A list of selected tree items to go back and forward like in a browser.

• When selecting a node, add the selection to the list, if not selected by"forward" or "back".
• When calling "forward" or "back", check whether the node exists, and go to the node.
• When calling "forward" or "back", move the list pointer.

Consider saving the list and restoring it on start up.

Discussed in #9

Import and export

• characters
• locations
• items

Provide a dialog to select the elements to be exported/imported.

Currently (v4.16.3) there is a fixed set of modes of discourse (formerly called "styles").

A scene's mode can be staged, explaining, descriptive, or summarizing.

• Staged scenes are mainly made up of action and dialog.
• Explaining scenes mainly convey background information.
• Descriptive scenes describe characters, locations, etc in detail.
• Summarizing scenes summarize actions in brief, for example, to make time tighter.

None is the default and means "staged". Newly created scenes are set to "staged" by default.

Goals:

• Allow for creating or renaming modes.
• Allow for assigning multiple modes in a scene. Problem: coloring!

Create a temporary file which is saved periodically and deleted on saving manually.

Crash protection

If such a file with a newer date than the actual project file is found on startup, a warning pops up. Then the user can load the autobackup file instead of the project file.

• The Plot list may look like the HTML Plot list.
• Scenes are linked either to the manuscript.
• Arcs are linked to the .arcs document.
• Phase headings are linked to the .plot document.

Currently (v4.42), images can be linked to characters, locations, and items. This shall be replaced by general links.

• There shall be a folding frame called "Links" containing a list of links (label + file path or URL).
• In the novelyst settings, there is an editable list of file extensions and their associated application launchers.
• Linked files with extensions that are not listed, are opened with the system's standard application.

This allows for deep-linking e.g. Zim wiki pages.

1. Create a new scene (child of the previous chapter or parent part) with the chapter's title and description.
2. Select the new scene.
3. If the chapter is not empty, move all scenes after the newly created scene.
4. Delete the chapter.

Add a section to the documentation to explain the novelyst features for "arcs".

This is for changing names or wording in the whole novel, including descriptions, notes, and metadata.

When the project is locked, you still can change metadata in the Properties window at the right.
The same goes for the novelyst_matrix plugin.

Create a plugin that allows selecting scenes and chapters in LibreOffice from novelyst.

In the scene date/time settings, provide a button to set the date time that follows the previous scene.

scene date/time = previous scene date/time + previous scene duration

• If the previous scene has an unspecific date, use any reference date for calculation.
• If the previous scene doesn't exist, or has no date/time set, do nothing.

This could be regarded as a "general undo" command.

1. Replace the project file with the latest backup file.
2. Reload the project.

For the correct display in Aeon timeline 2, arc points shall have the same date/time as their associated scenes.

Adding part/chapter/scene/ doesn't do anything in 4.9.1

Add a collapsible window to the scene view, where date/time information can be edited.

Context menu entry: Join with previous scene

Conditions:

• same type
• same viewpoint

Operation:

• join content
• join description
• join tags
• join characters/locations/items
• add scene duration
• join arcs

Questions:

• join title?
• join goal/conflict/outcome?

On Windows 7 there is no color in the tree, only in the Comments pane.

Currently (v4.2.3), date/time of "Notes" scenes are not displayed.
Since aeon2yw can convert "background" events to "notes" scenes, their date/time may be of interest.

Add an option to delete yWriter-only data when writing .yw7.
This is done by rewriting the .yw7 file from scratch (set the tree attribute to None).

CAUTION: This may also delete the word count history, if not read in.

Discussed in #5

New features

New .novx XML data format

novelyst 4 uses yWriter's .yw7 file format, tweaking it in a compatible way to add novelyst specific data. This limits the range of novelyst's features. Besides, the .yw7 file format, yet flexible and easy to figure out, hasn't the potential of a "neat" XML standard. Therefore, a new XML data format is defined. The focus is on the good readability of the file content even without special software (apart from a css stylesheet for the web browser), and the capability of extracting documents of all kinds using standard XSL transformations.

• Provide a versioned Document Type Definition.
• Provide a css style sheet for conveniently viewing the project and reading the novel with a web browser.
• Provide a Windows registry script for file icon/"open file" assignment and MIME type registration.
• Provide a plugin for .yw7 file import and export.
• Get rid of CDATA passages. Instead, use XHTML-like elements such as <p>, <em>, and <strong> for the content formatting.
• Define new elements, reflecting the changes in the data model.
• Collections use the new .nvcx XML format that is easy to transform with XSLT.
• Provide tools for .yw7 and .pwc file conversion.

Data model

For historical reasons, novelyst 4 has an internal data model that is close to the yWriter 7 file format. It is easy to extend the data model, but the handling of these extensions is cumbersome, and the software architecture is subject to limitations. A revised data model in novelyst 5 enables clearer program code and an overall more powerful software architecture.

• Rewording: Section replaces Scene, since Scene actually has a specific meaning.
• Provide a Stage data type, replacing the "stage" tagged todo-scenes in novelyst 4.
• Provide an Arc data type, replacing the todo-chapters with arc names assigned in novelyst 4.
• Provide a Turning point data type, replacing the todo-scenes assigned to "Arc chapters" in novelyst 4.
• Characters are given birth and death dates.
• The project has a default date to which sections with an unspecified date/time refer. This allows synchronization with timelines.
• Allow an unlimited number of file links for characters/locations/items. This replaces the yWriter-like image link.

Usability

Document editing workflow

With novelyst 4, you export ODF documents for editing, and have a LibreOffice/OpenOffice extension write back the changes to the .yw7 project file. Then you have novelyst reload the project file. This works very well, but be aware of newly created chapters and scenes in the ODT manuscript. After updating novelyst, the ODT manuscript must be deleted manually and re-exported for the next editing cycle. With novelyst 5, you just save the edited documents, which are considered temporary, and close LibreOffice/OpenOffice. Then have novelyst do the synchronization and delete the temporary files automatically.

• Exported ODF documents are re-imported from within novelyst, so there is no need for a LibreOffice extension.
• For re-import, there is a file picker menu showing all exported documents with their file date. Documents that are newer than the novelyst project are highlighted.
• To avoid confusion, edited ODF documents are automatically deleted after re-importing.
• New file name suffixes are given to exported ODF documents, indicating their temporary status.
• Use native footnotes and endnotes in the manuscript (instead of comments with special markup).
• Export native lists (instead of - prefixed paragraphs).
• Allow the partial nesting of formatting.

Tree view

• Part elements are placed on chapter level. This makes it way easier to move the part boundaries.
• Provide a Plot menu for plot elements like stages, arcs, and turning points.
• New child elements are appended at the end rather than inserted at the beginning, if the parent is selected.
• No longer redraw the tree after making changes (e.g. type).
• Drop the Research and Planning branches. Provide an Arcs branch instead.

Properties view

• Display the week day with the section date.
• Convert specific section date to day and vice versa, if the reference date is set.
• Provide pick lists for assigning arcs/characters/locations/items to sections.
• Display the age of characters assigned to dated sections.

Matrix plugin

• Changes in the table immediately take effect on the other views, and vice versa.
• Improve the start up speed. This could result in a new appearance.

Setup/installation

• novelyst 5 and its plugins are installed in another directory (~/.novelyst instead of ~/.pywriter/novelyst). Thus it can be installed in parallel with novelyst 4 and all the PyWriter based tools that use the .yw7 file format. On the other hand, you can remove programs easily if you decide to abandon the compatibility with yWriter.

Code

Since novelyst 5 has is own file format, the PyWriter library that supports .yw7 is replaced by the new novxlib library. novxlib has about the same range of features as pywriter, but defines the new novelyst 5 data model and supports the .novx file format.

• Implement the Model-View-Controller design pattern.
• Use a replaceable "tree" class with a ttk.Treeview interface for the relationships of the model elements (thus applying the Strategy pattern). This allows the model to be seamlessly linked to the tree view.
• Use properties with getters and setters for the model classes' instance variables. The setter methods trigger an "element has changed" callback routine.
• Replace the model classes' keyword variables with properties.
• Use keyword arguments for the initialization of the properties.

• Add birth/death dates to the Character keyword variables.
• Provide entries in the CharacterView class.