Rename or Duplicate a Document

On Mac, you can rename or duplicate a document from the start screen. FlowBoard takes along the files that belong to the document, so a renamed document or a copy keeps its Story Map, its media and its session.

Files that belong to a document

Next to the .md file, a document can have these files. All of them are named after the document:

File	What it holds
Novel.md.flowboard-map.json	The Story Map layout
assets/doc-novel/	The images, PDFs and audio files you added to cards. The folder name is the document name in lowercase, with dashes in place of spaces and other characters
Novel.session.json	A session that opens this document. Save Session creates session files, which remember which documents were open and where their windows were
Novel_de_v001.json	A translation of the story, one file per language and version

Backups in the _backup folder don’t belong to this set. They keep the name the document had when they were made.

Rename a document

1. On the start screen, right-click Open Recent to rename the document shown on it. For another document, open the list of recent files and right-click the document there, or select its ⋯ button.
2. Choose Rename.
3. Enter the new name without .md. Under Renamed with it, FlowBoard lists each file it will rename, with the old and the new name.
4. Select Rename.

The recent files list shows the new name. The board and card you were last on, the Story Map view and the other settings FlowBoard remembers for the document on this Mac go with it.

You can also press Shift+F10 on a selected recent file to open the same menu, or choose Rename recent project or session in the command palette.

If the new name results in the same asset folder name, for example because you only changed the capitalization, the asset folder keeps its name.

Paths to the old name inside the document

Update paths to the old name inside this document is on by default. It changes only the document you rename: links and includes that point to the document’s own file, and paths that name its old asset folder. The dialog tells you whether it found any. Turn the option off to keep the document’s text exactly as it is.

What stays unchanged

FlowBoard changes nothing outside the document’s own files. Other documents and sessions that link to this document keep using the old name, and those links stop working. Update them yourself after renaming.

When FlowBoard can’t rename

The dialog shows the reason, and nothing is renamed:

• A file or folder with the new name already exists. This includes a Story Map, session, asset folder or translation left over from an earlier document of that name. Choose another name, or remove the leftover files.
• Another document uses the same asset folder. This happens when two document names differ only in ways the folder name ignores, such as My Story.md and My-Story.md.
• The document or its session is open. Close it in every FlowBoard window, then rename it.
• The document is still marked as open, possibly on another device. If it isn’t open anywhere, open it once and close it again. See When a file is open somewhere else.

If renaming fails partway, FlowBoard restores all the original names.

Rename a session

Session files appear in the recent files list too. Rename one the same way as a document. Only the session file is renamed. The documents it opens keep their names.

Duplicate a document

1. On the start screen, right-click the document, as for renaming.
2. Choose Duplicate.

FlowBoard creates Novel copy.md next to the original, or Novel copy 2.md and so on if that name is taken. The copy has its own Story Map, its own asset folder with copies of all media, and its own copy of the matching session. Links in the copy that point to the document itself point to the copy. The copy moves to the top of your recent files.

If the document is open in a window with unsaved changes, save them before you duplicate it.

Duplicating a session copies the session file and every document it opens, each with the same copy suffix and with its own Story Map and media. Links between these documents point to the copies.

In the command palette, choose Duplicate recent project or session.

Next

• Documents, boards, columns and cards: what a document contains and how it’s stored.
• How FlowBoard saves your work: autosave, backups and what happens when the file changes elsewhere.