Navigator & Project Structure

Overview

The Navigator panel sits on the left (or right — you can move it). Every section collapses and expands independently. Drag documents to reorder them. Double-click any title to rename it inline.

Right-click any document for context menu options: rename, duplicate, move to trash, change status, toggle compile inclusion, and more.

Manuscript

The Manuscript section holds your main prose. The structure is flexible:

• Chapter folders — group scenes under a named chapter
• Scene documents — the actual writing lives here, either inside a chapter or at the top level
• Parts — optional top-level grouping above chapters (Part I, Part II…)

Click + next to Manuscript to add a new Chapter. Use the book icon next to it to add a Part. Inside any Chapter, click + to add a Scene.

Each document has a compile checkbox — uncheck it to exclude that document from any export without deleting it. Useful for cut scenes or notes you want to keep nearby.

Prologue & Epilogue

Prologue and Epilogue are once-only sections — each project can have at most one of each. Once created, the add button disappears.

• Prologue — compiles before Chapter 1, regardless of where it sits in the Navigator
• Epilogue — compiles after the final chapter

These are standard document types: they have word counts, snapshots, statuses, and can be written exactly like any other scene. The only difference is their fixed compile position.

Front Matter

Front Matter appears before the manuscript in your compiled output. Ravenburst auto-creates a set of front matter documents when you create a new project:

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph — a quote or poem on a blank page before the story begins
• Table of Contents

You can add more, reorder them, or delete any you don't need. Toggle the compile checkbox to include or exclude each page from export.

Back Matter

Back Matter appears after the manuscript and epilogue in compiled output. Common back matter documents include:

• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Afterword

Click + in the Back Matter section to add any document you need. Like front matter, each item has an individual compile toggle.

Characters & Places

Characters and Places are structured cards, not free-text documents. Each character card has fields for name, role, age, description, backstory, goals, arc, and notes. Place cards have name, type, description, and notes.

Names you add to Characters and Places are automatically added to the spellcheck dictionary — so your protagonist's unusual name won't flag as a typo.

Character and place cards are for reference only — they don't compile into your manuscript export.

Reference

Store research notes and images here. Reference notes are free-text documents. Reference images are displayed with a dedicated image viewer.

Nothing in the Reference section compiles into your export. It's purely for your use while writing.

Notes

Freeform notes not tied to the manuscript structure. Useful for brainstorming, plot ideas, to-do lists, or anything else you want to keep in the project but outside the narrative flow.

Templates

The Templates section holds reusable document templates — pre-formatted scenes, reference structures, screenplay scene blocks, and so on. Click a template to view it; use the context menu to duplicate it into your manuscript.

Ravenburst seeds each new project with a default set of templates. You can edit, delete, or add your own.

Trash

Deleted documents go to Trash rather than being permanently removed. They stay there until you explicitly empty the trash.

Right-click a trashed document to restore it to its original section, or to delete it permanently.

Document Statuses

Every document has an optional status label you can set via right-click:

• Draft — work in progress
• In Progress — actively being written
• First Draft Done
• Revised
• Final

Status is visual only — it has no effect on compilation.

Duplicating & Moving Documents

Use Documents → Duplicate (or the right-click menu) to create an exact copy of the selected document. The copy appears directly below the original with "(copy)" appended to the title.

Use Documents → Move To to move the selected document to a different section (Manuscript, Notes, Research, Templates, or Trash) without deleting and recreating it.