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Working with Outlines

Storyist lets you work with your project items (manuscripts, scripts, notebook entries, and story elements) in outline form.

To edit a project item in outline form, navigate to the item, and then do one of the following:

  • Click the View as Outline button in the navigation bar.
  • Choose View > as Outline.

Adding Outline Elements

You can add items to an outline using the Action button or the keyboard.

To add items to the outline using the Action button:

  1. Select the outline row where you want to insert an item.
  2. Click the Action button in the command bar at the bottom of the Outline view. A shortcut menu appears.
  3. Choose Add from the shortcut menu and choose the item you want to add from the submenu that appears.

The item appears in the row after the currently-selected row at the outline level appropriate for the item.

To add items to the outline using the keyboard:

  • Press Command-Return to add a default body text or story element item.
  • Press Command-Slash (/) to add a default heading or group.

The default body text item is that which is specified as the body level style in the outline definition (for example, the Section style) and the default story element is that which is specified as the preferred contents of the enclosing folder.

To see exactly which items will be added by the keyboard shortcuts, click the Action button and view the Add menu items.

Moving Outline Elements

You can rearrange your outline by simply dragging items to a new location.

Editing Outline Templates

When you add an outline element to a text file (for example, a chapter to a manuscript), Storyist uses the file’s outline template to determine which style to apply. This way, headings are formatted correctly when you switch back to the text view.

To edit the outline template:

  1. Open the Inspector and select the File Info pane.
  2. Click the Edit Outline Template button. A window appears.
  3. To change a level name, double-click the name and type a new name.
  4. To change the default style for this level, select a style from the list of available styles in the Default Style pop up.
  5. To define a new outline level, click the Add (+) button and enter the desired properties.

Note: Outline level properties are created in order: body text first, then outline levels 1-9. The Add button is only enabled if Storyist finds a style for the next outline level (that is, a style with the outline level set to the next available outline level).