Parts are folders that house Chapters. Parts can separate different characters telling the story (Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer), or different locations in the story (or “Acts” in a play, think Romeo and Juliet a la Shakespeare), or sections of major plot development (like Volumes in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park). 

Basically, parts are a fancy organizational structure popularized by renowned authors of old! You’re in good company. Adding parts to your book is a great way to create narrative separation between major story lines, events, characters, or locales. 

The left-hand nav menu displays Books, Parts, Chapters, and Scenes with icons cascading like so: 

Tis very easy to rearrange a misplaced Part. 

Any Chapter or Scene inside a Part follows along when you drag-and-drop the Part. You can also drag-and-drop Chapters to different Parts, or Scenes to different Chapters.  

A new Part inserts itself immediately after the last clicked element. If your Chapter 3 is highlighted on the left-hand nav menu, your new Part end ups right after Chapter 3, encompassing Chapter 4 onward. If you have the Book view highlighted, your Part inserts itself at the very end of your book. 

In Manuscript View: Parts look like this: 

In Book View: Parts function like Chapter titles, but have their own pages. Because they’re fancy.

Clicking on a Part or Chapter is similar to Book View, but restricts you to just that section of your book. When you have Part 1 highlighted in the left-hand nav menu, you can write all the text you want for the Chapters included in Part 1, but not those in Part 2. 

To access Chapters included in Part 2, click them on the menu. 

Pro Tip: Hide Chapters within Parts you don’t want to focus on, by clicking the downward facing arrow to collapse. See ya later Part 2! 

And now you can add your own Parts. Show off your book’s fancy partitioning with the Dabble Community, we love an organized book!