Narrative and Outline View (iOS)

Note: Narrative View is available on iPad and the landscape orientation of iPhone. Outline View is only available on iPad: the iPhone equivalent is the narrative list view in portrait mode.

Narrative View is a graphical view showing items within a hierarchical narrative structure (e.g. of chapters and scenes).

To use Narrative View efficiently, it is necessary for you to understand the difference between Chronological and Narrative-ordered items. In short, items in your narrative maintain their own distinct order which is unrelated to the chronological order of events, and you must explicitly choose to add items into your Narrative in order for them to appear in Narrative View, but you should read the linked article for further information.

Note: You can disable the narrative entirely if it is not relevant for your project or industry (and in fact, some templates default to having the narrative off). When the narrative is switched off, you cannot access Narrative View or Outline View.

Narrative View Interface

Narrative view shows items in the narrative as nested cards on a board:

Manipulating Items in Narrative View

Adding items

With Narrative View, you can add items at any position within the narrative tree structure by tapping on the Add button at the position you wish to insert the item.

You can then choose your preferred option from the following dropdown menu:

This dropdown allows you to choose between the following two options:

Add New

Tap on one of the item types listed under the Add New heading to create a brand new item of that type, and place it in your chosen position within the narrative. An item card will be created for the new item, and you will be immediately able to type a label for the new item.

If the item type you choose is allowed in the chronological-order also, as per your template, then the item will be automatically added into that order also (meaning it will appear in your Spreadsheet View). See Chronological vs Narrative Order for more details.

Import Existing

This section lists all of your existing items that are eligible to be added to the narrative (that is, they are of a type allowed in the narrative, and do not exist in the narrative already).

Tap on an item to add it into the narrative at your chosen position. If the list is too long, you can type a few words into the filter box to reduce the list to show only those items matching the text you have typed.

It is preferable to add existing items rather than create separate copies of those items, as this keeps data consistent (each copy will have the same relationships, property values, etc) and prevents double ups appearing in your Spreadsheet or Timeline.

Moving Items

Item cards can be dragged within Narrative View to change their position within the narrative structure.

You must enter Edit Mode to drag items in Narrative View: press and hold on the screen until the toolbar changes color.

When dragging cards, you can perform any of the following actions:

Drop an item between cards to insert it into that position in the narrative (either at the top level, or within a parent)
Drop an item on top of a card to add it as a child within that item in the narrative
Drop an item at the top level to take it out of a parent in the narrative

Note that moving items into and out of parents within the narrative is separate to moving them into and out of parents generally as part of the item hierarchy. In effect, the narrative possesses its own order and hierarchical structure which is independent of the broader timeline data.

Adjusting View Settings

You can adjust settings specifically related to the Narrative View by ensuring the Narrative View has focus, and then tapping on the View settings icon ( ) in the Sidebar (iPad) or overflow toolbar menu (iPhone).

Item Details	Choose which properties are visible within each item card
Narrative Layout	Column Arrangement: Choose which level of the narrative tree will trigger a move to the next column (everything deeper than your choice will be shown in a vertical stack). Adjusting this value allows you to adjust to a view that is mostly vertical scrolling, mostly horizontal scrolling, or a balance of the two, depending on your preference and the arrangement of other splits.

These controls apply universally across all Narrative Views.

Outline View

Outline View is a sorted table interface showing the hierarchical narrative structure: in effect, it is the data from the Narrative View shown in the same table-format as Spreadsheet View.

All of the functionality described in Spreadsheet View applies to the Outline View also, except that items are always sorted according to their narrative order (and all other sorting options are disabled).