Merging Documents

Papyrus Author Questions & Help
1

Coming from Scrivener to Papyrus Author, there’s one thing that I’m confused about. Let’s assume that I’ve created a new writing project and titled it as, “My New Book.pap”. Inside of Papyrus, I create a new document called, “New Document.pap”. How would I be able to merge the “New Document.pap” to the “My New Book.pap” so that the New Document would show up in the “My New Book” Navigator?

Does the Navigator work the same as Scrivener’s Binder or did I just go about this completely wrong? Within Scrivener, I could just right-click and add a new text file to the binder and use it or discard it as I pleased. But I’m unsure how to create separate documents so that they would show up within Navigator that are not part of any chapter, scene, or event and merge it with the main book I’m working on when I’m ready.

Thank you for your time and consideration. (I realize that I’m a noob with this software but I do like what I see so far. :wink:)

2

Hi @river_boat, good to hear from you! :wave:

The Navigator shows your book’s Table of Contents (with some story elements like scenes, and events included), so it only displays the contents of your book, not separate notes or other documents.

:bulb: In Papyrus Author, the file you’re working on is already a book with pages, not a binder, so the workflow is set up a bit differently. You can add separate texts as tabs in your project by using Associated Documents:

Associated documents are .pap files that open as their own tabs in when you open your book. Here’s how to link them up:

  1. Go to Document → Indices and Directories → Associated Documents…
  2. Click Add and navigate to the document you want to attach. Double-click to select it.
  3. Check the box in the Automatically open list, then click Apply.

Associated Documents
Associated Documents1701×999 176 KB

Now, every time you open your book file, all the associated files open up alongside it as tabs. :spiral_notepad:

If you have parts of your book that you don’t want to be published or counted with the main chapters, you can use Ghost Text.

Ghost Text is visible in Papyrus Author, but it doesn’t get exported when you publish your book to PDF, for example. It’s a good way of keeping notes or work-in-progress chapters where they belong without cluttering up the book.

To mark a chapter or paragraph as Ghost Text, right-click on the chapter or text, select Ghost Text, and you’re all set! Here’s a video on it: Ghost Text in the Navigator.

:bulb: I recently learned that Scrivener handles scene titles differently than .docx and .pap, so you might see an unexpected ‘Label’ in your book when importing. Here’s a previous discussion on it Importing DocX created by another program doesn’t copy scene names

Hope this helps. Have fun! :man_construction_worker: :wrench:

3

Thank you for your reply. Is it possible to convert your new document into a chapter/scene or do you have to create a new chapter within the main document Navigator and copy/paste the text from new document tab into the new chapter?

4

Yep!

If you add a chapter heading in the document before copying and pasting it, it’ll be treated like all the other chapters in the main document.

You can turn any line of text into a chapter heading by selecting Chapter in the Text Style menu:

If your document already has a chapter heading, just copy and paste the content into your main document, and it’ll automatically be recognized as a regular chapter in the place where you paste it:

If your chapter headings aren’t showing up correctly or aren’t visible in the Navigator, here’s a thread on adjusting them: Navigator not showing chapters

5

Thanks for clearing this up! :+1:

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