Editing Chapter and Scene Details

When you select a chapter or scene from the outline on the left, its details load into the right side of the screen. A slim control bar sits at the very top and stays put as you scroll. Below it is a wide colored strip holding the chapter or scene's identity and its core fields, and below that, additional blocks fill out the rest of the page. This article covers the control bar, that top strip, and the fields you'll edit there most often.

The Top of the Chapter View

Every chapter and scene has its own wide colored strip at the top of the chapter view. On the left sits a small label showing the chapter or scene number, with a colored ribbon if you've assigned a color. On the right is the title and a stack of detail fields.

The Control Bar

Above that strip sits a row of controls pinned to the top of the chapter view. It stays there as you scroll, so the buttons are always in reach however deep into a long chapter you go. Once the title itself scrolls up out of sight, the bar quietly shows the chapter or scene's name in its place, so you never lose track of what you're looking at. It holds five controls:

• View Mode: Group / View Mode: Scene: arranges a multi-scene chapter either by block or one section per scene. The button names the view you're in now.
• New Scene: adds a new scene to the chapter you're viewing.
• Edit / View: switches between reading and editing (more on this below).
• Manuscript: jumps to this chapter or scene in Manuscript Mode so you can write prose.
• The cog: labeled View options. It opens a short menu holding the Hide empty blocks setting.

When a chapter has more than one scene, the blocks below that strip cover every scene in the chapter, so you can read or edit the whole thing in one place. How they're arranged depends on which View Mode you've picked.

For what the two arrangements do and when each one helps, see Chapter View Modes: By Group or By Scene.

Switching Between View and Edit Mode

The Edit button in the control bar (a pencil icon) flips into edit mode; once there, the same button becomes View (an eye icon) to flip back. You can also press Ctrl+E (Cmd+E on Mac) anywhere on the Chapters page, as long as a chapter or scene is selected, to switch modes without reaching for the mouse.

Both modes work the same way they do everywhere else in Penpoint. For the full breakdown, see View Mode vs Edit Mode.

Chapter Fields

When a chapter is selected, that strip shows the chapter's identity and details. In edit mode you can change:

• Title: the chapter title (up to 50 characters).
• Subtitle: an optional second line under the title.
• In which: a one-sentence summary of what happens in the chapter. Shown in italics, prefixed with "in which" so it reads like a Victorian table of contents entry.
• Type: pick from Standard, Prologue, Opening, Transition, Flashback, Interlude, Confrontation, Climax, Resolution, or Epilogue. Anything other than Standard is listed in the details row beneath the title. Standard, Prologue, Epilogue, and Interlude are the familiar writing terms most authors will recognize; the others (Opening, Transition, Flashback, Confrontation, Climax, Resolution) are extra labels you can use if they help you, or ignore if they don't.
• Status: one of Draft, Revised, Polished, or Final. Scenes use the same four stages.
• Color: a 12-color palette plus a "no color" option. Your choice appears as a ribbon bookmark on the small label, and in the outline it fills a small square behind the chapter's icon.
• Is Numbered: switch between Enabled and Disabled. Numbered chapters get sequential numbers in the outline and table of contents; unnumbered chapters (prologues, interludes, epilogues) sit in the order without taking a number.
• Chapter Notes: a rich text field for chapter-level notes that don't belong inside the manuscript itself. Useful for outlines, reminders, or beats you want to hit. These same notes appear on the chapter's index card in the Corkboard view, where you can edit them too.

When a chapter has scenes assigned to point-of-view characters, that top strip also lists those POV characters as a read-only summary. To change a scene's POV, select that scene in the outline and edit it there.

The strip also carries an Events in this chapter line: every event anchored to the chapter, whether you linked it to the whole chapter or to one of its scenes. In edit mode, the + links an existing event to the chapter and the × beside an event unlinks it (the event itself lives on; only its link to this chapter is removed).

Events are created and fleshed out on your character, item, and location pages. To learn how they work, see Events.

Scene Fields

Selecting a scene swaps that strip into a slimmer scene view. Under the title, a small location label reads "A scene in [chapter title]" so you always know which chapter the scene belongs to. The small label shows "Scene" and the scene's number within the chapter.

Scenes carry a smaller set of fields than chapters:

• Title: the scene title. Optional; blank scenes show "Untitled Scene".
• Status: same four-tier progression as chapters (Draft, Revised, Polished, Final).
• Color: same 12-color palette as chapters, used for the scene's ribbon and for a small colored square beside the scene in the outline.

Scenes also display their POV characters as a read-only summary when you've assigned point-of-view characters to them.

Beyond the Top Strip

That strip is just the top of the chapter view. Below it sit configurable blocks: calendar entries, related characters, plot points, and more. To add, remove, or reorder those blocks, see Customizing Chapter Layout.

For an overview of what each block does, see Chapter Block Types.