Removing chapters, sections, or topics from your plan outline

If there are chapters, sections, or topics in the outline that you don’t want to be included in your plan, it is straightforward to remove them. Chapter or section headings that have been removed will be permanently deleted from your outline. (If you want to re-instate these later, you can easily re-create them.)

Note: As a non-permanent option, you may want to hide some chapters in your plan when you download it instead.

When you remove a topic, it will no longer appear in your plan’s printed output, but any information you have entered will be saved. Other users on your account can view the contents of any removed topic, and you can restore it to your plan at any time.

What are chapters, sections, and topics?

The LivePlan outline is built on Chapters, Sections, and Topics. To see an editable view of your outline, click on the Outline page of the Plan section:

plan section with arrow pointing to outline.png

In this view, you will see the same outline with the chapters, sections, and topics in place. This screenshot shows you how the parts of the outline are named, which will be helpful to know as you use the instructions below:

chapter section topics.png

Removing a standard chapter or section:

  1. In the Plan section, click Outline:  
    plan section with arrow pointing to outline.png

  2. Drag the chapter or section you wish to remove to the left sidebar and drop it there. A warning message will appear, as shown below:
    remove_section.gif

  3. When you delete a chapter or section, all the topics present in it will also be removed. But don't worry; all the topics and any text you've added to them will be saved to the left sidebar. They will be listed in alphabetical order as Available Content. Any charts or tables that were removed from the outline will be returned to the Charts and Tables section of the Available Content list.
    outline_topics.png
  4. To filter out blank topics, select Only show topics with content:
    topic_content.png

Removing a standard topic:

When a topic is removed from the plan outline, any entered text will be retained in the Available Content sidebar. There are two ways to remove topics from the plan outline.

From the View & Edit page:

Individual topics can be removed from the plan outline while on the View & Edit page by clicking on the delete button:
plan view & edit with arrow pointing to delete icon.png

Click Remove from Plan to remove the topic or Cancel to return to the plan outline:
confirm remove from plan popup.png

From the Outline page:

Topics can also be removed from the Outline page:

  1. In the Plan section, click Outline:
    plan section with arrow pointing to outline.png

  2. Click on the topic you want to remove and drag the topic to the left sidebar. Drop it to remove the topic from your outline:
    remove_topic.gif

  3. The change will be saved automatically, and the topic and any text you've entered will be retained in the Available Content sidebar.

Removing a custom chapter, section, or topic

If you create a custom chapter, section, or topic for your plan and decide to remove it later, any text you have entered in the topic will be saved in the Available Content list. Custom chapter and section headings will be deleted, but you can restore them if needed.

  1. In the Plan section, click Outline:
    plan section with arrow pointing to outline.png

  2. Drag the custom chapter, section, or topic you wish to remove to the left sidebar and drop it there. If you are deleting a chapter or section, a warning message will appear:

    remove_custom_topic.gif

  3. Click Confirm to save the change. Although the chapter or section heading will be deleted, any custom topics you've created within it will automatically be saved in the Available Content list.

Deleting a custom topic

If you've created a custom topic and then removed it from your plan outline, that topic and any text you've entered will be retained in the Available Content sidebar in the Topics section. If you'd like to delete this topic and its text permanently, follow these steps:

  1. Mouse over the custom topic in the sidebar. A small trash can icon will appear:
    delete_custom_topic.png

  2. Click that icon. An overlay warns you that the topic and text will be deleted permanently. Click Confirm to process the deletion:
    confirm_delete_topic.png

Restoring a chapter or section you've deleted from your plan

When you remove a chapter or section from your plan outline, all topics within it (and any text you've entered into those topics) will automatically be saved in the Available Content list for later use. The chapter and section headings, however, are deleted permanently.

Chapters and Sections are easily recreated from the Available Content menu.

  1. In the Plan section, click Outline:
    plan section with outline highlighted.png
  2. Select Custom in the Available Content menu:
    available content menu detail with custom highlighted.png
  3. Click and drag a Custom Chapter or Custom Section block to the desired location in your plan outline:
    drag custom chapter to plan outline.gif
  4. Click the pencil icon next to the chapter or section name and type a new name:
    renaming a chapter or section.gif

Remember that the outline follows a Chapter ---> Section ---> Topic hierarchy. Once a Chapter is added, a Section must be added below it. Topics can then be added to any section.

More on editing the plan outline:

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