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Collections (books & manuscripts)

A collection gathers documents into an ordered sequence — the structure of a book, a poetry volume, a set of essays, a screenplay. It's how φ becomes a manuscript editor rather than just a notebook.

A collection references documents; it doesn't contain them. The same document can appear in more than one collection, and deleting a collection never deletes its documents — they stay in your library. The collection holds the order, the structure, and the cover; the writing stays where it lives.

Open the Write space (the book icon on the left rail) to work with collections.

Creating a collection​

In the Write space, click the + in the Collections header to make a new one. Each collection shows its type, author byline, document count, and word count (against its goal, if set). Click a collection's name to open it.

Use the ⋯ menu on a collection to add the current document, rename it, open it for editing, or delete it.

Collection types​

A collection's type tints its vocabulary — what φ calls the items inside it — and shapes its exports. The types are:

  • Book — structured in Chapters (grouped into Parts).
  • Series — multiple books.
  • Poetry — Poems.
  • Essay collection — Essays.
  • Research — research material.
  • Journal — dated Entries.
  • Screenplay — Scenes (grouped into Acts).
  • Custom — generic Sections and Groups.

Change the type any time from the collection page. The structure you built is preserved; only the labels change.

The structure tree​

A collection is a recursive tree with no depth limit. A book might be:

Book
 └─ Part
     └─ Chapter
         └─ (a deeper sub-section, if you want one)

The tree has two kinds of items: documents (the leaves — your actual writing) and groups (the branches — Parts, Acts, and so on). Group items exist only to organize; they hold no prose of their own.

Numbers are computed, never stored​

φ derives "Part I", "Chapter 3", "Scene 1.2" from each item's position in the tree. Reorder anything and everything renumbers instantly. You never type a chapter number, and you never have to fix one.

The collection panel​

When a collection is open, the panel beside the rail is its primary navigation — the structure tree, with the combined word count and goal progress at the top.

Three tabs sit above the tree:

  • Chapters (labeled by type — Poems, Scenes, etc.) — the editable structure tree.
  • Outline — a flat list with each item's synopsis and status.
  • Index — the generated table of contents (see below).

Adding and editing items​

Use the + to add a document or a group. Right-click any item (or use its menu) for the full set of actions:

  • Add below — a new document or group after this one.
  • Rename, Duplicate.
  • Status — Draft, Revised, Final, or Todo.
  • Color — a label swatch.
  • Front / back matter — mark the item unnumbered (see below).
  • Open the referenced document.
  • Remove from collection — takes the item out of the structure; the document itself is not deleted. Removing a group also unfiles everything inside it, and again deletes none of the documents.
  • Move to top / Move to bottom.

Reorder by dragging​

Drag any item to a new place — up, down, into a group, out of a group. The tree re-nests and renumbers as you drop. You can also work from the keyboard when the tree is focused: arrow keys to move and expand/collapse, Enter to open, F2 to rename, Delete to remove, ⌘D to duplicate, and ⌘[ / ⌘] to nudge an item up or down within its group.

Moving between chapters while writing​

When you open a document that belongs to a collection, a chapter navigator appears with its position — "Chapter 3 / 12" — and previous/next controls. Navigation follows the full reading order of the book, descending into groups, not just the current level. Use the controls, or ⌘⌥← and ⌘⌥→.

The collection page​

With a collection open and no document selected, you get its page — the cover and overview, all edited inline:

  • Cover image — click the cover well to choose one; remove it from the form below.
  • Title — edit it in place.
  • Author profile — pick a profile to set the byline, or create a new one. Author profiles carry a name, pen name, bio, photo, and links, and appear in your exports.
  • Type — change the collection type here.
  • Description — a short summary of the work.
  • Word goal — see below.

From the page you can also Compile the whole collection to a single HTML document, or export it as PDF, EPUB, or DOCX, and Save a Copy as a portable .poiesis file with images embedded.

Front and back matter​

Some pages of a book aren't chapters — a dedication, a foreword, an acknowledgments page, an appendix. Mark any item as Front / back matter to make it unnumbered: it shows by its own name and takes no number, so your real chapters still start at 1. Marking a group as unnumbered cascades to everything inside it. Exports honor this — front matter appears unnumbered in the table of contents and the compiled document.

Table of contents​

The Index tab generates a table of contents from the structure — depth-aware, following the tree and its computed numbering, with front and back matter shown unnumbered. It updates as you reorganize, and the same tree-aware contents is embedded when you export to HTML, PDF, EPUB, or DOCX.

Word goals​

You can set a word goal for a collection from its page. The panel header and the collection's listing show a progress bar against the combined word count of every document in the collection. Individual documents can carry their own goals too (set from the document header), so you can track a single chapter and the whole book at once.