Export and Import Plot & Story Notes

Comments: 34

• 01 Dec, '17
  Johannes Rexx

  Everything Dabble stores should be able to be backed up by the user AND restored by the user from that backup. Likewise if the user exports a manuscript they should be able to import it again too. This should apply not only to plot and story notes but to every piece of information Dabble manages.

• 03 Dec, '17
  Nina Light

  As Johannes Rexx states above. All our data (projects, manuscripts, notes, research, profiles) should be exportable/importable, and easily convertible to a conventional format in case we want to work on it outside, or no longer wish to be with Dabble.

• 05 May, '18
  Miri

  It's important to me to have copies on my own hard drive / in my own storage. I don't want anything bad to happen to Dabble, and I'd like it to be something I can use for a long while (especially if development is continuous). But only being able to back up my manuscript and not the other files *in a location of my choice* makes me nervous. I also think it's useful for people who like to print out stuff and read/plot it that way. It'd be easier to rearrange huge plot grids, for one.

• 06 Sep, '18
  Michelle

  I agree, I would like to be able to import my plot notes and story notes too.

• 09 Oct, '18
  GK Sudo

  You can export your notes if you just use parts/chapters/scenes inside your notes section instead of actual notes. It's kinda hacky but it gets the job done. This doesn't work with the Plot Grid though which is my favorite feature of Dabble, but for anyone who doesn't use it, this is already possible

• 06 Dec, '18
  Cedar

  I think this is especially important - If I'm going to rely on dabble to create my stories, then I need to know that 20 years or 30 years from now my notes will still be available to me. I know of an author who took more than 20 years to write her follow up novel (CJ Cherryh), and she said the only way it was possible was that she had managed to find her plotting notebook from when she wrote the original book (Cyteen).
  It just reminds me how important it is to have access to all of my notes.

• 09 Dec, '18
  Steffi

  When I am outlining and everything is still rough, I often decide to play around with my plot points in the grid. I would feel way better if I could back everything up somewhere (my own drive preferably) and then rearrange everything, delete some, change others. If I don't like it or I outlined myself into a corner, I would like to be able to just change everything back to the way it was before.

• 22 Jan, '19
  Mindy

  I'd like to be able to export story notes in case I want to set them up on note cards in scrivener, or send them to a friend.

• 02 Apr, '19
  Johannes Rexx

  As it stands today, Dabble is well-suited for starting a manuscript, using the grids to help organize the plot arcs and such, and ultimately to export the manuscript to DOCX.
  
  Now there will be plenty of editing of the manuscript after that first draft is complete.
  
  The user may wish to import the manuscript back into Dabble and use its plot grids features to fix some serious problems. But there no way to do it, besides a very painful copy and past procedure. Please consider an import feature.

• 14 Jun, '19
  J George

  I am resisting switching to Dabble almost entirely because of the lack of story-note export and back-up. Every writer knows that a HUGE amount of the value and work of a book goes into the notes, not just for the current book but for future books too. If I can't export (and save and print) my notes, I can't use Dabble. It's a simple as that :(

• 13 Sep, '19
  D.S.

  +Johannes Rexx

• 14 Sep, '19
  Justin Dow

  One of my concerns for starting a big project is that I can't export my actual notes. I can export the manuscript, but any world building, characters, etc., I would have to manually copy and past. Should something happen to Dabble -- for example, if it were hacked or if the server that the service runs on failed -- I would lose everything. I don't want a situation like MySpace's music -- thousands of songs and artists just...gone...

• 24 Dec, '19
  Sarina

  Yes! I badly BADLY want to export my story grid! Pretty please?

• 20 Jan, '20
  Nicole Mercado

  I am SUPER desperate for this. I love printing out physical plots and handwriting notes and then re-compiling on the computer. The process helps a lot. I also want the ability to share my plot grids with my co-writers and artists (I do comics) that don't have access to the app.

• 06 Apr, '20
  Felix

  This was the one feature that almost made me walk away from Dabble. Love this software - very excited about the Mobile app - but not being able to print out my plot and story notes is a really tough compromise. Sometimes you just want to look at your thinking in a different, offline kind of way. I honestly think a lot of people will have not adopted this as a result. Please escalate this! (But well done on all the good work - I've subscribed!)

• 09 Jul, '20
  Sylvia

  Yes, please. I have just used copy and paste to export all my character profiles. Export to a text document (Word) also to a new project in Dabble. I like to keep versions of my story and notes in Word as I go along - just in case. Thank you.

• 27 Jul, '20
  Marc

  [ignore (moved to right post)]

• 17 Oct, '20
  Alicia

  Being able to have a backup of story notes would be a great feature. I will not be putting a lot of effort into adding Notes until this feature is added because I want to be able to have backups in Word format. I didn't realize when I subscribed that this feature was not available.

• 02 Dec, '20
  Katie

  I can't believe exporting notes still isn't a thing. Yes to what everyone else said about backing up EVERYTHING. Yes, you can create scenes with your notes, but Dabble takes a lot of our money to make us come up with workarounds like that.

• 21 Mar, '21
  Ed Hunter

  Wish they had this. I've downloaded my manuscript and will just copy and paste the notes I think I really need into my pre existing outline on Word I wrote before getting started. Dabble's OK I'm just a Word guy at heart.

• 31 May, '21
  Tanya Chris Merged

  I'm currently doing the trial period and I like a lot of what you have, but if I can't export absolutely everything so that I have a backup and also have ownership of my data, then I just can't use your product. Even if the export is only a flat dump to PDF, I need to be able to have possession of my creative property

• 01 Jun, '21
  JohnBredesen Admin

  "Export everything" (suggested by Tanya Chris on 2021-05-31), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 03 Jul, '21
  Dina

  I just spent lots of time working on my project only to realize that you can't export notes and plot lines. I'm not sure if this is a feature available in similar software but if it is I will consider that software before I upgrade to the paid Dabble account. I really really love Dabble but that feature is necessary. I think the previously mentioned solution that this info could be made available in an unorganized format in a lump PDF or only available to paid customers of a certain tier? I love this software and wasn't really interested in shopping around for others but looks like I might have to. I wish I started copy and pasting my cards from the start

• 25 Jul, '21
  roccie

  I would not consider joining Dabble beyond the free trial (or, actually, even during the free trial) if it doesn't have a way I can import Word docs already written. I have many pages I do not wish to retype for a variety of books, and need to be able to import them. Is this still not available?

• 10 Aug, '21
  Lorraine A Basden

  It would be wonderful if the work I've done could be incorporated. I'm talking some chapters I'll have to write again. But so far your format is a huge plus. I am excited to try to write this book for the 5th time.

• 06 Sep, '21
  Catrin O'Hara

  Yes, please, I am writing a historical mystery. The Dabble 'story notes' interface is superb for jotting down snippets, links and facts as I find them under eg vocabulary, transport, clothing but I don't like the fact that this material can't be exported into my personal backups. I'd like to be able to keep a copy of the notes and also keep the structure of the folders, if that was possible. Thanks for considering!

• 17 Jan
  Abby Merged

  In the same way you can export and print plot/scene notes it would be really great if you could export/print Book and Chapter notes. I use this during my review process and make notes for each chapter in the notes card available in the manuscript - it would be great to be able to print out both the notes at the book level as well as the Chapter level.
  
  in addition it would be really great to be able to print in a grid format the scenes/sub-plot cards from the manuscript plot grid. I think being able to print this out and have a physical copy, in the same type of format as it exists in dabble, would be really helpful.

• 18 Jan
  JohnBredesen Admin

  "Export/Print Chapter/Book/Subplot Notes" (suggested by Abby on 2022-01-17), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

• 30 Jan
  Calliaphone

  This is a deal-breaker for me. It's about future-proofing my work, and having control over it. If I can't export all my notes (preferably as text files), i'm unlikely to commit to using Dabble no matter how attractive and well thought-out it is. I've made that mistake in the past, and I've learnt the hard way. If I want to upload my content to another platform (perhaps to take advantage of some unique feature that I suddenly need, or perhaps because Dabble goes belly-up - sorry, but it does happen), I want to be able to easily export it from Dabble in its entirety, in a useful format (eg text files that can be customised with user-specified delimiters for easy upload to other apps, perhaps with images of the plot grid). I do NOT want to have to rescue my work manually, by copy-pasting entry after entry into text files.

• 24 Mar
  Christopher

  Plus one for exporting and importing Plot and Plot Points as beautifully as the Manuscript Export/Import now works.
  
  I tested the Plot Export to Word and it worked but when I tested the copy/paste import method which works for the Manuscript I couldn't find a way to successfully import the Plot and Plot Points from the Word Doc to another Project into the Plot in the test project.

• 28 Apr
  Ronan

  I think if I had known this feature didn't exist, I wouldn't have gone with Dabble. Everything else is great but I have gone to the effort of designing this really great story grid at the manuscript level. I can edit and move it around on screen but can't print it out and doodle on it. Which I think is very important.

• 08 Jul
  Sunbeam

  It's a shame this feature still hasn't been implemented yet. As others have mentioned, this is a serious concern and potentially a deal-breaker for me. :0(

• 26 Jul
  Ronan

  I have an entire novel in Dabble and it's been excellent, really well done. However I have now downloaded and am researching Scrivner and considering moving because this feature is missing. I have huge amounts of writing in Dabble that isn't just the manuscript and the idea I can't get it out is very scary.

• 03 Oct
  Daniel Greeney

  Am I missing something, or is this now a feature? Both Plots and Notes have an "Export to Word" function. It's a little clunky, and the formatting isn't preserved very well, but it's something at least.