As far the Include in Compile checkboxes go, they are probably the least efficient way to set up what you want to compile, unless this is something that is always going to be one way or another (like an old revision, chapter notes, etc.). And of course if you don’t use them that way, then you’ll never be able to use them for their intended purpose—since one would have to constantly be turning them on and off in a bulk fashion, and lose any carefully excluded items.
By all means, go on using them if that’s what you prefer, but there are better ways to select what you want to compile, methods we’ve designed specifically for that task.
- Firstly, if all you want is one chunk of the outline, like say a single chapter, then select it from the dropdown at the top of the contents list. Compiling the whole draft at once is only a default state.
- While you’re looking at that menu, note the options toward the bottom. The “Current Selection” setting in particular can be quite handy for quick one-off compiles of this or that, in that it lets you select more than one thing at a time. This selection is taken from the binder, outliner or corkboard view—whichever had focus when you loaded compile. As that setting sticks you can even just leave compile as “selection only” until you need otherwise, so it’s quite convenient if you do a lot of this, and less of whole-draft compiling.
There are other options in that dropdown as well, and of course there are the Filter settings as well to the right of the dropdown, or even collections that function as search results. But most of those techniques are going to be better for selecting or excluding broad and consistent sets of items from the draft, rather than just picking out one or two things to compile.
For that, I would say by selection is almost always the best choice because you don’t really have to set anything up. You just select in the binder, compile, and go.