The Corkboard

The Corkboard is a second way to look at the Chapters page. Instead of reading your book as a list, you see every chapter as an index card laid out across the screen, the way you'd spread notecards on a table. It's built for the moment when you're not writing yet: you're deciding what happens, and in what order.

Switching Views

At the very top of the Chapters page are two buttons: Chapters and Corkboard. Click Corkboard and the right side of the screen becomes the board. Click Chapters to go back to the usual chapter details.

Penpoint remembers which view you were last in, so the board is still there when you reopen your book. The outline (the list of every chapter and scene down the left side of the page) stays put in both views, so you never lose your place. See The Chapter Outline.

Reading a Card

Each card shows the chapter title and a short summary. Penpoint writes the words in which at the start for you and you supply the rest, so the finished line reads like a classic chapter heading: in which the letter arrives too late. It's the same summary you'd fill in on the Chapters page. Numbered chapters also carry their number in a small box beside the title; a chapter you've set as unnumbered (a prologue, say) simply shows its title. Underneath, a small line of extra detail shows things like the draft status and whose point of view the chapter follows.

A chapter with a color shows it as a small ribbon in the corner of the card, so you can sweep your eye down the board and see your color-coding at a glance.

Writing Summaries Right on the Board

Click the summary area of any card and it turns into a text box you can type in, prompting you with What happens in this chapter…. This is the heart of the Corkboard: you can sit down with an empty board and write one sentence per chapter until the shape of the book appears.

Your typing saves on its own after a short pause, and again the moment you click away. There's no save button to hunt for.

Changing the Card Size

Look for a small gear (cog-shaped) button in the strip of buttons sitting directly above the cards. (This is a different row from the Chapters and Corkboard buttons at the very top of the page.) Click the cog and the first thing you'll find is Card Size, with three choices:

• Compact: small cards showing the first three lines of each summary, so you can see far more of your book at once. Good for getting the shape of the whole thing.
• Standard: four lines of summary. The everyday size, and what you start with.
• Large: roomy cards with up to eight lines on show. Good for actually reading what you wrote.

A smaller card only shows you less; it never shortens anything. Your full summary is safe, and all of it comes back when you pick a bigger card. If a summary runs past what the card can show, it simply trails off with a "…".

Your size choice is remembered, and it applies to every book you open rather than just this one. Because Compact cards are short, they're best for scanning and reordering: if you want to sit and rewrite your summaries, Standard or Large gives you more room to type into.

Choosing What Cards Show

Underneath the size choices, the same cog gives you Show on Cards: a short list of details you can switch on or off.

• Subtitle: the smaller line under the chapter title.
• Status: the chapter's status label (Draft, for instance), the same one you set elsewhere in Penpoint.
• Point of view: which characters the chapter follows.
• First line of prose: the opening words of what you've actually written. Off to start with.
• Chapter notes: the chapter's Chapter Notes field, the same rich text you see on the chapter page. Click it on a card to write in it directly; bold, italics, and the other keyboard shortcuts all work. The summary line stays a quick one-liner; this is where the longer thinking goes.

The summary line is always shown and can't be switched off. Your choices are remembered for next time.

Compact cards are too small to fit the subtitle, the first line of prose, or the chapter notes, so those go gray while you're using that size. You'll notice their ticks stay put: that's deliberate. Nothing has been switched off or forgotten, the card simply hasn't the room right now, and they come straight back the moment you pick a bigger card.

Scenes on the Board

Chapters with more than one scene show a small strip of scene cards tucked underneath. A chapter with a single scene doesn't show one, because the chapter card is that scene.

Click a scene card to open it up and see more: its status, its point of view, and how many words you've written in it. The same Show on Cards choices apply here, so a detail you've switched off won't appear on the scene cards either. Click again to close. You can leave as many scene cards open as you like, and they'll still be open the next time you come back.

Rearranging by Dragging

Dragging a card reorders your actual book, not just the picture on the board. When you move a chapter, the whole chapter travels with it: its summary, its scenes, and every word you've written inside them. Nothing is deleted; the order is the only thing that changes.

Pick up any card and drag it. A bright line shows where it will land. Changed your mind halfway? Press Escape before you let go and the card springs straight back to where it started. When you do let go, the surrounding cards fade out, shuffle, and fade back in. Numbered chapters renumber themselves automatically.

• Chapter cards can be dropped anywhere on the board.
• Scene cards can be dragged within their chapter, or dropped into a different chapter's scene strip.

Right-Click for More

Right-click (or Ctrl+click on Mac) a chapter card and you'll get the same menu the outline gives you: rename it, insert a chapter before or after, change its color or status, or add a scene. Right-click empty space on the board to create a new chapter or a new placeholder right there.

That menu also holds merging and deleting. Those two reshape your book rather than just tidy it, so they have an article of their own that walks through what happens to your writing first: Merging and Deleting.

Cards for Chapters You Haven't Written

The board also holds a second kind of card. A placeholder is a sticky note for an idea you're not ready to commit to: it sits on the board and in your outline, stays out of your manuscript, and turns into a real chapter whenever you say so. See Placeholder Cards.

Related

• Placeholder Cards: sticky notes for chapters you haven't written yet.
• The Chapter Outline: the list down the left side, shown in both views.
• Reordering and Organizing Chapters: moving chapters from the outline instead.
• Editing Chapter and Scene Details: the full detail view behind each card.