I just noticed a little button on the bottom right corner of the editor view. It says “Include in Compile” and has a little check mark. If I click it, the check mark turns into an ‘X’. I’m pretty sure a check means include that text in the compile function, but I wanted to ask.
I’ve never compiled before. All the documents in my “Research” folder shouldn’t be compiled. I only want to compile what is in the “Draft” folder.
Do I have to go through every document and manually uncheck “include in compile?”
Absolutely not! The default condition is for everything to compile. There are only rare cases where that would not happen, and you’d have to pretty deliberately end up in that scenario (creating a Document Template for instance with it disabled, which can be very useful for inserting items into the draft that are purely meant to be notes and never compile).
So in other words you’ve got the logic of the symbols backward. A checkmark on the icon means it will compile under normal circumstances, and ‘X’ means it will not.
By and large you can ignore this setting, but like I say it can be very useful if you are inclined toward putting more into your draft than just “book stuff”. Old revisions, stub sections you haven’t started writing in yet, and that kind of stuff can all be set to be excluded so they don’t clutter up your proofing copies.
And as you note it means very little in the Research folder, or anywhere outside of the Draft folder—save that it is a persistence setting for each document. So it could end up being meaningful if you move that item into the draft at some point.
You should familiarize yourself with the crucial Compile function. At best not when you are under any pressure like when the deadline for your manuscript is close.
You can see on the first tab on the right side of the Compile window that only documents which are part of the Drafts folder can get compiled at all. That tab is the central place to tick or untick the inclusion of documents in Compile. You can use sub-folders of the Drafts folder to only compile them. And option-click allows you to tick or untick the whole lot of the documents of the selected folder. If that should ever be necessary.
@suavito I’ll see if I can find a sample manuscript and practice the compile functions. I’m not worried about a deadline or anything right now. This is my first novel, so I’m just getting a feel for the entire process. Thanks for the tip!
@AmberV Thanks for clearing that up. I’ve reset all the settings to check marks.