Using Dedicated Book Folders

Your Notes are shared across the whole series, which is usually what you want: a character sketch or a scrap of research is handy no matter which Book you're drafting (in this article, a Book means one book inside your series). But some notes really do belong to one volume. For those, every Book in your series gets its own folder in the Notebook, named Book 1 Notes, Book 2 Notes, and so on. Drop a note inside one to keep it with that Book.

They Appear on Their Own

The folders sit at the very top of your Notebook's folder list (the strip on the left, sometimes called the Binder, where all your folders live), one for each Book, and Penpoint keeps them for you. When you convert a book into a series, add a new Book, or bring one in from another file, its folder shows up automatically. You never have to create or name them.

The name follows the Book's position, so if you reorder your Books the labels renumber to match: the folder for whatever is now your second Book always reads "Book 2 Notes." Because Penpoint manages them, these folders can't be renamed, moved, or deleted (right-click (or Ctrl+click on Mac) on one to see a shorter menu, headed "Automatic series folder"). You can still give one a color and build ordinary subfolders inside it.

Keeping a Note with a Book

Drag a note into a Book's folder and it belongs to that Book. Images, shortcuts (quick links to a character, location, or other part of your book), and subfolders work the same way. Anything you leave outside these folders stays shared across your whole series, right where it's always been.

Following This Book vs All Books

These folders follow the same This Book vs All Books setting as the rest of your series (it narrows your series to just the Book you're working on). In All Books you see every Book's folder; turn on This Book and the folders for the other Books tuck out of sight, so you can focus on the volume in front of you. Nothing is deleted, they are only hidden, and switching back to All Books brings them all straight back.

Hiding Them Entirely

If you'd rather keep your Notebook plain, turn on Hide Series Folders from the display-settings menu (the small gear icon above your list of notes). The same option lives on the right-click menu too, both on empty space and on a Book folder itself. Turn it off the same way to bring the folders back.

Deleting a Book, or Splitting the Series

If you delete a Book that has notes in its folder, Penpoint asks what should happen to them: move them into another Book, or delete them along with the Book. It's the same choice it offers for that Book's characters, items, and locations, so nothing disappears without your say-so.

And if you ever go through Splitting a Series into Separate Books (which turns each Book back into its own separate book file), each book keeps its own Book Notes folder (now just an ordinary folder), and your series-wide notes come along into every book as well.