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The Temporal Page#

Your whole story laid out over time — a linear outline of every scene, plus charts that show its rhythm, intensity, and recurring threads.

Open it from the left sidebar: click Temporal.

Note: Nabu used to have separate Outline and Timeline pages. They both live here now. Old links redirect here automatically.

What you'll see#

The page is one long view in three stacked sections:

  1. The outline — a linear list of every scene in order, grouped by act and zone (a labeled stretch of your story, like Setup or Climax). A sticky Spine Strip ribbon above shows how your sequences and pages are distributed.
  2. Visualizations — charts of your story's Dynamics: emotional intensity, tension, and pacing across the script. Alongside them are Character Presence and Location Use views.
  3. Threads — setups, mysteries, arcs — drawn across the same time axis, showing where each one lands.

The header shows your scene count and labels the three sections.

The outline panel#

  • See the running order. Every scene appears in sequence, grouped under its act and zone. Each row shows the same current synopsis as its board card, or the scene idea while that line is empty.
  • Jump to any scene. Click a scene to open it in the script editor.
  • Reorder by dragging. Drag a scene up or down to change where it falls. You can drag a whole sequence as a group; hold Alt to drag a single scene out of a sequence.
  • Read the running stats. The outline shows your scene count and estimated page length, plus badge counts for any flagged errors or warnings.
  • Restore an omitted scene. Bring back a set-aside scene using the Restore button on the omitted row.

Note: When you drag a scene, the list updates instantly. If the save fails, the scene snaps back.

Screen order and Chronological#

The switch in the outline header shows your scenes in one of two orders:

  • Screen order — the order the audience sees them, page by page. This is where you reorder.
  • Chronological — the order the events happen in your story. A flashback moves to where it happened and is labelled; scenes not placed in time yet are listed apart.

They follow the craft distinction between the plot as told and the story as it happens. If Nabu has not placed your scenes in story time yet, the Chronological side says so. Nabu remembers the side you last used.

Giving your story a shape#

The outline header shows which story framework you're using — or Not set if you haven't chosen one. A framework is a story template, like a beat sheet, that lays down empty beats and zones to fill. If you have one, you'll also see how many beats you've mapped (for example, 8/15 beats mapped) alongside a rough target length.

To choose or change your framework, click Choose in settings or Change in settings in the outline header.

The visualizations#

Below the outline, three views show the feel of your story:

  • Dynamics — curves tracking emotional intensity, tension, and pacing scene by scene.
  • Character Presence — which scenes each character appears in.
  • Location Use — where each location is used throughout the story.

Note: The Dynamics curves are available on Pro plans.

Threads#

Threads are the promises your story makes: a setup, a mystery, a relationship arc, a recurring image. Each is drawn across the time axis, marked at the scenes it touches.

Threads appear once Nisaba has read the script. Click UPDATE THREADS to refresh threads, tension and pacing. The same threads are rows on the Story page.

Note: Updating threads is a Pro feature.

Uses your plan: Updating threads draws from your plan. The amount scales with script length — hover over the button to see an estimate.

How this relates to the board#

The Temporal page and the board are two views of the same scenes.

  • The board is your wall of index cards: a spatial canvas for rearranging the story by feel.
  • The outline is the same scenes as a linear list — better for reading the running order and checking overall length.

A change in one shows up in the other.

Good to know#

  • The Temporal page never edits your scene text. You write and revise the actual words in the script editor.
  • The scene-number lock lives here. When you're ready to freeze scene numbers for production, there's a lock toggle in the header. Locking blocks reordering until you unlock it.