Multi-column outlining... already exists in Scrivener!!!

This may be old news to others, but I thought I would share it here, to help assure more folks know about it.

Need to outline things in parallel (plot, character, setting, etc.)? Much as folks like JK Rowling, Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller did?
JK Rowling - flavorwire.com/391173/famous-aut … terature/2
Norman Mailer - flavorwire.com/391173/famous-aut … terature/7
Joseph Heller - flavorwire.com/391173/famous-aut … terature/3

I do and was fearful that I was going to have to use something other than Scrivener. But thanks to a tip from KB, I found that I could do it in Scrivener. In both the Mac and Windows versions. The following notes are specific to the Windows version, but the steps are similar in the Mac version.

Go into Project > Meta-Data Settings > Custom Meta-Data tab and add the desired column (meta-data) titles. You may optionally want to specify that they employ “wrap text” and “colored text”.

Then, in Outline view, go into View > Outliner Columns and select those standard or newly created custom column (meta-data) titles you wish to view. Optionally, in Outline view, in the titles row, adjust column widths.

To maximize the horizontal real estate available in Outline view for viewing multiple columns, you can experiment with some of these things…

• In the Binder, select the high level folder containing all the subordinate items you want to see in Outline view. Then turn off the view of the Binder via View > Layout > Binder.
• Turn off the view of the Inspector.
• With the Outline view window selected as the active window (click on or in it), experiment with the following…
  – “Automatically open selection in other editor pane” button (button with two arrows going in opposite directions, located in lower left corner of Outline view window).
  – The two “split” buttons located in upper right corner. The left one toggles between offering horizontal and vertical split. The right one toggles between offering no split and horizontal split. In combination, they will enable three scenarios… Outline view getting the entire screen, selected outline item’s edit view appearing in vertical window to the left, selected outline item’s edit view appearing in horizontal window at bottom.

If one gets lost or wants to change the scope of what is being shown in the Outline view… turn view of Binder back on, and repeat above process.

Thank you, KB and Literature & Latte! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Keywords to facilitate this post being found in forum searchs: multicolumn multi-column column outline outliner outlining metadata meta-data meta

Did you mean to post this to the tips and tricks board? It’s in Wish List, which I doubt many people peruse for neat ways to use the program. You have some good tips here.

I was so excited by the feature that I wanted to post it everywhere… then decided I’d better restrain myself and limit to one spot and posted it to Wish List, on the theory that people looking/hoping for such a feature might see it there. Perhaps not the wisest choice on my part.

Feel free to move or replicate it wherever most appropriate. Or let me know and I’ll do it.

All right, I’ve moved it to the tips forum, and left a link to it from wish list.

Can someone clarify how this is like “Storylines” in Writer’s Cafe?

Writer’s Cafe appears to be dying a quiet slow death, so I have every intention of sticking with Scrivener, but the Storylines feature is awesome.

It allows someone to setup multiple plot lines with their own individual timelines and then you can mix up the order of appearance. Think Game of Thrones. Each MC had very separate storylines (at one point), and then will likely converge as drama unfolds. Knowing the order to use is hard and Storylines is an awesome way to adjust. Scrivener doesn’t appear capable of that. I looked over the above procedure to mimic Storylines and all I get are extra columns in the Outline for extra detail for each scene. These columns aren’t separate plot lines.

See below for what it looks like. Conversely Scrivener is using a single column/row. Yes you can color code who the scenes belong to and use lots of other different ways to keep them separate, but I think Storylines is a more dynamic approach and I’d like to see the feature included in Scrivener (and I’ll add it to the wishlist.

An example of Storylines

I imagine that’s where an accessory app like AeonTimeline can really help

1. You can make the custom-metadata set up work a bit more like this (albeit without all the visual cache) by, instead of using a single metadata field, add one for each “line” you want to track (e.g., a particualr character arc). See this post for a screenshot of the idea.

2. Ditto ChrisRosser’s point about Aeon Timeline and which integrates with Scrivener in certain ways.

I’ve never tried Aeon Timeline, but the images of it look overly complex for what I want to achieve.

However the work-around looks like it might work. Thanks for the link! Essentially the same explanation as someone else had given, but this visual makes so much more sense to me.

Much appreciated.

I like to do a lot of outlining and structuring before writing stories in detail, and I used to use tables for this. That is, until I discovered the Multi-column outlining method described above - thanks so much, Springfield, for pointing it out.

A couple of tips that others might find useful:

After setting up the metadata fields as described above, I throw an outline together on a dozen cards or so in all, and fill the metadata fields with dashed lines - as illustrated. The column headings can all be changed later as required.

Then I start to break up each major scene or section into subsections. The dashed lines help to break up the screen horizontally, and show me where the scene/section breaks are. I add more structural lines using metadata fields filled with the “|” character, to give vertical lines. The coloured text also helps with orientation (though I think I’d prefer coloured columns - but this is one for the Wishlist).

It’s a little bit of work to set this up, of course, but it means that from here on in I can just keep adding detail into these metadata fields, and when I eventually come to write the text/dialogue, then all the notes are right there on the right cards.

My screen looks like this:

The underlying binder structure looks like this.
ps
Once you’ve got the screen set up the way you want it, with the column widths etc right, then you can save the whole layout with Window / Layouts / Layout Manager
Hit " + " to create a new layout
Choose a name that tells you what it is (eg MyPlay Outliner[plots, chars] )
Once you have created the new layout, check the boxes ‘Save outliner and corkboard settings’ and ‘Preserve all meta-data appearance options’ - this is critical.

I’m going to post some suggestions for making this usage scenario easier in the Wishlist section, and I’d be glad to hear from anyone else who uses Scrivener in this way. I find it a very powerful way to do outlining, far better than the bad old days of tables, when I would build up the notes and then eventually have to spend a day transfering everything onto cards.

did you progress with this idea?

I still use scrivener in this way - I don’t know what I’d do without it. It’s a very powerful way of getting an overview of a complicated narrative, or tracing a single plot element or character through a story.

I think I did post suggestions in the wishlist, but I can’t recall what they were or if any were implemented.

I think your layout can be very useful for me.
Let’s say I am writing an Opera (which is what I am actually doing…)… the Libretto outline (the plot divided into parts called Acts and -smaller- Scenes) goes into the Binder:
1
1a
1b
1c
2
2a
2b
2c
etc…
Let’s say in 1a the Soprano sings an Aria, where in 1b is the Baritone singing his -another- Aria, etc…
I might assume that (for instance) a column is dedicated to Soprano, another column to Baritone, and another -more complex- column to interaction between them (polyphony); these column are time-sensitive… time passes from top to bottom.
But I might also assume that (for instance) a column (no more time sensitive) is dedicated to Aria’s type in other composers (my Soprano Aria refers to Puccini whereas my Baritone Aria refers to Musorgskij and another column (!) to other formal types in the chosen composers (the ouverture in Puccini vs the ouverture in Wagner (!) )…
Was I clear and understandable?
At a glance should it possible in Scriv?
Would you mind to upload an example of yours?
Thanks a lot

I’m not sure what I can add to my earlier post

SpringfieldMH’s post at the top of the thread tells you how to set it up, and my screenshots give you an idea what it will look like. I suggest that you just try it out and see if it works for you.

You could use the Outline view to set up metadata associated with each scene, for instance indicating which voices are present. For the actual writing, you might want to have a look at our Documentary Script project template. It uses tables to show how voice over, interviews, and archival materials (still photos, video) might interleave.

Thanks, one thing I don’t understand…
Documentary Format actually uses Table in Scrivenings view, not column in Outliner… am I wrong?

You are correct.

Outliner columns are great for metadata, but less than ideal for the actual contents of the document.

there is no way to see text incipit in the outliner or to get , as Simeva says, “…an overview of a complicated narrative, or tracing a single plot element or character through a story”?
In other words are there richest Scriv example of a screenplay (if Opera sounds “outdated”? Where Outliner and Scrivenings are “linked”?

An item in the Scrivener Binder has three parts:

• The title – this is what you see in the Binder.
• The text – this is what you see in an Editor window.
• The metadata – this includes the synopsis, label, keywords, and any custom metadata. This is what you see in the Outliner or the Inspector.

So yes, the Outline view and the text (Scrivenings) are inherently linked, but they are not the same.
In your specific example, you referred to two types of information, which Scrivener would handle differently.
First, you mentioned the actual contents of the Aria: what the Soprano and the Baritone are singing. This is the text of your Libretto, and should probably be handled via the text of your Scene document(s).
The second type of information is things like the type of Aria relative to other composers. This is metadata, and can readily be handled via the Outline view.

thanks kewms
I just wondering if there was already somebody with (+/-) my needs…

there is a way to maintain the table view (as in Documentary template) in the Corkboard?