Create or open a document
A Colophon document holds everything Colophon keeps for one book: your bible, your continuity items, the baselines of your chapters and your revision history. Make one document per book.
Your chapters aren't inside the document. They stay in their own folder, and the document points to it. See Attach your manuscript folder.
Create a document
- Choose File ▸ New Document… (⌘N), or click New Document… on the welcome screen.
- Type a name and choose where to save it, then click Create.
Save the document somewhere other than your manuscript folder — for example, in your Documents folder.
If a document with the same name already exists in that place, Colophon leaves it alone and doesn't create a new one, even if macOS has asked whether to replace it. Choose a different name or place.
Open a document
- Choose File ▸ Open Document… (⌘O), or click Open Document… on the welcome screen.
- Click a document in the Recent list on the welcome screen.
- Double-click a
.colophondocument in the Finder.
When you open Colophon, it reopens the document you had open last.
Close a document
Choose File ▸ Close Document. Colophon returns to the welcome screen. Your work is saved as you go, so there's nothing to save first.
To close the window instead, choose Window ▸ Close (⌘W).
Find your way around
The sidebar on the left takes you everywhere in the document:
- Search (⌘F) looks through your whole book. See Search your book.
- Under Manuscript: Manuscript, Chapters and History.
- Under Bible: Continuity, Threads, Characters, Locations and Timeline.
The number beside Continuity counts the items that are still open. The numbers beside the others count what's there.
At the bottom of the sidebar you'll find the age of your oldest baseline or recorded pass, how many days are left in your free trial (or that Colophon is read-only), and the version and build of Colophon you're using.