The simplified builder

A second, smaller version of the builder for getting a first chapter written. Same work, same records, fewer things on screen.

What it is

The full builder shows every module a project has, a sidebar to move between them, and the controls that go with each. That is the right screen once you have something to organise, and an intimidating one on the first morning.

The simplified builder shows five things: your stories, and inside a story the chapters, the characters, the entries and the maps. No module sidebar. Everything else the project can do is still there — it is one button away, not gone.

Turning it on and off

It is a setting on your account, under personalisation in your profile, and it applies everywhere you sign in rather than to one browser. The first time a new account opens the builder, it asks which view to start in — with a sketch of each and who each one suits — and the answer is that same setting.

From inside the simplified builder, Switch to advanced view is in the header on every screen. From the full builder, Simplified builder is in the menu under your avatar. Either one changes the setting and lands you on the same page in the other view.

What each screen does

Your stories lists every project you can open, most recently worked on first — the ones you created and the ones you were invited into, in one list.

A story offers continue writing — which opens the last chapter in the book — or start writing, which makes the first chapter and opens it. Below that are the chapters, characters, entries and maps the project has switched on, and — if the story is yours — a button to delete it.

The lists are names and a count, with one button to add another and a search box once there is something to search. Opening anything from them takes you to the same record page the full builder uses: the simplified view changes the way around the product, never the work itself. Wherever you are inside a story, its name in the header takes you back to the story's page.

The chapter list also exports the manuscript in chapter order: a Word document, an EPUB, or Markdown as one file or one file per chapter.

The first time through, a short tour points out each step from the empty story list to your first chapter. Skip it on any page and it ends on all of them.

What it leaves out

Everything not in that list: the timeline, relations, plans, diagrams, the graph, publishing, project settings, permissions, the dashboard, and the chat. They are not disabled — a link to one of them opens the full builder, and the switch is always in the header.

The simplified builder is also not a different account or a different project. Anything you write in it is in the same project, and turning the setting off shows all of it.

Addresses

Every page has the same address in both views, with /s in front for the simplified one:

A link you copy out of one opens the same thing in the other, so sharing a chapter with somebody who uses the other view works without thinking about it.

Read next: getting started for what a project is made of, or modules for what the full builder adds.