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Manuscript View

  1. Edit the Novel's Title
  2. Edit the Author's Name
  3. Edit the Novel's Description
  4. Edit a Chapter's Title
  5. Create a Scene
  6. Delete a Scene
  7. Edit a Scene

Edit the Novel's Title

You can edit your novel’s title by clicking on the title in the Manuscript view:

  1. Navigate to the Manuscript view
  2. Click on the title (The bold text at the top of the page)
  3. Give your novel an epic name that will last throughout the ages

Your changes are saved immediately; no need to hit enter. Just click away and continue on your merry way.

Edit the Author's Name

You can edit the author of your novel by clicking on the author’s name in the Manuscript view (By default this is the name in your NovelPad account, changing that name will change the default Author name for any new novels you create):

  1. Navigate to the Manuscript view
  2. Click on the author’s name (The text immediately following “By” and under the bold novel title)
  3. Change your pen name to someone with a knighthood, it’s cooler that way

Your changes are saved immediately; no need to hit enter, just click away and continue slaying the writing dragons.

Edit the Novel's Description

You can edit the description of your novel by clicking on the novel description in the Manuscript view:

  1. Navigate to the Manuscript view
  2. Click on the description (The italicized text between the title and author, and the first chapter heading)
  3. Change your novel’s description to a hair-raising-intro-cliff-hanger guaranteed to boost sales

Your changes are saved immediately; no need to hit enter. Just click away and continue chugging creativity juice.

Edit a Chapter's Title

You can edit a Chapter’s title by clicking on the Chapter header in the Manuscript view:

  1. Navigate to the Manuscript view
  2. Click on the Chapter header
  3. Change your Chapter title to something specifically vague which also has a number somewhere in it
Pro Tip: If you want to also create a new Scene within the Chapter in the Manuscript View, press Enter now
Pro Tip 2: If you didn’t want to also create a new Scene within the Chapter, press Backspace (or Delete on a Mac) now

Your changes are saved immediately; no need to hit enter, just click away and continue crushing your writing goals.

Create a Scene

You can create a Scene on the Chapter header in the Manuscript view and pressing Enter:

  1. Navigate to the Manuscript view
  2. Click on the Chapter header
  3. Press Enter
Pro Tip: If you didn’t want to create a new Scene within the Chapter, press Backspace (or Delete on a Mac) now

Delete a Scene

You can archive an empty Scene from the Manuscript view by clicking in the empty Scene and pressing Backspace (or Delete on a mac):

  1. Navigate to the Manuscript view
  2. Click in an empty Scene
  3. Press Backspace (or Delete on a mac)
Note: You can only archive empty Scenes from the Manuscript view. If you want to archive a Scene with content, see Delete a Scene.

Your changes are saved immediately; no need to hit enter. Just click away and continue typing blazingly fast.

Edit a Scene

You can edit a Scene by clicking anywhere in a Scene:
  • Navigate to the Manuscript view
  • Click in a Scene
  • Start typing your amazing words

    • This is how you edit a Scene in Manuscript Context. To edit a Scene in isolation, or in Chapter / Plot / Character / Location context, see Edit a Scene.

    Your changes are saved immediately; no need to hit enter. Just click away and continue typing blazingly fast.

    Chapter Board

    1. Create a Chapter
    2. Rename a Chapter
    3. Arrange a Chapter
    4. Edit a Scene in a Chapter
    5. Delete a Chapter
    6. Orient the Chapter Board
    7. Filter Chapters

    Create a Chapter

    A Chapter is represented as a Chapter card on the Chapter Board. A Chapter card contains Scenes cards, which are sections of text. You can create a new Chapter by clicking the “Add Chapter” button in the Chapter Board:

    1. Navigate to the Chapter Board
    2. Click “Add Chapter”
    3. Give your new Chapter a cool, laid back title
    4. Click away or press Enter to save your changes
    Note: If you don’t give your Chapter a title and click away or press Enter, a new Chapter will not be created.

    Rename a Chapter

    You can change a Chapter’s title by clicking on the Chapter title in the Chapter Board:

    1. Navigate to the Chapter Board
    2. Click on the Chapter title
    3. Change the title to your heart’s content
    4. Click away or press Enter to save your changes

    Arrange a Chapter

    You can rearrange Chapters in the Chapter Board by dragging and dropping them into the order you want:

  • Navigate to the Chapter Board
  • Drag the Chapter card you want to move by clicking and holding somewhere in the Chapter card header
  • Drop the Chapter card where you want the Chapter to be

    • Huzzah! You are now a Chapter rearranging master of organization. You can use this feature at any time during your writing process, so keep that in mind when you’re brainstorming, writing, editing, or proofreading.

    Edit a Scene in a Chapter

    A Chapter card on the Chapter Board contains Scene cards. Scenes are sections of text which can be edited and managed separately, and together they form the body of a Chapter. There are several ways to edit a Scene, and on the Chapter Board you can edit all of the Scenes in a Chapter in one view. Editing a scene, or multiple scenes, in this manner is known as Editing a Scene In Chapter Context.

    To Edit a Scene in Chapter Context click on the keyboard button in the header of a Chapter card:

    1. Navigate to the Chapter Board
    2. Click the keyboard button in the header of the Chapter card
    3. You are now viewing and can edit all of the scenes in the chapter you selected

    Delete a Chapter

    You can delete a Chapter by clicking on the Chapter Card options and then clicking “Delete”. When you delete a Chapter, all of the Scenes in that Chapter are archived, and are not lost. To recover archived Scenes, you can click “Add Existing Scene” on any Chapter card, and then select the Scenes you want to restore from the archive. To delete a Chapter:

    1. Navigate to the Chapter Board
    2. Click the options button on the Chapter card
    3. Click “Delete”

    Orient the Chapter Board

    You can change the orientation of the Chapter cards by clicking on the Card Orientation button in the top right of the screen:

    1. Navigate to the Chapter Board
    2. Click the Card Orientation button

    Filter Chapters

    You can filter Chapter cards by Chapter name by clicking on the Card Filter button in the top right of the screen:

    1. Navigate to the Chapter Board
    2. Click the Card Filter button
    3. Type in what you want to find

    Chapter Scene Management

    1. Add a Scene
    2. Insert an Existing Scene
    3. Rename a Scene
    4. Edit a Scene
    5. Rearrange Scenes
    6. Edit a Note
    7. Create a Revision
    8. Archive a Scene
    9. Assign a Color to a Scene
    10. Assign a Location to a Scene

    Add a Scene

    You can add a Scene to a Chapter by clicking the Add Scene button inside a Chapter card:

    1. Navigate to the Chapter Board
    2. Click Add Scene
    3. Give your Scene a sweet name to go with its sweet content

    Insert an Existing Scene

    You can add an existing scene to the Chapter Board if the scene exists on another board, or in the archive, and is not already in use somewhere on the Chapter Board. You will see an Add Existing Scene button on all Chapter cards when there are Scenes that meet these criteria. If you don’t see the button, you don’t have any Scenes that are in the Archive, or exist on other boards and not the Chapter Board.

    To add an existing Scene:

    1. Navigate to the Chapter Board
    2. Click Add Existing Scene
    3. Use the filters to select a Scene
    4. Click the Scene you want to add
    Filter Scenes by Scene Title

    You can filter Scenes by Scene Title by typing in a Scene title in the Title field.

    Filter Scenes by Location

    You can filter Scenes by the Location that Scenes are tagged with by using the Location dropdown.

    Filter Scenes by Color

    You can filter Scenes by the color that Scenes are tagged with by using the Color selector.

    Rename a Scene

    Scene titles can be changed by clicking on the Scene Options button on the right side of the Scene card:

  • Click on the Scene Options Button (the three dots)
  • Start typing
  • Hit enter or click away to save your changes

    • Edit a Scene

    There are multiple ways to read and edit a Scene, and depending on how much contextual information you would like when editing that Scene, you can use a variety of views:

    In Isolation

    To edit a Scene in Isolation (or put another way, just by itself) you can click directly on the Scene you want to edit. This will slide open the Scene Editing tray from the right side of the screen. Edits are saved as you make them, so you can click away any time without losing any changes. Pressing the “X” in the top right of the screen closes this tray.

    In Chapter Context

    To edit a Scene while also being able to view and edit the other Scenes in the same chapter, you can edit a Scene in Chapter Context. When you’re in the Chapter Board view, clicking on the keyboard button in the header of a Chapter card opens the Chapter Context tray from the left side of the screen. Pressing the “X” in the top right of the screen closes this tray.

    Note that Scenes are ordered in the order that they appear in the Chapter card.
    In Manuscript Context

    To edit a Scene while also being able to view and edit the entire Manuscript, you can either click on the Manuscript View button and scroll to the scene in question, or go there directly by:

    1. Clicking on the Scene Options button (the three dots)
    2. ...or clicking on the Edit in Manuscript button

    Rearrange Scenes

    You can rearrange the Scene order in a Chapter and move Scenes across Chapters. There are two ways to do so:

    By Dragging and Dropping

    You can grab a Scene by clicking and holding the header of the Scene and dragging it to a new location.

    By Using the Scene Dialog

    You can move a Scene by using the Scene Options panel and using the Chapter Dropdown to assign it to a new Chapter. This will move it to the end of the Chapter. To do this:

    1. Click on the Scene Options button (the three dots)
    2. Use the Chapter Dropdown to assign the Scene to a new Chapter

    Edit a Note

    Notes are extremely useful for keeping track of thoughts, or changes you want to make. Any number of notes can be created on any number of Scenes, there is no limitation, but notes always have a reminder timeline associated with them. You set this reminder timeline when creating a note, and this is to help you stay on top of your notes. You can set your notification preferences in the Settings menu, and the default is to email you any notes that are uncompleted at the time you chose to be reminded when creating the note.

    To create a note, click the Note button on any Scene card. This opens the Note tray from the right side of the screen, you can take any of the following actions:

    Sort Notes By

    You can view and sort any existing notes for that Scene. A Scene that already has notes will have a darker gray Note button on the Scene card. You can sort Notes in two ways:

    Time Created

    You can sort the Notes by when you created them.

    Urgency

    You can sort the Notes by when they are set to remind you.

    Create a Note and Set a Reminder

    In order to Create a Note, input whatever you want to note down, and select a reminder timeline, (an hour, day, week, or month). Selecting a reminder timeline will create the note.

    Read / Edit a Note

    You can interact with Notes at any time and change the Note content by clicking on the note and typing.

    Finish / Extend a Note Reminder

    You can finish a note to archive it and hide it from the Scene, or you can extend the Reminder to retain the note and receive another reminder later on.

    Create a Revision

    You can create a Scene Revision and then swap between the original and the revised Scene. This is extremely useful for iterating on Scene content and trying out ideas. Note that a Scene can only have 1 revision. To create a Scene Revision:

    1. Click on the Scene Options button (the three dots)
    2. Click Create Revision to create a new revision
    3. It may be easier to change the Scene Title now, or add a Color to the Scene to keep it separate from the original Scene
    4. Now you can swap between the Scene Revisions by clicking Swap Revision

    Archive a Scene

    Scenes can never be completely deleted, which is nice for never losing work even when you want to (come on, it can’t be that bad). You can, however, archive Scenes to remove them from the current Board. To Archive a Scene:

    1. Click on the Scene Options button (the three dots)
    2. Click Archive
    To restore a Scene from the Archive, click Add Existing Scene in any card on any board. For more details, see “Insert an Existing Scene”.

    Assign a Color to a Scene

    Assigning a color to a Scene is a great way to keep track of many different attributes of a Scene, like completeness, or a need to review or rewrite something. Colors can also be filtered on in some cases, so they’re quite useful. To assign a color to a Scene:

    1. Click on the Scene Options button (the three dots)
    2. Click on the Color you want to assign to the Scene
    If you want to assign a Label to a Color which appears on each Scene card with that Color, you can do so from the Settings Menu, see “Set / Edit Color Labels”.

    Assign a Location to a Scene

    Assigning a Location to a Scene is necessary for Locations to be tracked across your entire Manuscript. In order to be able to assign a Location to a Scene, you must have one or more Locations already created. See “Create a Location” for more information on how to do that. To add a Location to a Scene:

    1. Click on the Scene Options button (the three dots)
    2. Use the Location Dropdown to set the Location of the Scene

    Plot Board

    1. Create a Plot
    2. Rename a Plot
    3. Rearrange a Plot
    4. Edit a Plot's Scenes
    5. Reorient Plot Board
    6. Filter Plots

    Create a Plot

    You can create a new Plot by clicking the “Add Plot” button in the Plot Board:

    1. Navigate to the Plot Board
    2. Click “Add Plot”
    3. Give your new Plot a suspenseful title
    4. Click away or press Enter to save your changes
    Note: If you don’t give your Plot a title and click away or press Enter, a new Plot will not be created.

    Rename a Plot

    You can change a Plot’s title by clicking on the Plot title in the Plot Board:

    1. Navigate to the Plot Board
    2. Click on the Plot title
    3. Start typing to change the title
    4. Click away or press Enter to save your changes

    Rearrange a Plot

    You can rearrange Plots in the Plot Board by dragging and dropping them into the order you want:

    1. Navigate to the Plot Board
    2. Drag the Plot card you want to move by clicking and holding somewhere in the Plot card header
    3. Drop the Plot card where you want the Plot to be

    Hooray! You are now a Plot rearranging master of Plot-based organization. You can use this feature at any time during your writing process, so keep that in mind when you’re brainstorming, writing, editing, or proofreading. Note that rearranging Plot cards does not affect the order of Chapters or Scenes in the other boards or Manuscript view.

    Edit a Plot's Scenes

    A Plot card on the Plot Board contains Scene cards. Scenes are sections of text which can be edited and managed separately, and together they form the body of a Chapter. There are several ways to edit a Scene, and on the Plot Board you can edit all of the Scenes in a Plot in one view. Editing a scene, or multiple scenes, in this manner is known as Editing a Scene In Plot Context. To Edit a Scene in Plot Context click on the keyboard button in the header of a Plot card:

    1. Navigate to the Plot Board
    2. Click the keyboard button in the header of the Plot card
    3. You are now viewing and can edit all of the scenes in the Plot you selected

    Reorient Plot Board

    You can change the orientation of the Plot cards by clicking on the Card Orientation button in the top right of the screen:

    1. Navigate to the Plot Board
    2. Click the Card Orientation button

    Filter Plots

    You can filter Plot cards by Plot name by clicking on the Card Filter button in the top right of the screen:

    1. Navigate to the Plot Board
    2. Click the Card Filter button
    3. Type in what you want to find

    Plot Scene Management

    1. Add a Scene
    2. Insert an Existing Scene
    3. Rename a Scene

    Add a Scene

    You can add a Scene to a Plot by clicking the Add Scene button inside a Plot card:

  • Navigate to the Plot Board
  • Click Add Scene in a Plot card
  • Give your Scene a sweet name to go with it’s sweet content
    • Note: adding a Scene in a Plot board does not automatically add that Scene into the Chapter Board or Manuscript view. To add that Scene into the Chapter Board, you must go to a Chapter and click Add Existing Scene and select the scene you just created.

    Insert an Existing Scene

    You can add an existing scene to the Plot Board if the scene exists on another board, or in the archive, and is not already in use somewhere on the Plot Board. You will see an Add Existing Scene button on all Plot cards when there are Scenes that meet these criteria. If you don’t see the button, you don’t have any Scenes that are in the Archive, or exist on other boards and not the Plot Board.

    To add an existing Scene:

    1. Navigate to the Plot Board
    2. Click Add Existing Scene
    3. Use the filters to select a Scene
    4. Click the Scene you want to add
    Filter Scenes by Scene Title

    You can filter Scenes by Scene Title by typing in a Scene title in the Title field.

    Filter Scenes by Location

    You can filter Scenes by the Location that Scenes are tagged with by using the Location dropdown.

    Filter Scenes by Color

    You can filter Scenes by the color that Scenes are tagged with by using the Color selector.

    Rename a Scene

    Scene titles can be changed by clicking on the Scene Options button on the right side of the Scene card:

  • Click on the Scene Options Button (the three dots)
  • Start typing
  • Hit enter or click away to save your changes