Blocks editor: breaking a manuscript into modules

The blocks editor is the pane that breaks a text into modules: chapters, sections, scenes or argumentative passages you can rename, move and rewrite one by one, then export back into a file. It is the tool for looking at the structure of a manuscript without rewriting it. This guide explains how to get in, what the split does, how to work on modules and what happens to formatting.

Why split into modules

A manuscript is a single block: to see where it loses pace you have to read all of it. Broken into modules, the same work shows its parts — how much each chapter weighs, where a scene runs long, which passage arrives too late. Modules are exact slices of the text: the model rewrites nothing, it only decides where to cut, so what you read in a module is exactly what you wrote.

Splitting is not an analysis: it does not interpret or judge the text. It puts the text in order in front of your eyes.

How to get into the pane

Blocks are a project library, like plots and moodboards. There are two ways in:

• Import to blocks, from the Tools → Structure menu with a file open: it creates a new block linked to that file and opens the pane by itself. It is the reverse direction of «Export to the editor».
• From the project blocks: the picker lists the existing blocks and the project files. Picking a file that already has its block reopens it; picking one without creates a new block.

There is no file loader inside the pane: while you work on modules you do not import more material. Importing a manuscript stays in the File tab.

Split into modules

With a linked file, Split into modules starts a job: the model receives the list of paragraphs and returns the module boundaries with a title and a type (chapter, section, scene, argument, concept, digression, introduction, conclusion, note). Modules are the slices between those boundaries. On very long manuscripts the split works in windows and the parts beyond the limit are merged without the model, with a notice in the pane.

The cost depends on words: 1 credit per 1,000 words, with a minimum of 6 credits per split. If the job fails, the credits are refunded.

Working on modules

Each module behaves like a card of the text:

• Title and text can be edited inline: the title is a working label, the text is the content that will be exported.
• Reordering with the ↑/↓ arrows or by dragging from the module handle: the order is what ends up in the exported file.
• Collapse and expand each module, or the whole list with «Expand all» and «Collapse all».
• Add module creates an empty draft at the top of the list, for your own notes that do not come from the imported text.
• Delete asks for confirmation and does not touch the source file: the block is a working view, the manuscript stays whole.

The toolbar commands appear when they are needed: with modules present you get add, export, expand and collapse; on an empty block you get add, split and new block.

Formatting

Modules are plain text fields, but the formatting of the source document is not lost: each module keeps the HTML snapshot of the piece that belongs to it, and the export puts it back. Bold, italics, underline and line breaks inside the paragraph come back in the exported file.

Two warnings. If you rewrite the text of a module, that module loses its snapshot: the new text is yours and is exported as a clean paragraph. And the snapshot only exists if the source file was imported with its formatting: Word documents imported before version 1.49.0 arrived as plain text, so bold and italics require re-importing and splitting again.

Alignment is not a property of the module: it is the document view (left, centred, justified) and modules follow it, as does the file that comes out of them.

Exporting to the editor

With Export to the editor the modules become a file: choose whether to create a new file (or a new project) or write into an existing file. In the standard editor you find the text laid out with the module titles, the version history and export to RTF, TXT, MD and HTML. From there you can analyse it, correct it and prepare it for print.

A project can hold several blocks: one for each file you split, each with its own name. They can be renamed, duplicated and deleted from the project card, like plots and moodboards. A project created only from blocks has no file until you export.

Common mistakes

• Rewriting text in modules: the module loses the original formatting; if you want to keep it, move and rename without touching the content.
• Confusing the block with the file: the block is a working view, the manuscript stays in the source file until you export.
• Looking for the loader in the pane: importing is done from the Tools menu or the blocks picker, not inside the pane.
• Splitting again for no reason: every split is a charged job; on text already broken up it is better to work on the modules.
• Using blocks as correction: here you move and reorganise; typos and grammar are a different operation.

In short

The blocks editor turns a manuscript into a list of reorderable modules, without ever rewriting its text. You import a file, split it into modules, work on the structure and export it back to the editor with bold and italics in place: a fast way to see — and change — the shape of a work before getting into the sentences.