Veronica Berglyd Olsen
97 lines
4.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
97 lines
4.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _docs_usage_headings:
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*******************
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Chapters and Scenes
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*******************
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.. _Markdown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown
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Since novelWriter uses a plain text format, the structure of your novel must follow a certain set
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of simple rules. For documents in a **Novel** type root folder, it is the heading that determines
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if the document is a chapter or a scene.
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The formatting of headings is based on Markdown_. A heading is indicated by a line starting with
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one or more ``#`` characters. It accepts up to four of these. You can use multiple headings in the
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same document, but it is the first heading that determines which icon and information is displayed
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in the project tree.
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.. note::
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You can use the same heading levels for your notes in the other root folders, but they aren't
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treated as chapters or scenes, so there you are free to use them as you want.
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.. _docs_usage_headings_levels:
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Heading Levels
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==============
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.. figure:: images/fig_heading_levels.png
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An illustration of how heading levels correspond to the novel structure.
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Four levels of headings are understood for novel documents. You can pick and choose from these as
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you want, but if your story has chapters, you should use these headings to indicate them. If you
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also add scene headings, you have better control of how your scene separators are formatted in your
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manuscript. The chapter and scenes headings are also displayed in the
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:ref:`Novel View <docs_ui_main_novel>` and :ref:`Outline View <docs_ui_main_outline>`.
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``# Title Text``
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This is a heading level one. This heading indicates the start of a new partition. Partitions are
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for when you want to split your story into "Part 1", "Part 2", etc. You can also choose to use
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them for splitting the text up into acts, and then hide these headings in your manuscript so
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that they are not included in the output.
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``## Chapter Title``
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This is a heading level two. This heading indicates the start of a new chapter. Chapter numbers
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can be inserted automatically when building the manuscript, so you don't have to do this in the
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title. See :ref:`docs_ui_manuscript_head_numbers` for more details.
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``### Scene Title``
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This is a heading level three. This heading indicates the start of a new scene. Scene numbers or
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scene separators can be inserted automatically when building the manuscript, so you can use the
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title field as a working title for your scenes if you wish, but you must provide a minimal
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title.
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``#### Section Title``
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This is a heading level four. This heading indicates the start of a new section. Section titles
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can be replaced by separators or ignored completely when building the manuscript. The meaning of
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a section is really whatever you want it to be. You can use it to split your scenes up into
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chunks, or into separate documents.
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For headings level one through three, adding a ``!`` modifies the meaning of the heading. The
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alternative meaning of the heading is only relevant when you generate your manuscript, but you may
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want to keep the use cases in mind while writing.
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``#! Title Text``
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This tells the **Manuscript Build** tool that the level one heading is intended to be used for
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the novel or notes folder's main title, like for instance the novel title on the cover page.
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When building the manuscript, this will use a different styling of the title, which you can
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modify independently from how partition titles are styled.
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See :ref:`docs_usage_front_back_matter_title` for more details.
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``##! Chapter Title``
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This tells the **Manuscript Build** tool to not assign a chapter number to this chapter title if
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automatic chapter numbers are enabled. Such titles are useful for prologues and epilogues for
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instance. See :ref:`docs_usage_front_back_matter_unnumbered` for more details.
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``###! Scene Title``
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This is an alternative scene heading that can be formatted differently in the **Manuscript
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Build** tool. It is intended for separating "soft" and "hard" scene breaks. Aside from this, it
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behaves identically to a regular scene heading. See :ref:`docs_ui_manuscript_head_hard_soft`
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for more details.
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The formatting of these headings can be customised quite extensively in the
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:ref:`Manuscript Tool <docs_ui_manuscript>`, which is covered in a separate part of the
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documentation.
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.. note::
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The space after the ``#`` or ``!`` character is mandatory. The editor will change colour and
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font size when the heading is correctly formatted.
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Page breaks can be automatically added before titles, partition, chapter and scene headings from
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the **Manuscript Build** tool when you build your project to a format that supports page breaks.
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If you want page breaks in other places, you have to specify them manually.
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See :ref:`docs_usage_formatting_breaks` for more details.
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