Getting around long documents in Write by Zaweba

Scrolling through forty pages to find one section wastes time and breaks concentration. The navigation pane in Write by Zaweba lists the headings in your document, so you can see its shape and jump straight to the part you want.

What the pane shows

The pane sits beside the page and lists every heading in the document. Click a heading and the page moves to it. That is all it needs to do, and it does it quickly, even with long reports.

Because the list comes from headings, it reflects the structure you have given the document. Main sections, the parts inside them and smaller divisions all show, giving you a live outline of your work.

Making headings that appear

The pane only lists text that uses heading styles. A line typed in bold at a large size might look like a heading, but the pane won't see it. Apply the heading styles instead. Ctrl+Alt+1, Ctrl+Alt+2 and Ctrl+Alt+3 give the first three heading levels from the keyboard, so marking up a document as you write takes no time.

If a heading you expect is missing from the pane, that is the first thing to check. It is also a good test of a document that has come from someone else: open the pane and see whether the headings are real headings or just big bold text.

Using it to plan

The pane is useful before the writing is done. Type your headings first, one for each section of an essay or report, and the pane becomes a plan. Fill in each section in whatever order suits you, clicking between them as ideas come.

When the structure needs changing, the pane shows it. If two sections cover similar ground, you see their headings side by side. If one part has grown far bigger than the rest, its many sub-headings stand out.

Using it to review

A quick look down the pane is the fastest review of a document's structure. Do the headings tell the story in order? Are they at the right levels? Is the wording consistent? Fixing headings here also fixes the table of contents, which is built from the same headings by Insert > Table of contents and updated with F9.

To move a paragraph up or down while editing, Alt+Shift+Up and Alt+Shift+Down shift it past its neighbours without cutting and pasting. For bigger moves, use the pane to find the destination quickly.

When it helps most

Students working on long essays and dissertations get the most from it, flicking between the introduction, the argument and the conclusion as they revise. People writing club handbooks, policy documents and reports use it to jump to the section someone has asked about.

It also helps with documents you didn't write. Open a long .docx from a colleague, look at the pane, and you understand the shape of it before reading a word.

Pair the pane with focus mode when you want to write without distractions, and bring it back when you need the overview. Between headings, the pane and a contents page, even a long document becomes easy to steer around.