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Book structure

The Explorer panel shows the hierarchy of your book and serves as the main navigation tool. It opens on the left and is toggled with a toolbar button.

Hierarchy

Book
└── Act
    └── Chapter
        └── Scene

The largest structural unit is the act, then the chapter, then the scene. Scenes contain text; acts and chapters group scenes and carry metadata.

  • Click an item to open it in the editor
  • Click an act or chapter to expand/collapse its children
  • Expand all / Collapse all buttons in the panel
  • Word count is shown under each item

Create and edit

Right-click an item or empty area of the tree to open the context menu:

Action Description
Create... New act / chapter / scene at the selected location
Rename Rename the item
Color Pick a color for the item from the palette
Color for all nested Apply the chosen color to all child items recursively
Delete Delete the item and everything nested
Properties Open the properties panel for the selected item

Show in Finder is only available in the context menu of the book root (right-click the book title).

Item color

Color and Color for all nested open the palette: Coral, Sky, Sage, Amber, Violet, Teal, Rose, Slate, Copper, Mint — plus a "Clear color" entry. The palette is shared with tag colors. Color for all nested applies the chosen color to the entire nested hierarchy of an act or chapter in one step.

Drag and drop

Items can be moved with drag & drop:

  • Drag a scene into another chapter or act
  • Drag a chapter into another act
  • When hovering over a container, it highlights — release to nest

Extract to scene

Select part of the text in the editor → right-click → Extract to new scene. The selected fragment becomes a separate scene in the same chapter.

The Search button (or the magnifying glass icon) in the Explorer header opens a filter input. Type part of a name — the tree filters in real time.

Structure templates

When creating a book, pick a template or start with an empty structure:

Template Description
Empty book Blank slate with no predefined structure
Three-act structure Classic: Setup → Confrontation → Resolution
Save the Cat Blake Snyder's 15-beat structure
Hero's Journey Campbell's 12 stages of the mythological structure
Five-act structure Freytag's dramatic pyramid
Story Circle Dan Harmon's 8-step circular structure
Seven-point structure Dan Wells' tension-based plotting
Detective example Ready-made short story with sample content

Templates create pre-filled acts and scenes with titles and descriptions — use them as a starting point or as a reference.

See also: Editor | Metadata