Glossary of Dabble terms

Every corner of Dabble has its own vocabulary. Scenes tuck inside chapters. Stickies and Notes are two different things. And the “written” words in your stats aren’t quite the same as your “total” words.

When a label makes you pause, this is the page to check.

Below is every term you’ll run into in Dabble, grouped by where you meet it. Anything in bold is the exact label you’ll see on screen.

We’ll cover:

Projects and the dashboard: your home screen and everything on it
Manuscript structure: books, chapters, scenes, and the containers around them
Plotting: the Plot Grid and its moving parts
Story notes and worldbuilding: characters, notes, and the pieces that hold your world
Writing experience: focus, timers, and how the editor feels
Goals and stats: targets, streaks, and what counts as a word
Collaboration: roles, comments, and writing with other people
Version history and review copies: looking back, and working in a copy
Templates: reusable starters for projects and pieces
Account and billing: plans, payment, and referrals
Spelling and grammar: the underlines and what they mean
Apps, sync, and offline: installing Dabble and keeping your work safe

Projects and the dashboard

Your dashboard is home base. Here’s what each thing on it is called.

Term	What it means
Project	One piece of work, such as a novel. Holds your manuscript, plotting, characters, notes, and settings.
Dashboard	Your home screen, showing all your projects, the Ideas binder, and your Daily Goal tile.
Collection	A group of projects on the dashboard. Templates and Trash are special collections.
Ideas	A personal catch-all project for jotting down ideas, separate from any novel. You can promote an idea into a novel’s Notebook later.
Trash	Where deleted items go. You can restore them, or Empty Trash to delete permanently.
Archive	A place to set items aside without deleting them. Use Send to Archive and Restore from Archive.

Manuscript structure

Your book is a set of nested containers, and only one of them actually holds words.

Term	What it means
Manuscripts	The top section of a novel project, holding your books and the actual prose.
Book	A single book inside a project. A new book starts with one Chapter and one Scene.
Part	An optional grouping above chapters (for example “Part One”). Parts auto-number per book.
Chapter	A container for scenes. Chapters auto-number per book (Chapter 1, Chapter 2).
Scene	The only place that holds your actual writing. Everything else is a container.
Section	An unnumbered, optionally title-hidden container, used for a prologue, epilogue, or foreword. Use Convert to Section / Convert to Chapter to switch.
Book Settings	The panel for a book’s title, subtitle, author, and cover. Opened as Create a Book for a new book.
Split	Break a scene or chapter at your cursor (Split the scene here / Split the chapter here).
Merge	Combine two adjacent scenes into one with Merge Scene….

Plotting

The board where your story lines and story beats come together.

Term	What it means
Plot Grid	Dabble’s visual outlining board. Columns are plot lines, cells are plot points. A project can have several.
Plot Line	A column in a Plot Grid, representing one story thread or arc. Each has a title and a color.
Plot Point	A card in a Plot Grid describing what happens at one moment in a plot line.
Scenes column	The leftmost column that appears when a grid is linked to a book, lining plot points up with each scene.
Link to Book	Connect a Plot Grid to a book so its rows follow the book’s scenes. Reverse with Unlink from Book.

Story notes and worldbuilding

Everything that isn’t prose but that your story can’t live without.

Term	What it means
Characters	The section for character profiles, grouped into casts.
Cast	A grouping of characters, such as “Main Characters” or “Supporting Characters”.
Notebook	The worldbuilding section, holding free-form notes (each called a Note) organized in Folders.
Notes	Index-card style notes attached to a document, shown in the right-sidebar Notes tab. Different from Notebook notes.
Stickies	Draggable sticky notes that float in the editor on a scene, character, or notebook page. Toggle with Sticky Notes in View Options.
@mention	Type `@` in any rich-text body to link to another document in the project. The link updates if the target is renamed.

Writing experience

The knobs that change how it feels to sit down and write.

Term	What it means
View Options	The eye-icon menu in the header that turns interface pieces and editor features on and off. It does not change which document you’re editing.
Focus Mode	A full-screen, distraction-free view that hides the header, sidebar, and other chrome.
Auto-Fade	Fades non-essential interface elements while you type.
Auto-Hide Toolbar	Tucks the formatting toolbar away until you hover near the top of the editor.
Typewriter Scrolling	Scrolls the page up as your cursor moves down, keeping the active line in place.
Theme	Two controls: a color tile (Default, Sepia, Olive, Blush, Lilac, or Azure) and a separate Appearance switch (Light, Dark, or Auto, which follows your device). Dark is Dabble’s dark mode.
Timer	A countdown writing timer with presets, laps, and a chime, found in the Goals tab. Good for word sprints.
Read to Me	Text-to-speech that reads your manuscript aloud using your browser’s built-in voices. Not an AI feature.
Quick Open	A search box (Cmd/Ctrl+K) that jumps you to any document or note by title or full text. Also called the command palette.
Find & Replace	A floating panel to search and replace text, with Find in Document or Find in Project scope.
Preferences	The settings window opened from the Account menu, with General, Dictionary, and Advanced tabs. See The Preferences window.

Goals and stats

Targets, timers, and the fine print on what counts as a word.

Term	What it means
Daily Goal	A words-per-day target that counts every word you type across all projects. Shown on the Dashboard.
Document Goal	A word-count target for one chapter, book, or all books.
Project Goal	A word-count target for a whole project, spanning manuscripts, plots, characters, and notebook.
Writing Challenge	A timed sprint between two dates, for events like NaNoWriMo or personal challenges.
Days off	Days you don’t plan to write, excluded from goal pacing. New goals default to Saturday and Sunday.
Word count	Live count shown in the status bar as Words, with Pages (one page = 250 words) and Today.
`written` vs `total`	”Written” counts only small typed additions; large pastes, imports, copies, and review copies are excluded.

Collaboration

Who can do what once you invite someone in.

Term	What it means
Share	The button and modal for inviting people to a project.
Owner	Full control, including managing members and deleting the project.
Co-Author	Can edit the project with full access to all features.
Editor	Can view, comment, and suggest. An editor’s edits are always tracked as suggestions.
Reviewer	Can view and comment only.
Reader	Can view only. Sees the Read-only badge.
Comments	Notes attached to selected text, shown in a sidebar. Add with Add Comment, then Mark as resolved when done.
Track Changes	”Suggesting” mode, where your edits become suggestions to Accept or Reject rather than direct changes.
Co-authoring	Real-time syncing of every edit between collaborators. Offline edits sync when you reconnect.

Version history and review copies

Dabble keeps a running record. These are the ways to look back, and to work in a copy.

Term	What it means
Version History	An automatic, browsable record of your project as it was at past points in time.
Time Machine	A full-screen, read-only scrubber for sliding through your whole revision history.
Restore this version	Replace your entire current project with a past version. A Before Restore backup is saved first.
Bring Forward	Copy a single document out of history into a Restored section, leaving everything else as is.
Review Copy	An isolated copy of part of your project that you invite someone into for feedback. Work in a review copy does not count toward your stats or goals.
Beta Reader	A review copy invite type. A beta reader leaves comments only you, the owner, can see.
Merge into project	Bring a review copy’s changes back into your main project, resolving any conflicts.

Templates

Build something once, then reach for it again and again.

Term	What it means
Templates folder	A per-project folder of reusable building blocks (a scene layout, a character sheet) you insert with From template….
Template Library	The dashboard area for whole-project templates: My Templates, Shared Templates, and Dabble’s curated Templates.
Convert to Template	Turn an existing project into a reusable starter.

Account and billing

These live in a separate accounts site at accounts.dabblewriter.com, reached from your avatar menu.

Term	What it means
Billing	The portal showing your Current Plan, Payment Method, and Invoice History.
Change Plan	Switch your subscription tier or billing interval (Monthly / Annually).
Trial	A 14-day free trial for new sign-ups.
Pause Subscription	Temporarily pause billing for 1 to 3 months instead of cancelling.
Refer a Friend	Generate a code or link that gives another writer a discount.

Spelling and grammar

The colored underlines, decoded.

Term	What it means
Spell Check	Free spelling check, shown as a red wavy underline.
Grammar	Grammar and style checking (a paid feature), shown as green and blue underlines. ProWritingAid-powered.
Add to Dictionary	Stop flagging a word as a spelling error everywhere. Managed in Preferences → Dictionary.
Writing Language	The language used for spelling, grammar, thesaurus, and Read to Me voices.

Apps, sync, and offline

How Dabble installs, updates, and keeps your words safe.

Term	What it means
PWA	Dabble installs as a Progressive Web App and updates itself automatically. There is no separate download to maintain.
Install Dabble	The account-menu option to add Dabble to your dock, home screen, or desktop.
Connection status	The cloud icon showing sync state: synced (All changes saved and synced.), syncing, offline, or unreachable.
Offline-first	Every edit saves to your device first, then syncs. Your work is safe even with no connection.