LostPlot - Overall Layout

A

Arc - A coloured tag attached to an Index Card, resulting in the tag being displayed within the Workspace with a specific overall colour for identification. A range of Index Cards can be assigned to the same Arc tag, so as to mark them all as being part of the same sub-story, character arc etc. for tracking within the workspace for planning purposes.

Content - The term within LostPlot which refers to final authored document text belonging to an Index Card. Of all information stored within an individual index card, it is only the content text which will be included in the final assembled Document.

Detail - The Detail of an Index Card is the general term for all information stored within any individual Index Card. The Details include the environment tags attached to the card, as well as the Content. The _Title_ and _Summary_ of a card are typically not included in this group, as these can both be edited from the top-level appearance of any card. The editing of card details is usually performed by clicking the [Details] button on the card [ ☰ ].

Document - In LostPlot, the Document refers to the fully assembled Summary or Contents of all included Index Cards for the purposes of display within the Document Pane, or for export to an external form such as a PDF.

Index Card - The Index Card is the individual development unit within LostPlot. Any index card contains the information for one section of the authored document and includes the section title, summary, environmental details and final authored content which will go towards the final assembled document. The order of Index cards can be moved around in order to plan and develop the overall document.

Environment - The Environment label is shown directly under the Title of an Index Card. It is intended, in a screenwriting form, to give a summarised indication of the environment in which this Index Card (if a fiction or narrative document) is taking place. Three components from the Index Card Details are concatenated together to display the Environment label: the Environment (e.g. Interior or Exterior), the Lighting conditions (e.g. Day, Night, Evening etc.) and the actual location. LostPlot provides standard options for both Environment and Lighting, but all three components may be added to on a per-Project basis for ongoing selections from a standard drop-down menu.

Project - The overall term for any document being worked upon, similar in nature to a 'file' in traditional Word Processing. Any project being worked on will contain a series of Index Cards , a configuration, and a set of background references, images etc. Separate projects can be collected into groups within the database for selection and indexing purposes.

Range - The Range is the currently displayed set of Index Cards within the Workspace. A range may include all card in the document, be restricted for developmental purposes (for example, only the contents of one Arc), or to increase display speed and responses of a browser where the project may contain hundreds of index cards (e.g. only display an area of the document currently being worked upon).

Summary - The Summary is an open text field in an Index Card available for developmental purposes but which will never be included in the final assembled Document. Authors may use the summary to summarise the purpose of the card, contain notes on that card, or any other purpose required. There is no text limit on the Summary of an individual index card. For display purposes (useful within the developmental stages) the Document pane can be placed into Summary mode and display all Summary texts in an assembled Document form.

Title - The Title is a very short caption used at the head of an Index Card. It is intended to very succinctly sum-up what that card is intended for, regardless of the overall length and detail of either the Summary or Content sections of the card (e.g. Peter lands in Italy). Titles are also used when producing lists of cards (e.g. in Range selection).

Workspace - The Workspace is the overall working environment for LostPlot, and effectively is the overall webpage area displayed within the browser.

Writer - The Writer window is the encapsulated 'word processor' within LostPlot. It is extremely streamlined and relies upon the browser and operating system for grammar and spell-checking capabilities, where available. The Writer provides basic formatting capabilities (in the form of MarkDown and Fountain embeddable codes), but deliberately does not provide WYSIWYG formatting of the final document in the same way as Word Processors and DeskTop Publishing software. The Writer can be configured to utilise different typeface families and sized, but only for the purpose of customising the authoring environment. Several Writer windows can be displayed so as to work on different cards simultaneously, and is limited only by screen space.