Organizing Locations
Penpoint gives you several ways to organize your location list: sorting modes and drag-to-reorder for rearranging your nested locations.
Sort Modes
The sort dropdown in the bar at the top of your locations list offers three ways to order your locations:
Creation Date
The default sort mode. Locations appear in the order you created them, which often matches the order they appear in your story or outline.
Alphabetical
Sorts all locations alphabetically by name, making it easy to find a specific place when you have many locations.
Type
Sorts locations by their type (City, Region, Building, etc.), then alphabetically within each type. The type order follows the custom order you set in Location Types settings (found under Settings > Item & Location Types).
Note: Sorting only changes how your locations are listed — it doesn't move them in or out of their groups.
Drag-to-Reorder
Click the Edit button in the bar at the top of the list to enter drag-to-reorder mode. This lets you rearrange your locations by dragging them to new positions. When you're done, click Edit again to leave the mode.
How to Reorder
Click and hold on any location, then drag it to a new position. You'll see guides showing where the location will land:
- Drop on another location - Places the dragged location inside the target location
- Drop at the top or bottom edge - Makes the dragged location a top-level location (not nested inside anything)
- Drop target highlight - A colored ring appears around a location to show it will become the new parent
Safety Features
Penpoint prevents moves that wouldn't make sense:
- You can't nest a location inside one of its own sub-locations: that would create a loop.
- Locations can be nested many levels deep, but Penpoint caps it at 25 to keep things practical.
Tip: Drag-to-reorder works across all sort modes. You can switch to alphabetical sort to find a location easily, then switch back to creation date to reorder it.