The Corkboard a deeper dive

We will now take a deeper dive on several aspects of how the Corkboard functions.

The right-click menu in the Corkboard.

The Corkboard functions differently if the Corkboard view is reached by picking Multiple files not contained within a single folder (or document with subdocuments). In this situation, some right-click menu options are nonfunctional. Whether you right-click anywhere on the index card above or in the background. In this situation the Header bar title will be Multiple Selections.

In this situation:

1. Double clicking on the Corkboard background in this situation will not open a new file even if enabled.

2. You will not be able to see the Freeform view. (Must do this from within a single open folder (or document with subdocuments) in the Corkboard view.)

3. In the Label View, double clicking will not open a new file even if enabled.

If the Corkboard view is created by using a single folder (or document with subdocuments), then more right click options become active. The Ungroup option becomes active if click on a folder within the folder view on the corkboard.

Double clicking options are set in the Options Panel. File>Options>Behavior>Double Clicking (inside the Corkboard background)

Adding Several Cards at Once

Adding Cards-There is no batch option to add several cards at once, the simplest method that I have found is to create one card and duplicate it several times.

Stacked Corkboards

This happens when several containers of the same type (Folders in example below, or Documents with subdocuments) are chosen you get this special stacking view. In this view each container and its subdocuments are grouped and separated by a line that may be difficult to see in patterned Corkboard backgrounds. Thus each containers contents behave as though they were on their own separate Corkboard. The right footer options will changes as shown below. You can wrap cards to make it easier to see the overall picture, or in horizontal rows (as below) or vertical rows (columns).

You have the option to adjust the size of the cards which affects how they are displayed above. (click the Icon on the far right edge of the footer bar.)

Linking Splits together.

1. For this to occur the Editor screen must be in split view/and or have an open copyholder.

2. The proper option under the Menu dropdown - Navigate> Corkboard/Outliner Selection Affects must be chosen- Can chose to open a linked file/folder in the other editor of the Split view or a copyholder window.

3. And finally must click the Link Icon in this split view.

Activate this option by clicking on the linking icon (in this Scrivener theme the light color is equivalent to blue color in dark themes)

Active link icon in this theme.

Active link icon in this theme is a bright blue.

To set what happens when click on ACTIVE linking icon in split editor view use.

Active link icon for opening in a Copyholder

Active link icon for opening in the other Editor

If inactive, the linking icon will be gray.

When set up properly, then clicking a file in the Outliner or Corkboard View will open that file in the other window of the split editor view (or a copyholder window). You can then quickly cycle thru files and check the text of that file in the other editor window without leaving the Corkboard or Outliner view you are currently in.

If the Copyholder window is on the same side as the Corkboard/Outliner view then you have three options to cycle thru.

Freeform Corkboard

Remember:

1. The Freeform Corkboard mimics spreading cards out on a desk. You can freely move the cards around, overlap, and make little stacks. It is ideal for that stage when you’ve created a lot of cards, but are undecided as to how to organize them. (see below)

2. You can rearrange the cards in any order WITHOUT effecting the Binder until clicking the Commit button.

3. This only works when selecting a single folder (or a file with subdocuments) (Selecting multiple items which are NOT in the same container eliminates this option.) You need somewhere to store the information on the freeform card placement and the folder provides a place.

4. However, if pick the Draft/Manuscript folder of a novel, then all the acts, chapters and scenes contained within can use this mode at the same time.

5. Menu dropdown View> Corkboard options> Snap to Grid means as moves cards in free form mode they will snap into place almost like a magnet on a refrigerator when you stop using the mouse to move the card..

6. Changing to another Corkboard mode without losing your Freeform settings or card arrangements.

7. You can select multiple cards in Freeform mode to move all at once using the "marquee" method or Ctrl click to add or remove cards from a group.

8. Consider showing card numbers, as this makes it easier to restore the original Binder order. (Menu dropdown- View> Corkboard options> Show Card numbers. With this active, you have a reminder of the original card order as freely move them around. However, if you hit the Commit button, the number order will NOW correspond to the new arrangement of the cards in the Binder.

The Freeform background can be customized. Here gridlines are visible.

Clicking the Commit button will lock the cards in the new arrangement and change the file order in the binder. You can manually change this again.

How to "backup the Binder order" before clicking the Commit button.

1. Save your project. (So can revert changes if want.)

2.Take an image/screenshot of your binder before doing this in case you want to change back to the original order.

3. Open the Binder and view in expanded view in the Outline where every folder and file is displayed. Now export the Outline as a CSV file which can be opened in Excel or other word processors to refer to if need to revert the Binder order.

The down caret to the right of Commit gives the options on how to order cards when hit the commit button.

Arrange by Label/Timeline View

Reach by:

Clicking the icon (#3 below) in the Corkboard right footer.

Menu dropdown View> Corkboard options> Arrange by Labels

Dragging Card from one label color to another will change label color associated with the file/folder BUT not effect the Binder order.

On the right of footer bar are options to show this view

Click tracks/thread icon (#3 below) to turn view on and off. Turning this off returns to the conventional view.

1. Arrange by Label Option is Active.

A.) Clicking this will place the colored Label rails in a horizontal arrangement.

B.) Clicking this will place the colored Label rails in a vertical arrangement.

2. Corkboard Options Panel Icon

ROWS (horizontal) (top label row will be a row for Index cards with no label value assigned.)

The first row represents Index Cards with no label and the double line is empty without color.

In the horizontal position as above, the Index Cards appear in Binder order, with the first card being the first document inside the folder (container). The Label for that card remains in the order set in Project settings. REGARDLESS of its label value, and so on for all the files.

This can be changed by dragging labels up and down list. So if want to look at POV’s in this mode. Drag every POV label to top of list in Project Settings so the labels are grouped together. Then if want to look at locations another time, then change label order to make it easy to compare in Corkboard View. (This is done in Project Settings.)

If I want to change the tracks to a column view, just toggle the button to the left of the track icon. (see A in the above diagram)

Columns (vertical)

Again- Note the empty column on the far left for cards with no assigned label.

Here the first track will be clear (for no Label)

In each vertical column, you can have multiple cards, but they will retain their Binder order.

If you select multiple cards using the Marquee method, or by Ctrl key + click, you can move these to a new label. The cards will visually change if the Label color shows on the card’s left edge. These cards will all retain the new label value.

Label view turns that particular piece of metadata into a “axis”, by which we can visualize the distribution of cards along it IN BINDER ORDER.

Each label available in your Project Settings will be depicted as a “thread” or track, using the color associated with that label. Cards will be placed along that track if they have been assigned to that label.

You can create new Index cards by double clicking on the label or on the Corkboard background if the Corkboard header shows a single folder’s (or file’s name that has subdocuments.) Otherwise this does not work and you must set this behavior in the Options panel.

Double Clicking

See in File>Options>Behavior

Double Clicking

This occurs when the Corkboard is a folder on display. If these are random files or a mix of files and folders and the title bar says Multiple Selections then the above options do not work.

Double clicking a folder icon (or file with subdocuments) opens up the folder level and its contents.

Corkboard Options Panel

There are two ways of arranging index cards within a corkboard.

1. The first is to set the size of cards and then let the corkboard wrap the cards as they fit.

2. The second is to provide a number of cards you always want to see in each row, and let the corkboard resize the cards to fit that number. When the latter method is in use (see below, for setting that), the Size control will be disabled.

3. In the Freeform and Label modes, only the card size method applies as there is no automatic wrapping or fitting of a certain number of cards within these views.

Ratio

1. Determines the size ratio between height and width. By default this will be 6 x 4, which closely emulates the appearance of real index cards.

2.If you write very long or very short synopses however, you might find that adjusting this to produce shorter or taller cards will be of benefit.

3. Using the slider will show changes in the cards in real time as move the slider. A ratio of 5 by 9 may help if your synopses are very long.

Default size that mimics real Index Cards.

The tallest an index card can be.

Spacing

1. Adjusting the slider in real time will show the effect of the settings you choose.

2. The amount of space that will be drawn between index cards, both vertically and horizontally. To pack more cards into the display at once, move the slider toward the left. To spread out the cards and make them more distinct, move the slider to the right.

3. This option is not relevant to the freeform corkboard mode.

Cards Across

1. This option is only relevant to standard corkboards.

2. Set this to the number of cards you would like to have appear in each row.

3. If check the box Size to fit the editor, then the number of cards in each row will affect card size based on the size of the editor window. Smaller window sizes means smaller card size.

4. If this box is checked then cannot change the size of cards as this is now automatically set to fit the current window.

5. If set Cards Across number to "Auto", then Scrivener determines this number based on the size of the cards (which can dynamically adjust with the slider) and the Editor window space.. You can choose any number between 1 and 10 cards across, or use the “Other…” option to specify any arbitrary amount.

A. If cards across is set to Auto, then as card size changes could have variable space on the right of Editor window if the card is too big to fit in the remaining space.

B. If make the cards small, then may have left over space based on the number of cards being displayed.

C. The Size slider will adjust Card size in real time as you move it.

D. The Size to fit editor will be disabled with this setting.

Keyword chips

Set the maximum number of keyword colours to be “taped” to the right side of the index card. When a document has more than that amount assigned to it, all keywords below the specified point will be ignored. You may wish to adjust the Ratio to increase the height of the index card, if you want to view large numbers of keyword chips at once. (Have the option to show all Keywords)

You will need View ▸Corkboard Options ▸Keyword Colors (show these by checking this option) enabled to see the effects of this.

Which options you select here can have a dramatic affect on the Corkboard appearance.

Size to fit editor

This option is only relevant to standard corkboards.

The Synopsis

The Synopsis in the Index card appears in the Synopsis area of the inspector.

Auto-Fill Synopsis

If you want Scrivener to automatically fill your synopsis with the beginning of your document contents, go to “ Document – Auto Fill – Set Synopsis from Main Text”.

Select the documents that you want to have this setting and Scrivener will automatically fill in the Card.

Double clicking inside the Index Card will allow you to replace this with anything you want to type in and this replaces the Auto Fill setting.

Or typing inside a corkboard card will have text appear in the synopsis as you type if the Inspector is open.

Lists in Synopsis

As far as I know, there is no possibility of having bulleted lists in a synopsis, so my solution always has been to just use dashes instead.

To make this easier you may want to uncheck certain Navigation behaviors in the Corkboard. (ie hitting return exits synopsis/index card- under File> Options> Behavior> Return key)

How to exit the Synopsis

1. Hit the return key if the option is checked in the Options Panel. (see above)

2. Hit the escape key.

3. Click outside the card.

The Synopsis title and text fonts. The changes here are system wide and immediate when his the apply button.

Images instead of a Synopsis

This is set in the Inspector Note panel. If you click the image icon in the upper right then the Index card will display an image instead of text. If no image has been added, then the Index card will display the Synopsis text instead even if the image option has been checked.

Printing Index Cards

Printing Index Cards (can export printable Index cards)

Windows Outline –

1. Go to File>Print Settings.

2. Click the Index Card Tab.

3. Adjust the settings to determine what is displayed, and how it’s displayed, and click OK.

4. To print the corkboard index cards, select the desired folder and view it in Corkboard view

5. Go to File>Print Current Document.

6. Choose a printer or “print to PDF” option and click the Print button. If the indenting is off, I’d remove the indenting in the Print Settings.

Note MUST HAVE SYNOPSIS ON CARD TO SEE ANYTHING BESIDES TITLE WHEN PRINT OUT.

When viewing a collection of items on a corkboard, you can print the content of the corkboard onto index card sized blocks on a page. Since this method prints “index card” shaped rectangles, it will not print a perfect copy of what you see on the corkboard, and in most cases this would not be desirable anyway as the background textures and such would be a waste of ink, and longer synopses would only show what could be seen without scrolling. If the corkboard contains images, the image thumbnail will be placed into the card area unless that item has specifically been set to display the text synopsis instead of the image thumbnail.

Note that most metadata will not be shown when an image is placed into an index card as a thumbnail.

Index Card Print Settings

File>Print Settings-Index cards tab

As with printing text documents, you can access options for corkboard printing with the File ▸Print Settings… command, with the “Index Cards” tab.

The Content Section Includes:

Titles By default- the title of each binder item will be printed at the top of the card. ( If Untick this option to focus more on the synopsis content. The following two options will have no effect when this is disabled.

Embolden titles The title of the card, printed at the top, will be emboldened to set it apart from the rest of the card content. If your index card font settings are such that titles are always bold anyway, this setting will have no effect.

Highlight titles with label color The background of the title area will be highlighted with the card’s assigned label color, if relevant.

Add card numbers This is similar to View ▸Corkboard Options ▸Show Card Numbers feature. Each card will be numbered relative to the visible cards.

Include keywords When enabled, all keyword names will be printed out in a comma-delineated list below the title.

Options Section Includes:

Ignore cards with titles only With this option enabled, if a card has no synopsis, it will be ignored. This includes images that would otherwise be printed out as image thumbnails.

Decorate keywords Adds the keyword color as a highlight behind each keyword when printed below titles.

Print cutting guides This option is most useful when using standard paper. Each card will be outlined with dashed cutting guides, making it easier to separate them into actual cards with a cutting block or scissors.

Print using font Override the default font with your preferred font family and size.

Printing Outlines As with corkboards, you can print a limited range of content from an outliner view by simply viewing the material you wish to print in the outliner, and using the File ▸Print… command. Also, as with corkboard printing, this will not attempt to reproduce the precise appearance of an outliner. Instead, the outliner printing tool generates an indented list with the title, synopsis and select metadata for each item in the current outline view