The composition module is designed to help users writing a thesis or a book. Working on such a big project is an evolutionary process. You start off by collecting references, files, web clippings, etc. You may first write a few notes. Those notes will evolve into sections or chapters. The composition module allows you to easily organize your pieces into an outline. For a big writing project like a thesis or book, it is much easier to separate your writing into smaller pieces instead of one big file. The composition module supports the reuse of your notes. You can create more than one composition project and quickly assemble the same notes into different outlines, then compare the drafts. The composition module can help you to generate a table of contents, formatted citations and a bibliography, a suggested reading list, a glossary, and an index automatically for the final draft.
Create a composition project
Before going into the composition module, you need to create a composition project. Click the menu command "File | Project | New Collection...". The project properties window will be shown. Enter a composition project name. Select "Composition" as the project type. If you want, you can give a brief description about the project in the box below. Click the OK button. A new project will be added to your project tree. You can drag and drop it to different position in the project tree.
Building blocks
Notes from the notes module are the building blocks of a composition project. All outline entries are based on notes. You can drag-and-drop notes to a composition outline. The same note can be added to more than one composition project. When the note content is changed, the drafts built from those outlines are all changed accordingly.
Content reuse
The composition module promotes content reuse. Besides the reuse of notes in different outlines, references and categories are also reused. If you enter a reference entry once, it can be inserted as a temporary citation into many notes. You can also drag-and-drop a reference to the suggested reading list. A category entry can be added to many notes in an outline as an index term or added to the glossary list.