The desktop workbench

How a wide window lays out the sidebar, navigator, tab groups and scene details.

On a computer, a large iPad or any window at least 700 pixels wide, a world is laid out like a writing desk rather than a phone: a sidebar to find things, tabs in groups to read and write, and a scene details panel to the side. This guide is the tour; Tabs, groups and split view is how to work with the tabs.

The workbench: sidebar, a scene in its tab, and the scene's details — The sidebar on the left, the scene in the middle and its details on the right

One app, two layouts

The width of the window decides the layout, not the device. Drag a browser window narrower and Mythforge becomes the phone layout; drag it wider and the workbench comes back, at the same address, with your tabs as you left them.

Width	Layout
Under 700 pixels	The phone layout: a tab bar at the bottom (Home, Manuscripts, Lorebook, Tabs, Search), one screen at a time. An iPad in Split View or Slide Over can land here.
700 to 1100 pixels	The workbench. The sidebar starts as a slim rail of icons, and a scene's details open as a sheet.
1100 pixels and wider	The workbench with its sidebar open, and the scene's details in a panel beside the scene.

The parts

The sidebar has two halves.

The rail is the column of icons down the left edge: your world's sections, so you can move between them.

Home, Manuscripts, Lorebook, Timeline, Stats, Maps (when maps are available), Chronicler and Search, which fills the navigator with a search field and its results (⌘ ⇧ F, or Ctrl Shift F). The quick switcher (⌘ P, or Ctrl P) is the same search in a window over the screen.
At the bottom, Recently deleted and Settings.
At the top, the sidebar button hides or shows the panel beside the rail, and so does ⌥ ⇧ S (Alt Shift S). Mythforge remembers your choice on each device.

The navigator is the panel next to the rail, headed by your world's name. It shows what's inside the section you're in, the way an editor's file explorer does:

In Manuscripts, or inside a manuscript or a scene, the list of manuscripts, or that one manuscript's chapters and scenes, with a status dot and word count for each scene. All manuscripts at the top steps back out.
In the Lorebook, every page by category, with a filter box at the top.
On Home, the scenes, manuscripts and pages you opened lately, newest first.
On the Timeline, every dated event by year; click one to jump to it.
In Search, the field with Match case, Whole word and Replace, and the results below it. Opening a result shows it in the editor and leaves the results where they are.
On Stats, its three views (Writing, Manuscripts and Lore). On Maps, the world's maps. On Chronicler, its families (see Chronicler). In Recently deleted, what's waiting there.

Every section has its own list, and the navigator follows the screen you're on, so it never shows another section's. Click the rail's highlighted icon to hide the panel, and again to bring it back.

Click a scene or page to open it, drag it onto a group to open it there, or right-click it for Open in new tab and Open beside.

Click the world's name, with its small chevron, to switch to another world.

Drag the sidebar's right edge to widen it, from a slim 220 pixels up to 560. When it's wide enough, each scene in the navigator shows its synopsis under its title, which makes it a good outline to plan from.

The outline at the top of the navigator has a Filter field: type to narrow it to the scenes whose name or synopsis match, or whose chapter title does (Escape clears it). Click a chapter's heading to fold its scenes away, or use the fold and unfold buttons beside the field to do every chapter at once; Mythforge remembers which are folded for each manuscript on that device. The eye button shows or hides each scene's point-of-view avatar and word count, and the chapters' word totals, for a quieter list.

The sidebar dragged wide, with each scene's synopsis — A wide sidebar shows each scene's synopsis

With the edge focused you can use the ← and → keys (add Shift for bigger steps) and Home and End. Double-click the edge to put it back. The width is remembered on each device.

The navigator in the Lorebook, with a lore entry open — In the Lorebook, the navigator lists every page by category

Tabs in groups

The middle of the window is where you read and write. Every screen you open, whether a scene, a lore entry, the timeline or your stats, is a tab, and tabs are kept in groups side by side or stacked. One group is plenty; split when you want two things in view, like a scene next to the page for its point-of-view character. Opening something from the sidebar, a link or a mention shows it in the focused group as an italic preview tab that the next thing you open replaces, until you edit it or keep it open.

All of that, and how to drag tabs between groups, is in Tabs, groups and split view.

Scene details

When a scene is in front, the button in its top bar (or ⌥ ⇧ I) shows its details in a panel on the right, on windows at least 1100 pixels wide: status, synopsis, point of view, location, when it happens, plot threads, snapshots and more, next to the scene instead of in a sheet. On a narrower window the same details open as a sheet. See Planning and the corkboard for what they do.

Writing without distractions

⌥ ⇧ F hides the sidebar, the tab strips and the details so only the scene is left. To work in one group while keeping your tabs, use Maximize group from its menu (⌥ ⇧ M) instead. See Focus mode.

Your layout is remembered

Each world remembers its tabs and groups on each device, along with which sidebar section you were in. On a phone you'll see the same scenes and lore entries in the Tabs button, in order, without losing the desktop layout. For the keys that drive all this, see Keyboard shortcuts.