Veronica Berglyd Olsen
254 lines
13 KiB
ReStructuredText
254 lines
13 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _a_ui:
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***********************
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User Interface Overview
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***********************
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The user interface is kept as simple as possible to avoid distractions when writing. This page
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lists all the main GUI elements, and explains what they do.
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.. _a_ui_tree:
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The Project Tree
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================
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The main window contains a project tree in the left-most panel. It shows the entire structure of
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the project. It has four columns:
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**Column 1**
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The first column shows the icon and label of each folder, document, or note in your project. The
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label is not the same as the title you set inside the document. However, the document's label
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will appear in the header above the document text itself so you know where in the project an
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open document belongs.
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**Column 2**
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The second column shows the word count of the document, or the sum of words of the child items
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for folders. If the counts seem incorrect, they can be updated by rebuilding the project index
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from the :guilabel:`Tools` menu, or by pressing :kbd:`F9`.
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**Column 3**
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The third column indicates whether the document is included in the final project build or not.
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You may want to filter out documents that you no longer want to keep in the final manuscript,
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but want to keep in the project for reference.
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**Column 4**
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The fourth column shows the user-defined status or importance labels you've assigned to each
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project item. See :ref:`a_ui_tree_status` for more details. By default, both the icon and the
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label text is shown, but you can turn off the text label from :guilabel:`Preferences`. If the
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text label is off, the text will instead appear in a tooltip when you hover your mouse over the
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icon.
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Right-clicking an item in the project tree will open a context menu under the cursor, displaying
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a selection of actions that can be performed on the selected item.
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The label, status or importance setting, the layout, and the include flag can all be edited using
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the :guilabel:`Item Settings` dialog box. The dialog can be opened from the :guilabel:`Project`
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menu, or by pressing :kbd:`F2` with the item selected.
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Below the project tree you will find a small details panel showing the full information of the
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currently selected item. This panel also includes the latest paragraph and character counts in
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addition to the word count.
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.. _a_ui_tree_novel:
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The Novel Tree
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--------------
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An alternative way to view the project structure is the novel tree. You can switch to this view by
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selecting the :guilabel:`Novel` tab under the project tree. This view is a simplified version of
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the view in the :guilabel:`Outline`. It is convenient when you want to browse the structure of the
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story itself rather than the document files.
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.. note::
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You cannot reorganise the entries in the novel tree, or add any new ones, as that would imply
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restructuring the content of the document files.
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.. _a_ui_tree_status:
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Document Importance and Status
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------------------------------
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Each document or folder in your project can have either a "Status" or "Importance" flag set. These
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are flags that you control and define yourself. To modify the labels, go to their respective tabs
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in :guilabel:`Project Settings`.
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The "Status" flag is intended to tag a Novel document as for instance a draft or as completed, and
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the "Importance" flag is intended to tag character notes, or other notes, as for instance a main,
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major or minor character.
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Whether a document uses a "Status" or "Importance" flag depends on which root folder it lives in.
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If it's in the :guilabel:`Novel` folder, it uses the "Status" flag, otherwise it uses an
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"Importance" flag. Some folders, like :guilabel:`Trash` and :guilabel:`Outtakes` allow both.
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.. _a_ui_tree_dnd:
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Project Tree Drag & Drop
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------------------------
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The project tree allows drag & drop to a certain extent. This feature is primarily intended for
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reordering your documents within each root folder. Moving a document in the project tree will also
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put it in a different place when you build the novel project.
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Drag & drop has only limited support for moving documents. In general, bulk actions are not
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allowed. This is deliberate to avoid accidentally messing up your project. If you make a mistake,
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the last move action can be undone by pressing :kbd:`Ctrl`:kbd:`Shift`:kbd:`Z`.
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Documents and their folders can be rearranged freely within their root folders. Novel documents
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cannot be moved out of the :guilabel:`Novel` folder, except to :guilabel:`Trash` and the
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:guilabel:`Outtakes` folders. Notes can be moved freely between all root folders, but keep in mind
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that if you move a note into a :guilabel:`Novel`, its "Importance" setting will be reset to the
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default "Status" setting. See :ref:`a_ui_tree_status`.
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Folders cannot be moved at all outside their root tree. Neither can a folder containing documents
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be deleted. You must first delete the containing documents.
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Root folders in the project tree cannot be dragged & dropped at all. If you want to reorder them,
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you can move them up or down with respect to eachother from the :guilabel:`Project` menu, the
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right-click context menu, or by pressing :kbd:`Ctrl`:kbd:`Shift` and the :kbd:`Up` or :kbd:`Down`
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key.
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.. _a_ui_edit:
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Editing and Viewing Documents
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=============================
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To edit a document, double-click it in the project tree, or press the :kbd:`Return` key while
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having it selected. This will open the document in the document editor. The editor uses a
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markdown-like syntax for some features, and a novelWriter-specific syntax for others. The syntax
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format is described in the :ref:`a_fmt` section below. The editor has a maximise button (toggles
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the :guilabel:`Focus Mode`) and a close button in the top–right corner. On the top–left side you
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will find an edit button that opens the :guilabel:`Item Settings` dialog for the currently open
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document, and a search button to open the search dialog.
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Any document in the project tree can also be viewed in parallel in a right hand side document
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viewer. To view a document, press :kbd:`Ctrl`:kbd:`R`, or select :guilabel:`View Document` in the
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menu. If you have a middle mouse button, middle-clicking on the document will also open it in the
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viewer. The document viewed does not have to be the same document as currently being edited.
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However, If you *are* viewing the same document, pressing :kbd:`Ctrl`:kbd:`R` again will update the
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document with your latest changes. You can also press the reload button in the top–right corner of
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the view panel, next to the close button, to achieve the same thing.
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Both the document editor and viewer will show the label of the document in the header at the top of
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the edit or view panel. Optionally, the full project path to the document can be shown. This can be
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set in :guilabel:`Preferences`. Clicking on the document title bar will select and reveal its
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location in the project tree, making it easier to locate in a large project.
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Any tag reference in the editor can be opened in the viewer by moving the cursor to the label and
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pressing :kbd:`Ctrl`:kbd:`Return`. You can also control-click them with your mouse. In the viewer,
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the references become clickable links. Clicking them will replace the content of the viewer with
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the content of the document the reference points to.
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The document viewer keeps a history of viewed documents, which you can navigate through with the
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arrow buttons in the top–left corner of the viewer. If your mouse has back and forward navigation
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buttons, these can be used as well. They work just like the backward and forward features in a
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browser.
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At the bottom of the view panel there is a :guilabel:`References` panel. (If it is hidden, click
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the icon to reveal it.) This panel will show links to all documents referring back to the one
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you're currently viewing, if any has been defined. The :guilabel:`Sticky` button will freeze the
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content of the panel to the current document, even if you navigate to another document. This is
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convenient if you want to quickly look through all documents in the list in the
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:guilabel:`References` panel without losing the list in the process.
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.. note::
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The :guilabel:`References` panel relies on an up-to-date index of the project. The index is
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maintained automatically. However, if anything is missing, or seems wrong, the index can always
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be rebuilt by selecting :guilabel:`Rebuild Index` from the :guilabel:`Tools` menu, or by
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pressing :kbd:`F9`.
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.. _a_ui_edit_search:
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Search & Replace
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----------------
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The document editor has a search and replace tool that can be activated with :kbd:`Ctrl`:kbd:`F`
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for search mode or :kbd:`Ctrl`:kbd:`H` for search and replace mode.
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Pressing :kbd:`Return` while in the search box will search for the next occurrence of the word, and
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:kbd:`Shift`:kbd:`Return` for the previous. Pressing :kbd:`Return` in the replace box, will replace
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the highlighted text and move to the next result.
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There are a number of settings for the search tool available as toggle switches above the search
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box. They allows you to search for, in order: matched case only, whole word results only, search
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using regular expressions, loop search when reaching the end of the document, and move to the next
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document when reaching the end. There is also a switch that will try to match the case of the word
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when the replacement is made. That is, it will try to keep the word upper, lower, or capitalised to
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match the word being replaced.
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The regular expression search is somewhat dependant on which version of Qt your system has. If you
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have Qt 5.13 or higher, there is better support for unicode symbols in the search.
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.. _a_ui_edit_auto:
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Auto-Replace as You Type
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========================
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A few auto-replace features are supported by the editor. You can control every aspect of the
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auto-replace feature from :guilabel:`Preferences`. You can also disable this feature entirely if
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you wish.
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.. tip::
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If you don't like auto-replacement, all symbols inserted by this feature are also available in
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the :guilabel:`Insert` menu, and via convenient :ref:`a_kb_ins`. You may also be using a
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`Compose Key`_ setup, which means you may not need the auto-replace feature.
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.. _Compose Key: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose_key
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The editor is able to replace two and three hyphens with short and long dashes, triple points with
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ellipsis, and replace straight single and double quotes with user-defined quote symbols. It will
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also try to determine whether to use the opening or closing symbol, although this feature isn't
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always accurate. Especially distinguishing between closing single quote and apostrophe can be
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tricky for languages that use the same symbol for these, like English does.
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.. tip::
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If the auto-replace feature changes a symbol when you did not want it to change, pressing
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:kbd:`Ctrl`:kbd:`Z` immediately after the auto-replacement will undo it without undoing the
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character you typed.
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.. _a_ui_outline:
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Project Outline View
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====================
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The project's Outline view is available as the second tab on the right hand side of the main window
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labelled :guilabel:`Outline`. The outline provides an overview of the novel structure, displaying a
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tree hierarchy of the elements of the novel, that is, the level 1 to 4 headings representing
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partitions, chapters, scenes and sections.
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The document containing the heading can also be displayed as a separate column, as well as the line
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number where it occurs. Double-clicking an entry will open the corresponding document in the
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editor.
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.. note::
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Since the internal structure of the novel does not depend directly on the folder and document
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structure of the project tree, these will not necessarily look the same, depending on how you
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choose to organise your documents. See the :ref:`a_struct` page for more details.
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Various meta data and information extracted from tags can be displayed in columns in the outline.
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A default set of such columns is visible, but you can turn on or off more columns by right clicking
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the header and selecting the columns you want to show. The order of the columns can also be
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rearranged by dragging them to a different position.
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.. note::
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The :guilabel:`Title` column cannot be disabled or moved.
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The information viewed in the outline is based on the project's main index. While novelWriter does
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its best to keep the index up to date when contents change, you can always rebuild it manually by
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pressing :kbd:`F9` if something isn't right.
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The outline view itself can be regenerated by pressing :kbd:`F10`. You can also enable automatic
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updating in the :guilabel:`Tools` menu, which will trigger an update whenever the index is updated
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and the :guilabel:`Outline` tab is active. You may want to disable this feature if your project is
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very large,
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The :guilabel:`Synopsis` column of the outline view takes its information from a specially
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formatted comment. See :ref:`a_fmt_comm`.
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