How Panels Work

The Novel Factory is made up of sections, such as Premise and Synopses, Plot Manager and Subplot Manager. Each section can be accessed via the main navigation.

Within each of these sections, the data is further organised into panels.

For example, in the Premise and Synopsis section, you will find panels for Premise, Short Synopsis and Extended Synopsis.

Editing the Content of a Panel

In order to edit a panel, simply hover over the panel with your mouse cursor, and click the edit button which appears when you do so.

Note – we made the decision to have the edit buttons appear on hover, rather than always display, in order to keep the interface clean and uncluttered.

Also note – on mobile devices and tablets, because a mouse is not used, the edit buttons will always be visible.

When you click the edit button, the panel will be become editable, and you can type directly in the fields.

There are three buttons at the bottom of most panels: Discard Changes, Save Progress and Save and Close.

Discard changes – disregards any changes you have made and reverts to the version you had before you clicked ‘edit’. This can be useful if you make a lot of changes but then realise you’ve made a mistake.

Save Progress – this saves your progress, but keeps the panel in edit mode. This is useful if you’re making a lot of changes, and want to be certain they have been saved to the server (or your local machine, if you’re working offline). If you don’t click ‘Save Progress’ then your changes will not be saved until you close the panel.

Save and Close – this saves your progress and closes the panel, allowing you to continue with a different panel or section.

Note – if you click outside of the panel while it is in edit mode, it has the same effect as ‘Save and Close’. Likewise if you use the X in the corner, the software works on the assumption you are more likely to want to save your changes than discard them. So it will save and close.

Viewing the content of a panel

The Novel Factory does some clever streamlining to ensure your interface is always as clean and uncluttered as possible, to minimise distractions and support your creative flow.

So, before you have entered anything in a panel, it will show you all the fields which are available to edit.

However, as soon as you have edited and saved your data, only the fields which you have completed will display.

This keeps the interface streamlined, by hiding superfluous words, and making it easier to see the data you’ve entered.

When you go into edit mode again – all the fields will be shown again.

Choosing which Panels to Display or hide

You can decide which panels you’d like to show in any given section.

This is particularly useful in sections with a large number of panels, such as the Characters section.

To change the displayed panels, click the down arrow towards the top right hand corner of the main working area.

A dropdown menu will appear, listing all the available panels for that section.

Check a box to have a panel visible, or uncheck a box to have it hidden.

When you’ve finished, click the arrow again (which is now pointing upwards) to dismiss the dropdown.

You can come back and change which panels display again at any time.