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Page: Reference Panel
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Backup and Restore Characters Comments Editor Extension Development Extensions Find and Replace Getting Started Glossary Home Importing Manuscripts Install Outline Analysis Outlines Plots Projects Publishing Readability Analysis Reference Panel Review Mode Settings Updates World Building
2 Reference Panel
Gwen Gullett edited this page 2026-08-08 13:42:01 -04:00
Table of contents

Reference Panel

The Reference Panel is a quick-lookup tool for your own story material. Instead of leaving what you're doing to go check a character's name or a world detail, search for it in a side panel and jump straight back to writing.

Opening it

Three ways, available anywhere inside an open project:

  • Cmd/Ctrl+R, from any screen in the Workshop.
  • The Reference button, always present on the permanent right-hand action bar.
  • Select a word or phrase in the Editor: a small floating "Look up" button appears next to your selection. Clicking it opens the panel with that text already searched.

If you have text selected when you press Cmd/Ctrl+R, that selection is used as the search term too. Otherwise the panel just opens with the search field ready.

What it searches

The panel searches across four sources at once, live as you type:

Matching is case-insensitive and checks metadata (names, tags, etc.), not the long-form prose/notes on each entry. Results come back as a single ranked list with a small icon showing which source each result is from.

Glossary entries that are just an auto-generated mirror of a Character or World name you've already seen in the results, and have no definition of their own, are left out, so you don't see the same name twice for nothing.

Working with a result

  • Click a result's row to expand it in place, showing its definition or notes right there in the panel. Click it again to collapse it.
  • Aliases (for Characters and World elements) show as a row of chips under the expanded entry.
  • A copy icon next to the name copies it to your clipboard.
  • An Edit link takes you to the full entry so you can make changes. In Docked mode the panel stays open while you navigate; in Quick mode it closes.

A result with no definition yet still shows up; it just says "No definition yet" alongside the Edit link, so you can fill it in on the spot.

Docked vs. Quick

The panel has two display modes, set in Settings:

  • Docked (default): sits alongside your content, resizable by dragging its left edge.
  • Quick: slides in over the content instead of resizing it, and closes if you click outside it.

It shares a slot with other panels

Reference, Comments, Readability Analysis, Find & Replace, and the Node Structure panel all use the same right-hand slot. Only one is open at a time; opening any one of them closes whichever other was open. The Docked/Quick mode and panel width are shared across all of them, not set individually.

Reference is available everywhere in the Workshop (Outline, Editor, Characters, Plots, World, Glossary, Publish, Project Settings). Comments, Readability, Find & Replace, and Node Structure are only relevant in the Editor and Review Mode, so they only appear there.