Starting chapters from their correct position when using prologue?

Mac & Windows (Desktop)
#1

When I create a Narrative Prologue, and then a Chapter after it, I’d expect the Chapter to start at position ‘Chapter 1’. However, because there is a prologue there, it instead starts at position ‘Chapter 2’. How can I make it at position Chapter 1, since it’s the 1st chapter, and the prologue shouldn’t be shifting the chapter number (as it’s not a ‘chapter’, it’s a prologue)?

Thanks!

#2

In the inspector under dates and narrative, there’s „section type“. Instead of „automatic“ you can chose a specific type. If you use the novel template there should be „prologue“ already. Otherwise you might need to add that variable in the settings.

#3

You might also want to check your Narrative Settings.
If you go to Timeline Settings (the cog icon) and click on the Narrative tab, you will see the heading “Numbering System”. There are two options here:

  1. Outline Style - where the items are numbered using their position in the narrative
  2. Book/Continuous Style - where the items are numbered separately for each section type.

It sounds like you want Book/Continuous Style, so check that you have that set.

#4

Thanks Rob and Jess - I did some more tests this morning and can confirm that the behaviour only becomes apparent in Outline Style (as Jess mentioned).

If I set it up as Book / Continuous, the positions all look correct (notice that prologue is ‘Prologue 1’, first chapter is ‘Chapter 1’, second chapter is ‘Chapter 2’):

01 Book Continuous
01 Book Continuous2512×730 39.6 KB

But when I change it to Outline, it the first chapter jumps to the position ‘Chapter 2’, the second chapter to ‘Chapter 3’ etc:

02 Outline
02 Outline2514×732 40.4 KB

I’m sure this is to cater for the outlining format which needs to start at 1.1 regardless of whether 1 is a prologue, chapter etc, but it just struck me as a little confusing!

Thanks everyone!