The Sidebar
The sidebar is your project’s table of contents. It lives on the left side of the editor and changes depending on what kind of project you’re working on. Whether you’re writing a novel, a screenplay, or a general document, the sidebar adapts to show you what’s most useful for that format.
You can collapse the sidebar at any time by clicking the small arrow button on its right edge. Click it again to bring it back.
How the sidebar adapts to your project
Section titled “How the sidebar adapts to your project”Every project type has two modes you can switch between using the tab bar at the top of the sidebar: a primary tab and a Notes tab. The primary tab is labeled differently depending on your project:
| Project type | Primary tab label |
|---|---|
| Novel | Chapters |
| Screenplay | Scenes |
| Other | Pages |
The Notes tab is always labeled “Notes” regardless of project type.
Novel projects — Chapters
Section titled “Novel projects — Chapters”When you open a novel project, the sidebar’s primary tab is labeled Chapters. Each chapter you create appears as a list item. Click any chapter title to open it in the editor. The currently active chapter is highlighted with an indigo left border so you always know where you are.
Hover over any chapter to reveal a ⋮ menu on the right. From there you can rename or delete that chapter.
Screenplay projects — Scenes
Section titled “Screenplay projects — Scenes”Screenplay projects work differently from other project types. Instead of a list you manage yourself, the Scenes tab is populated automatically as you write.
Every time you type a slugline in the editor — a line beginning with INT. or EXT. — it immediately appears in the sidebar as a scene entry. This gives you a live outline of your screenplay that updates as you work. Click any scene in the list to jump directly to that point in the script.
If you haven’t written any sluglines yet, the sidebar will show a prompt reminding you how to get started.
Other document projects — Pages
Section titled “Other document projects — Pages”For general documents, the sidebar’s primary tab is labeled Pages. This works the same way as the Chapters tab in a novel project: each page appears as a list item, you click to navigate, and you can rename or delete via the hover menu.
Creating a new chapter, scene, or page
Section titled “Creating a new chapter, scene, or page”To add a new item to your project, click the + button in the top-right corner of the sidebar header.
- In Novel and other document projects, clicking + immediately creates a new untitled item, which you can rename right away.
- In Screenplay projects, the + button is not shown in the Scenes tab — add scenes by writing sluglines in the editor instead.
Both tabs in the sidebar — primary and Notes — exist in every project. The Notes tab gives you a separate space to keep research, outlines, character bios, references, or anything else that supports your writing but isn’t part of the main document.
Creating notes and folders
Section titled “Creating notes and folders”In the Notes tab, clicking + opens a small menu with two options:
- Note — creates a new note file
- Folder — creates a new folder to organize your notes
Folders can be expanded and collapsed by clicking the arrow next to them. When a folder is empty, it shows an “Empty folder” label inside it.
Moving notes into folders
Section titled “Moving notes into folders”You can organize notes by dragging them into folders. To drag a note, click and hold it, then drop it onto a folder — the folder will highlight in blue to show it’s a valid drop target, and it will automatically expand after you drop. To move a note back out of a folder, drag it into the blank area below your list of notes.
Renaming and deleting notes
Section titled “Renaming and deleting notes”Hover over any note or folder to reveal the ⋮ menu. Select Rename to edit the title inline, or Delete to remove it. Press Enter or click away to confirm a rename.