Labels, Status, and Arrange by Label?

[krastev]

I have the following problem:
I use Labels to follow POV since I can use Arrange by label on the Corkboard.
I use Status for, well, to mark the status of the documents, e.g. to do, first draft, second draft...
Only Label colors can be shown in the Binder.
There is no way, to my knowledge, to show the Status in the Binder.

I want to be able to see colors in the Binder that show me the current state of the document while at the same time I can use the Arrange by label function on the Corkboard to follow POVs.

Now, I've tried to use Labels instead of Status so I can see the colors in the Binder. But this way, I lose the ability to follow the POV and Arrange by label on the Corkboard.

I'm stuck, so I'll appreciate it if someone can help with any idea.

p.s. Wouldn't it be great if we could have colors attached to each Status, and to be able to show them in the Binder?

Thank you,
M

[krastev]

Anyone?

[brookter]

As far as I know, there isn't an 'obvious' way to do this — there isn't on the Mac, either.

You could look at:

a) Use the outliner for this purpose (set up an outline view with a 'spreadsheet' of the things you want to see at once, such as label, status, and relevant metadata. Then save it as a Layout so you'll be able to pull it up easily.

b) Use / create a set of icons to reflect the change in status / POV. (e.g. a 1 for Draft 1, 2 for...).

Neither is particularly difficult to do, but it's not the out-of-box process you're after, I think.

HTH.

[AmberV]

I’d second the advice to use the outliner—it is the tool to go to whenever you find yourself wishing the binder did a little more, because in most regards it is the binder doing a little more (and sometimes a lot more). Properly configured, it can even stand in as a surrogate for how the binder interacts with the other split (and with the beta, copyholders, which can help mitigate using one of your two splits primarily for navigation).

The only downside to using the outliner as a binder replacement is its inability to view the root level. So in cases where I need a rich “binder”, what I’ll do is leave the binder closed the majority of the time, only switching it on when I need to flip between larger contexts in the outliner view. In the 3.0 design, I do that a lot less, and often prefer to navigate directly to the folder via the Quick Search tool. Either way, this approach can make the binder more efficient in fact, as you can collapse all of it but the most important top level areas. Even very large projects may fit into the height of the binder without scrolling, making all navigation a simple one-click affair.

As for making Status more exciting—try Emoji. If you’re like me, you automatically shudder at the thought, but there are a lot of good “status” type symbols in there to choose from, and many of them will bring a splash of colour into your outline.



This can work well in Arrange by Label view, too.

I believe the best way to do this on Windows 10 is to start editing a status label, and then hit Win+. to bring up the Emoji palette.

[pseudonymTBD]

I have a similar, but slightly different problem than the OP.
My novel is arranged by chapter. Each chapter may contain more than one POV. I want the ability to easily view which chapters contain which POV's.
Binder labels (appear to be) restricted to a single label. It's helpful, but not sufficient for my purposes.
Any ideas how I might accomplish this? The easier the better, but I'm open to suggestions.

[kewms]

I have a similar, but slightly different problem than the OP.
My novel is arranged by chapter. Each chapter may contain more than one POV. I want the ability to easily view which chapters contain which POV's.
Binder labels (appear to be) restricted to a single label. It's helpful, but not sufficient for my purposes.
Any ideas how I might accomplish this? The easier the better, but I'm open to suggestions.

Keywords. You can have as many as you want, and they're viewable in both the Corkboard and the Outliner.

Katherine