Filtering the Contents

The search field above the contents narrows them to the documents you're working on: Hyde's scenes, everything still in First Draft, the scenes with open fact-check comments. What matches stays in its place in the book, under its chapter and part, and the rest of the app follows. Each chapter counts how many of its documents match: "1 of 5".

Filtering

Type in Search scenes (Search posts in a journal) and the contents narrow as you type. Words match from their start ("door" finds "doorway", not "indoors"); put "a phrase" in quotes to find the words together. A line of the text around the words shows under each document.

As you type, the field also suggests things in the project whose names start with those words: a character, a place, a status, a label, a tag. Choose one to filter by it instead of by the words.

To filter by anything else, choose the filter button at the end of the field. It offers:

  • Quick Filters: Unwritten (under 50 words), Needs a synopsis, No beat, Has open comments, Changed this week, Not in the compile
  • your collections
  • Status, Label, Tag (or Untagged), Section type, Kind (scenes, folders, notes, research), In the Compile, Locked
  • Character, POV, Place (as the setting, or mentioned or present), Object or Motif
  • Beat, and Within the selected folder
  • Words, Word Target, Changed
  • Comments (any open, in a category, without a category, from agents) and Open Suggestions
  • Title Contains…, Synopsis Contains…, Notes Contain… and No Synopsis
  • your own fields

The filters show on a card under the field, as chips, each with its colour and icon. Choose a chip to change it: tick more values ("Status: First Draft or Revised Draft"), choose Any Of, All Of or None Of, or Is or Isn't. A character's chip can ask for the point of view, characters on stage, or anyone mentioned: "Jekyll and Hyde on stage" finds the scenes where they meet. Choose a chip's × to remove it.

All the chips must match. The card counts what matches ("7 of 29 scenes · 7,527 words"), and a bar under it shows how much of the book that is. Choose the chevron to fold the chips away. The card's ×, or Escape in the field, shows everything again.

What the filter leaves out is hidden; the line at the foot of the contents says how much ("17 scenes hidden"). Choose Show as Context to see it faded in its place instead, and Hide Them to hide it again. This device remembers the choice.

Filter by what you're looking at

Control-click a document (or touch and hold) and choose Filter By to filter by its point of view, status, label, setting, beat, section type, tags or the folder it's in. With a filter on, the menu reads Add to Filter and adds to it; on the Mac, hold Option to add from Filter By too. Choosing a tag anywhere filters by that tag.

Focusing on a folder

Focus on a part or chapter (in a folder's menu, or ⌥⌘→ on a keyboard) shows only what's inside it, with the way back above the field: choose the arrangement's name, or press ⌥⌘←. Focusing combines with the other filters: Hyde's point of view, within Part Two.

What follows the filter

  • Write: opening a folder shows only its documents that match, in order, so you can read one character's thread straight through. A bar above the page says how many of the folder's documents are showing, with Show All. Next Document and Previous Document (⌥⌘↓ and ⌥⌘↑) step through what matches.
  • Plan: the corkboard, outliner and swimlanes show only what matches. The corkboard's Filtered menu can Dim Others instead of hiding them, keeping every card in place. The beat board always dims, so no beat looks empty.
  • The story pages: the timeline, chronology and Shape fade what doesn't match and never leave it out, so the story's shape stays true.
  • Revise ▸ Comments: Only filtered scenes shows just their comments.
  • Publish: Only the filtered scenes builds just them, with their chapters as headings: a reading copy of one thread.

Statistics stay the whole book.

While filtering

You can edit, rename, set fields and add documents as usual. A document you change so it no longer matches stays in the contents, faintly, until you choose something else. Dragging a document while filtering places it next to the row you drop it by; the hidden documents around it keep their places.

The list button on the card shows the matches as a list instead, in reading order with the words around them. The list can't be rearranged.

The filter stays on this device when you close the project or quit, so you can carry on with a revision pass. Other devices keep their own.

Saving a filter

Choose the pencil on the card (Save as Collection…) to keep the filter as a collection, with a name, a colour and an icon. Choosing the collection later from the tile above the contents brings its chips back on a card in its colour, which says whether all or any of its rules must match and where it looks. Change the chips and the card says Edited: Update saves the change, Revert puts the collection's rules back, or Control-click the card (touch and hold) and choose Save as New Collection… to keep both. See Status, Labels and Collections.