Chapter structure/hierarchy: context menu has no "Expand All" etc.

[Libersofter]

If this is mentioned in the documentation, please point me to the location.
If not, please take this into the documentation:

I created a chapter with Create New - Novel chapter.
The chapter was created but it had no open-close arrow at its left side.
I could add no scenes (created by Create New - Novel Scene).
Solution I found:
In the new chapter, I added:
### dummy scene
Then:
Rightclick - Transform - Split Document by Headings
Split into a new folder: No
Create document hierarchy: Yes
Move split document to trash: Yes
and then my new chapter had and arrow, a hierarchy, and I could add more scenes.

Hope this helps others with the same problem.

[vkbo]

They are all just documents. There's nothing special about a chapter or scene other than the heading inside it.

See: https://novelwriter.io/docs/usage/organising_project.html#documents
See: https://novelwriter.io/docs/usage/chapters_and_scenes.html#heading-levels

There is only an "Expand All" option if the document has any child documents. If you haven't added any, then there is no arrow because there is nothing to expand.

If you want a scene to appear as a child document of a chapter document, then you need to create the scene first and drag and drop it to the chapter. Otherwise scenes will appear below the chapter by default.

Edit: Adding a chapter document with all your scenes first, then splitting it, is the fastest way to do this in bulk. But for a single scene it's much easier to just create it from the menu and drag and drop it.

[Libersofter]

Now I see. I must drop the scene ON the chapter, not below it.

[vkbo]

Yes, that's how the Qt library (which is used for the user interface) receives a child item. A line will appear if it wants to drop it above and below.

novelWriter doesn't really control how the drag and drop feature is implemented graphically, but it works reasonably well when you figure it out. The above/below drop target is fairly narrow though, and some people find it tricky to hit. I can imaging it being an issue with a touchpad. (I rarely write on my laptop.)

I can add a section in Tips & Tricks in the documentation about how to create multiple chapters and scenes in bulk. It is described in the docs, but it's probably helpful to have it in Tips & Tricks too.