of the outline.
• Add subheader, under any header that's still empty.
• Insert here, when you hover the gap between two rows. If only one kind of row fits, one click adds it; if more than one would, pick Header, Subheader or Detail.

Move, collapse and delete

• Drag the grip that appears at the left of a row. Up and down reorders; right tucks the row under the one above, left pulls it out. Anything under the row travels with it, and a count shows how many rows are coming along. A drag that would go past three levels snaps back.
• Collapse a header or subheader with the arrow at its left. A count shows what's hidden. Studio remembers what you collapsed.
• Delete a row with the trash button in its toolbar. Rows under it go too; the message at the bottom says how many, and Undo (or Cmd+Z) brings them all back.

The row toolbar

Hover a row, or click into it, and a toolbar appears at its right:

Notes under a row

Every row can hold notes: the paragraph (or five) about what happens there. Press Cmd+Enter in a row, or click Notes, and type. Press Cmd+Enter or Esc to go back to the row.

Notes stay closed; a row with notes shows their first line in gray underneath. They travel with the row, never use up a level, and are included when you export.

Links and chapters

Link a row to a file, a wiki entry or a web address with Link or Cmd+Shift+K. A small chip after the row's text opens it.

A row linked to a text file shows more than a chip: the file's word count, or empty if nothing's written yet, or missing if the file was deleted. If the file has moved to another project, the row says moved to and the project's name, with Bring it back (moves the file back here) and Unlink beside it. The count keeps up while you write, so the outline shows at a glance what's real and what's still a plan.

A row and its linked file keep one name: rename either one and the other follows, as long as their names matched.

Start writing

A row with no link has Start writing in its toolbar. It opens the new-file box with the row's text as the name; click Create and Studio makes the text file in the same folder as the outline, links the row to it and opens it. From then on the row shows the file's word count. This is how a plan turns into a chapter without leaving the outline.

Drag files in from the drawer

On a computer, drag files from the file drawer onto the outline and each one becomes a row named after it, already linked. A gold line shows where the rows will go and how far they're indented; drop between two rows to put them there.

• Any file can be dropped: a text file's row shows its word count like any linked chapter, and other files get a link chip.
• A folder becomes a row named after the folder, with its files as rows underneath and subfolders a level deeper. Outlines have three levels, so anything deeper is laid out at the bottom level. Empty folders add nothing.
• A file the outline already links to is skipped, so each file has one row.
• Rows come in the drawer's order.

If a manuscript follows the outline, it picks up the text files you drop in, the same as when you link a row by hand.

Scratch Pad

• From the outline: the row toolbar's Scratch Pad button copies a row's text to the Scratch Pad.
• Into the outline: drag a note from the Scratch Pad onto the outline. A line shows where it will land; if it could be more than one kind of row there, Studio asks which. Outlines captured on your BYOK drop in with their levels intact.

Undo, palette and export

• Cmd+Z and Cmd+Shift+Z, or the arrows at the top of the file, undo and redo. Collapsing isn't undone; undo is for your words and structure.
• Every outline action is in the command palette.
• Export Outline in the file options gives you plain text or Markdown, indented by level. Include linked content adds each linked file's name and description. Notes come along under their rows.