Today I split my time between writing my novel and doing some online research and note-gathering. My new prose went into one of my text items in the Manuscript folder, and reference text I cut from the web got pasted into various items in my Research folder. After a few hours of work I got to wondering just how much real writing I’d accomplished, and called up my Project Targets window (fan-shift-T). My Session target was off the map! I felt great - I’d written TONS more than I thought!
Then I realized that the Session target was including my Research folder. I survived the ego blow, but got to wondering.
I can imagine that there are times when this is the right behavior, but I know that I use the Session target feature exclusively to track how much progress I’ve made each day on my manuscript. Notes, research fragments, and other bits of text that are not in my manuscript don’t count for me.
I have Exportable Documents Only checked for the Manuscript totals, but I only check that number every few days. It’s the Session numbers that tell me if I’ve made each day’s word goal.
If others feel this way, perhaps the Session target numbers can also be controlled by the “Exportable Documents Only” checkbox? Then we won’t be misled (and quit work early!) by saving a few big chunks of reference material.
-Andrew
