51 lines
2.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
51 lines
2.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _a_notes:
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*************
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Project Notes
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*************
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novelWriter doesn't have a database and complicated forms for filling in details about plot
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elements, characters, and all sorts of additional information that isn't a part of the novel text
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itself. Instead, all such information is saved in notes that are written and maintained just like
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all other text in your project.
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The relation between all these additional elements is extracted from the documents and notes by the
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project indexer, based on the tags and references you set within them.
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Using notes is not required, but making at least minimal notes for each plot element, and adding a
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tag to them, makes it possible to use the :guilabel:`Outline` feature to see how each element
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intersects with each section of the novel itself, and adds clickable cross-references between
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documents in the editor and viewer.
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.. _a_notes_tags:
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Tags in Notes
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=============
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Each new heading in a note can have a tag associated with it. The format of a tag is
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``@tag: tagname``, where tagname is a unique identifier. Tags can then be referenced in the novel
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documents, or cross-referenced in other notes, and will show up in the outline view and in the
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back-reference panel when a document is being viewed. See :ref:`a_struct_tags` for how to reference
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notes.
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The syntax highlighter will alert the user that the keyword is correctly used and that the tag is
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allowed, that is, the tag is unique. Duplicate tags should be detected as long as the index is up
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to date. An invalid tag should have a green wiggly line under it, and will not receive the syntax
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colour that valid tags do.
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The tag is the only part of these notes that the application uses. The rest of the document content
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is there for the writer to use in whatever way they wish. Of course, the content of the documents
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can be exported if you want to compile a single document of all your notes, or include them in an
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outline.
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A note can also reference other notes in the same way novel documents do. When the note is opened
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in the view panel, the references become clickable links, making it easier to follow connections in
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the plot. Notes don't show up in the outline view though, so referencing between notes is only
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meaningful if you want to be able to click-navigate between them.
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.. tip::
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If you cross-reference between notes and export your project as an HTML document using the
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:guilabel:`Build Novel Project` tool, the cross-references become clickable links in the
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exported HTML document.
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