Views & Layout

Different ways to see your project, and to arrange the window around the way you work.

The views are in View → Editor Layout: Single Document (Ctrl+1), Split View (Ctrl+2), Split Window (Ctrl+3), Corkboard (Ctrl+4) and Outline (Ctrl+5).

Corkboard

Your manuscript as index cards: each chapter or part is a heading, and its scenes are cards under it.

• Each card shows the scene's title, synopsis, word count and status.
• Click a synopsis to edit it (up to 600 characters). It's the same synopsis as in the Inspector's Notes tab.
• Click a card's status to cycle Draft → In Progress → Done → Needs Revision.
• Drag cards to reorder scenes within their chapter.
• Back to Editor returns to writing.

Outline

Your manuscript as a list, one row per part, chapter and scene, with:

• the title (double-click to rename),
• the status dot (click to cycle),
• the word count (a chapter's includes its scenes),
• an ON / OFF switch for whether it's compiled,
• and its synopsis, which you can edit right there.

It's the quickest way to check the shape of a draft and what's in or out of the next export.

Split View

Writes in one pane while showing something else in a second pane beside it. Use the Compare: picker above the second pane to choose a manuscript document, a note, a reference item, a character or place sheet, or the Outline.

• Documents in the second pane are read-only, so you can't change the wrong one by accident. Character and place sheets and reference tables there can be edited.
• A document can only be open in one place at a time. If you pick one that's already open, it flashes red and the app tells you where.

Split Window

Opens a second window with its own Navigator and editor. Put it on another monitor and write in both.

• The second window has no Inspector or menu bar; menus and shortcuts act on whichever window is in front.
• A document that's open in the other window is dimmed in the Navigator, and flashes red if you click it.
• Ravenburst remembers the window's size and position, and reopens it next time if it was open when you quit. Close it with its own close button.

Composition Mode

View → Fullscreen / Composition Mode (F11, or Ctrl+⌘+F on a Mac) fills the screen with your writing: the window goes fullscreen, the text gets a little larger, and everything else fades and blurs. Press Esc or click a faded panel to come back.

Moving around

• Navigate → Previous Document and Next Document (Ctrl+[ and Ctrl+]) step through the manuscript in reading order. The ◀ ▶ buttons above the editor do the same.
• Back and Forward (Alt+← / Alt+→) retrace the documents you've opened in this session, like a web browser.
• Navigate → Jump to Manuscript (Ctrl+Shift+M), Characters, Places, Reference or Trash.
• Bookmarks (Ctrl+D): see Snapshots & Bookmarks.

Arranging the window

• View → Show / Hide: Navigator Panel (Ctrl+Shift+[), Inspector Panel (Ctrl+Shift+]), Format Bar, Status Bar and Line Numbers.
• Drag the edge of the Navigator or Inspector to resize it.
• Window → Move Navigator Left / Right (Ctrl+Alt+[ / ]).
• View → Appearance: Light, Dark, High Contrast or System (follows your computer).
• Window → Reset Window Layout puts panel sizes, the Navigator's side and the zoom back to their defaults and shows every bar again.

Ravenburst remembers your layout, the open project and document, and the view you were in, and restores them when you next open it. It never hides a panel on its own.