When Should You Use Timeline View or Flow View in Novelez?

A branch is sending players to the wrong scene. You can see the incorrect destination, but the surrounding dialogue also needs a small rewrite. Should you stay in the graph, open the block list, or simply play the route again?

In Novelez, Timeline View and Flow View are not competing editors. They are two views of the same script. Timeline shows the local sequence. Flow shows how labeled sections connect. A change made in either view can affect the same underlying story, so the useful question is not which view is better. It is which level of the story you are changing right now.

The short answer is practical. Write dialogue, tune staging, and edit block properties in Timeline. Inspect or reroute branches in Flow. Then use Preview to confirm what a player actually experiences. Treating those as three separate passes keeps a local wording fix from turning into an unnoticed route change.

What stays the same when you switch views?

Both views read the same script data. Switching views does not make a second version of the project, and it does not create a safe draft of the structure. If a Choice destination is rerouted in Flow, the destination stored in that Choice block changes too. Open the block later in Timeline and you will see the new target.

That shared data is the main advantage. You do not need to maintain a planning chart beside the real script and remember to synchronize the two. It is also the reason to slow down before reconnecting a line. Flow is an editing surface, not merely a diagram.

A useful mental model is distance. Timeline puts you close enough to inspect one action and its neighbors. Flow moves you back far enough to see chapters, branches, and endings together. Neither distance tells you whether the route plays well. Preview supplies that third answer.

Use Timeline when the order inside a scene matters

Timeline lists blocks from top to bottom. It is where Novelez exposes the details that make a scene feel finished: a Dialogue block's speaker and line, a Scene block's background and music, a Show block's character image and position, or a Choice block's option text and destination.

Choose Timeline for work such as:

• rewriting one exchange without touching the route around it
• changing when a character appears or disappears
• replacing a background, expression, sound effect, or music cue
• inserting a block directly after the currently selected block
• dragging a block to a different position inside the same sequence
• filtering the script to one Label so a long project becomes readable

Timeline works because these jobs depend on adjacency. A background change before a line is not the same as the same change after it. A character entrance one block too late is a presentation error even if the route graph is perfect.

There is one safety detail worth remembering. Novelez allows special blocks such as Label, Scene, and Ending to be reordered like ordinary blocks. Moving one can change more than the line you are looking at. After moving a Label or an Ending, stop treating the edit as local. Switch to Flow and inspect the surrounding connections.

Block deletion deserves the same caution. The current editor asks for confirmation, but a deleted block cannot be restored through an undo workflow described in the manual. If the goal is only to try a different order, move the block and test before deciding to remove it.

Use Flow when the destination is the problem

Flow represents Labels as nodes. Choice options and Condition branches appear as connections to their destination Labels. That makes it the better view for questions that contain the word where: Where does this option go? Which endings can this section reach? Did two routes reconnect to the same chapter? Is one node stranded?

Flow also lets you edit that structure directly. Reconnecting a Choice line to another Label changes the destination in the script. For a project with several endings, this can be much faster than opening Choice blocks one by one and selecting new targets.

Use that speed for structural edits, not for text polishing. The node can show the blocks inside a Label as a preview, but detailed dialogue, image, and staging properties are still easier to handle in Timeline. Novelez also lets you double-click a Flow node to filter Timeline to that Label. This is the clean handoff between views: find the structural location in Flow, then enter the exact section in Timeline.

Before rerouting, read both ends. The source option must still promise the route it now enters, and the destination scene must make sense without context that belonged to the old path. A valid connection can still produce an incoherent story.

A three-pass workflow for a changed branch

Suppose a Choice in the station chapter is meant to send the player to a platform conversation, but it currently jumps to the departure ending. The dialogue before the Choice is also too abrupt.

Start in Timeline. Filter to the station Label, revise the lead-in dialogue, and check the Choice wording. Keep the edit local until the scene says what the option actually means.

Move to Flow. Find the station node and reconnect only the affected Choice line to the platform Label. Look at the neighboring branches before leaving. Confirm that the departure ending still has an intended incoming route and that the platform Label is not receiving a choice that contradicts its opening.

Return to Timeline through the destination node. Open the Choice block and verify that its stored target now shows the platform Label. Read the first few blocks at the destination. This catches missing setup, a background that assumes another location, or a character who appears without having entered.

Finally, run Preview from the selected block near the Choice. Novelez can begin playback at the selected Timeline block, which makes a focused retest quick. Choose the edited option and continue until the route reaches a stable point or an Ending.

A selected-block preview is evidence for the changed segment, not for the whole game. After the focused pass works, clear the selection and run from the required start Label when the revision could affect earlier state, a Condition, or the route's complete ending. A structure that works when entered halfway through may still fail when approached through the real opening.

When should you avoid a large Flow edit?

Do not use the graph's convenience as a reason to redesign several routes at once. If three connections move together, it becomes harder to tell which change caused a broken path. Move one coherent route, verify it, save, and then continue.

Be especially careful when a project uses Variable and Condition blocks. Flow can show Condition branches, but whether a player follows one depends on state established earlier. A visible arrow proves that a destination is configured. It does not prove that the condition can be reached with the values produced by real play.

The same limit applies to endings. Seeing every ending node on the canvas does not show that every ending is reachable, nor that an unfinished branch cannot stop before one. Flow is excellent at revealing intended connections. Preview is what exercises them.

After a significant structural change, use the Save button even though ordinary block edits are generally preserved automatically. The manual describes automatic saving as a safety net and recommends a deliberate manual save after important revisions. A route reroute qualifies as important.

A simple rule for choosing the next screen

Ask what kind of mistake you are trying to fix.

If the right scene is playing but it looks, sounds, or reads wrong, use Timeline. If the wrong section plays, or a choice reaches the wrong ending, use Flow. If the editor looks correct but you do not know what the player will experience, use Preview.

That division also keeps a project understandable as it grows. Timeline remains a readable sequence instead of becoming a place where you hunt for distant destinations. Flow remains a structural map instead of becoming a substitute for close reading. Preview remains a behavioral check instead of an occasional final ceremony.

Novelez does not force you to choose one editing style for the whole project. The same story can be read closely, inspected from above, and played as a reader would encounter it. The reliable workflow is to switch views when the question changes, not when the screen becomes uncomfortable.

Which part of your current Novelez project costs more time today: finding the correct branch in Flow, polishing the blocks inside it in Timeline, or proving the changed route in Preview?