Using Label Colors to Distinguish Items

The real power of the Label field lies in the fact that you can tint the icon of an item according to its Label value, giving you an instant visual reminder of its value and a way to quickly compare an item’s value to other items. You can also view the Label color of an item in the Binder, the Corkboard, the Outliner, and the QuickReference panel.

Say you’re working on that masterpiece about Bob and Fabiana. If you make Bob’s POV color blue and Fabiana’s POV color pink — yeah, it’s cliché, but helpful — it takes just a quick glance at the Binder to see in which POV a scene is written or to notice that the hero is getting too many scenes in a row. (Sometimes Bob gets pushy like that.)

Take charge by choosing View⇒Use Label Color In, as shown in Figure 4-10.

The Use Label Color In submenu provides four options:

Binder: Adds a color block around the item name in the Binder, as shown in Figure 4-11.

Icons: Tints the icon in the Binder and anywhere else the icon appears in the Scrivener interface, such as the Corkboard (which I pin down in Chapter 8) and the Outliner (covered in Chapter 9). See Figure 4-12.

Index Cards: Tints the entire index card, as shown in Figure 4-13.

If you don’t want to tint the entire index card, you can use the Label color as a pushpin or shaded card corner, which you can find out how to do in Chapter 8.

Outliner Row: Tints the item’s row in the Outliner (which is outlined in Chapter 9). See Figure 4-14.

The four options in the Use Label Color In submenu aren’t mutually exclusive: You can choose one or more of them. However, you have to choose them from the submenu one at a time.

You can tell which options are turned on because they have a check mark next to them.

To turn off an option, choose View⇒Use Label Color In and select the option in the submenu to remove the checkmark.