Choose how Colophon reads your files
The format tells Colophon where each chapter and scene begins. It decides which scenes exist, what a link to a scene points to, and what gets compared when you check for changes. The format belongs to the document, so each book can have its own.
Change the format
- Choose Manuscript ▸ Format…, or click Change… on the Manuscript screen.
- Choose a format under How your files are structured.
- Look at the counts under Against your folder, right now. They show what Colophon would find in your folder with that format, before anything is saved.
- Click Use this format.
Changing the format never changes your files.
The formats
- Markdown headings —
#is a chapter and##is a scene. This is the default, and it suits most Markdown manuscripts. - Markdown, with sub-scenes — like Markdown headings, and
###is a sub-scene you can link and track like any other scene. - iA Writer — Markdown headings, with iA Writer's authorship footer left out, so saving a file in iA Writer doesn't look like an edit.
- Scrivener — for a Scrivener compile to MultiMarkdown:
#is the chapter, and a line containing only***,---,___or###starts a scene. Prose above the first break is the opening scene. - Scenes split by a rule —
#is the chapter, and a line containing only***,---,___or###starts a scene. Prose above the first break is outside every scene. - Custom pattern… — for chapters and scenes that aren't Markdown headings at all. Type a pattern in Where a chapter starts and Where a scene starts. These boxes take patterns, so characters like
*and(have special meanings.
Leave out a block at the end of each file
Some writing apps add a block to the bottom of every file each time you save. Under Ignore a trailing block, choose the one your app writes — iA Writer authorship footer or Ulysses export footnotes — and Colophon stops reading at that point. The block isn't shown, counted or compared. Choose Nothing — read the whole file if your files have no such block.
Scene summaries
If your scenes open with a short italic paragraph that summarises them, select Treat a scene's opening italic paragraph as its summary. The scene's card then shows that paragraph as its summary. The reader still shows every line of the scene. This is off unless you turn it on.
Changing the format after you've taken a baseline
The best time to choose a format is before your first baseline. If you change it later, Colophon warns you before saving:
- If the new format would change which scenes exist, links to scenes that would disappear stop pointing anywhere.
- If the scenes stay the same but are read differently, your baselines no longer match how the chapters are read.
In either case, the Manuscript screen marks those chapters as read differently. Record any edits of your own first, then take a fresh baseline. See Take a baseline.