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Updated readme with more install information

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novelWriter is a Markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many
smaller plain text documents. It uses its own flavour of Markdown that supports a meta data syntax
for comments, synopsis and cross-referencing between files. It's designed to be a simple text editor
for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing between files. It's designed to be a simple text editor
that allows for easy organisation of text files and notes, built on plain text files for
robustness.
@@ -29,19 +29,6 @@ The full documentation is available at [novelwriter.readthedocs.io](https://nove
The contributing guide is available in [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md).
### Note on the Default Branch
The default branch on this repository switched to `main` on 6. August 2020. If you are running
novelWriter from a git clone, you need to clone the repository again.
Alternatively, you can run the following to get back on the new default branch:
```bash
git remote update
git checkout -t origin/main
```
### Development Status
The application is still under initial development, but all core features have now been added. The
@@ -49,15 +36,213 @@ core functionality has been in place for a while, and novelWriter is being used
by the author and collaborators.
No new major features will be added at this time, until the application is stable. Until then,
novelWriter is in a _beta_ state. Please report any issues you may encounter in the repository issue
novelWriter is in a _beta_ state. Please report any issues you encounter via the repository's issue
tracker.
You should be able to use novelWriter for real projects, but as with all software, please make
regular backups of your data. There is a built in backup feature that can pack the entire project
into a zip file on close. Please check the documentation for further details.
into a zip file each time the main window or the project is closed. Please check the documentation
for further details.
## License
## Implementation
The application is written in Python 3 using Qt5 via PyQt5. It is developed on Linux, but it should
in principle work fine on other operating systems as well as long as dependencies are met. The unit
tests are run on the latest versions of Ubuntu Linux, Windows Server and macOS.
## Installing and Running
You can runt novelWriter either from a downloaded copy of the source code, or by running:
```bash
pip install novelwriter
```
**Note:** On some systems you must use `pip3` instead for the Python 3 version.
You can update novelWriter to the latest version by running:
```bash
pip install --upgrade novelwriter
```
The application can then be started with one of the commands, depending on your Python configuration:
```bash
./novelWriter.py
python novelWriter.py
python3 novelWriter.py
```
It also takes a few parameters for debugging and such, which can be listed with the switch `--help`.
The `--info`, `--debug` or `--verbose` flags are particularly useful for increasing logging output
for debugging.
You can also provide a path to a folder containing a novelWriter project as the last parameter.
### Launcher and Icons
In the root assets folder there are icons and scripts and a template for setting up a launcher on
Gnome desktops. You may need to modify those scripts slightly, but as they are, they work on Debian
and Ubuntu. For other operating systems, please consult your operating system documentation for how
to make those. Feel free to submit more if you are able to make them.
## Package Dependencies
It is recommended that novelWriter runs with Qt 5.10 or later, and Python 3.6 or later. Running with
Qt as low as 5.2.1 and Python 3.4.3 has been tested, and worked in the past, but there are no
guarantees that this will keep working as these are not a part of the test builds.
### Linux
Generally, dependencies can be installed via `pip` with:
```bash
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
```
You can also install the packages from the distro's own package manager.
For the apt package manager on Debian/Ubuntu systems, the following Python3 packages are needed:
* `python3-pyqt5` for the GUI
* `python3-lxml` for writing project files
* `python3-enchant` for better spell checking (optional)
### macOS
These instructions assume you're using brew, and have Python and pip set up.
If not, see the [brew docs](https://docs.brew.sh/Homebrew-and-Python) for help.
Main requirements are installed via the requirements file.
You also need to install the `pyobjc` package on macOS, so you must run:
```bash
pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt
pip3 install --user pyobjc
```
For spell checking you may also need to install the enchant package.
It comes with a lot of default dictionaries.
```bash
brew install enchant
```
### Windows
On Windows, the `pip install` command is generally sufficient to install everything you need.
That should also install the Qt libraries and the spell check dictionary dependencies.
**Note:** On Windows, make sure Python3 is in your PATH if you want to launch novelWriter from
command line. You can also right click the `novelWriter.py` file, create a shortcut, then right
click again, select "Properties" and change the target to your python executable and
`novelWriter.py`.
It should look something like this:
```
C:\...\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38\python.exe novelWriter.py
```
### Package Versions
PyQt/Qt should be at least 5.3, but ideally 5.10 or higher for nearly all features to work.
Exporting to Markdown requires PyQt/Qt 5.14. There are no known minimum for `lxml`, but the code
was originally written with 4.2. The optional spell check library must be at least 3.0.0 to work
with Windows 64 bit systems. On Linux, 2.0.0 also works fine.
If no external spell checking tool is installed, novelWriter will use a basic spell checker based on
standard Python package `difflib`. Currently, only English dictionaries are available for this spell
checker, but more can be added to the `nw/assets/dict` folder. See the [README](nw/assets/dict/README.md)
file in that folder for how to generate more dictionaries. Note that the difflib-based option is
both slow and limited.
## Key Features
Some features of novelWriter are listed below. Consult the documentation for more information.
### Markdown Flavour
novelWriter is _not_ a full-feature Markdown editor. It allows for a minimal set of formatting
needed for writing text documents for novels. These are currently limited to:
* Headings level 1 to 4 using the `#` syntax only.
* Emphasised and strong text. These are rendered as italicised and bold.
* Strikethrough text.
* Hard line breaks using two or more spaces at the end of a line.
That is it. Features not supported in the editor are also not exported when using the export tool.
In addition, novelWriter adds the following, which is otherwise not supported by Markdown:
* A line starting with `%` is treated as a comment and not rendered on exports unless requested.
Comments do not count towards the word count. If the first word of the comment is `synopsis:`, the
comment is indexed and treated as the synopsis for the section of text under the same header.
These synopsis comments can be used to build an outline and exported to external documents.
* A set of meta data keyword/values starting with the character `@`. This is used for tagging
and inter-linking documents, and can be used to generate a project outline.
* Non-breaking spaces are supported as long as your system is using at least Qt 5.9. For earlier
version, non-breaking spaces are converted to normal spaces when saving the document. This is done
by the Qt library.
* Thin spaces are also supported, as well as non-breaking thin spaces, with the same library version
restriction as above.
* Tabs can be used in the text, and should be properly aligned. The width of a tab in pixels can be
changed in Preferences. Note that for the HTML format, most browsers will treat a tab as a space,
so it may not show up like expected. If you import the HTML file to Libre Office, for instance,
they should appear as expected.
The core export format of novelWriter is HTML5. You can also export the entire project as a single
novelWriter Markdown-flavour document. In addition, other exports to Open Document, PDF, and plain
text is offered through the Qt library, although with limitations to formatting.
The HTML format is well suited for file conversion tools and import into other text editors.
### Colour Themes
The editor has syntax highlighting for the features it supports, and includes a set of different
syntax highlighting themes. The GUI also has an optional dark theme in addition to the default
system theme.
New themes can easily be added to the `nw/assets/themes` folder. Have a look in the existing folders
for examples of how to define the colours.
### Easy Organising of Project Files
The structure of the project is shown on the left hand side of the main GUI. Project files are
organised into root folders, indicating what class of file they are. The most important root folder
is the Novel folder, which contains all of the files that makes up the finished novel. Each root
folder can have subfolders. Folders have no impact on the final project structure, they are purely
tools for organising the files in whatever way the user needs.
The editor supports four levels of headings, which determines what level the following text belongs
to. Headings of level one signify a book or partition title. Headings of level two signify the start
of a new chapter. Headings of level three signify the start of a new scene. Headings of level four
can be used internally in each scene to separate sections.
Each novel file can be assigned a layout format, which shows up as a flag next to the item in the
project tree. These are mostly to help the user track what they contain, but they also have some
impact on the format of the exported document. See the documentation for further details.
#### Project Notes
Supporting note files can be added for the story plot, characters, locations, story timeline, etc.
These have their separate root folders. These are optional files.
### Visualisation of Story Elements
The different notes can be assigned tags, which other files can refer back to using the `@` meta
keywords. This information can be used to display an outline of the story, showing where each scene
connects to the plot, and which characters, etc. occur in them. In addition, the tags themselves are
clickable in the document view pane, and control-clickable in the editor. They make it possible to
quickly navigate between the documents while editing.
## Licenses
This is Open Source software, and novelWriter is licensed under GPLv3. See the
[GNU General Public License website](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html) for more details,
@@ -79,171 +264,6 @@ Bundled assets have the following licenses:
main repo is available at [sdras/night-owl-vscode-theme](https://github.com/sdras/night-owl-vscode-theme).
## Markdown Flavour
novelWriter is _not_ a full-feature Markdown editor. It allows for a minimal set of formatting
needed for writing text documents for novels. These are currently limited to:
* Headings level 1 to 4 using the `#` syntax only.
* Emphasised and strong text. These are rendered as italicised and bold.
* Strikethrough text.
* Hard line breaks using two or more spaces at the end of a line.
That is it. Features not supported in the editor are also not exported when using the export tool.
In addition, novelWriter adds the following, which is otherwise not supported by Markdown:
* A line starting with `%` is treated as a comment and not rendered on exports unless requested.
Comments do not count towards the word count. If the first word of the comment is `synopsis:`, the
comment is indexed and treated as the synopsis for the following section of text. These synopsis
comments can be used to build an outline and exported to external documents.
* A set of meta data keyword/value sets starting with the character `@`. This is used for tagging
and inter-linking documents.
* Non-breaking spaces are supported as long as your system is using at least Qt 5.9. For earlier
version, non-breaking spaces are converted to normal spaces when saving the document. This is done
by the Qt library.
* Thin spaces are also supported, as well as non-breaking thin spaces.
* Tabs can be used in the text, and should be properly aligned. The width of a tab in pixels can be
changed in Preferences. Note that tabs are exported as-is, also to HTML format. However, most
browsers will treat a tab as a space, so it may not show up like expected if you view the exported
HTML file.
The core export format of novelWriter is HTML5. You can also export the entire project as a single
novelWriter Markdown-flavour document. In addition, other exports to Open Document, PDF, and plain
text is offered through the Qt library, although with limitations to formatting.
## Implementation
The application is written in Python3 using Qt5 via PyQt5. It is developed on Linux, but it should
in principle work fine on other operating systems as well, as long as dependencies are met. It is
regularly tested on Windows 10.
The application can be started from the source folder with one of the commands, depending on your
Python configuration:
```bash
./novelWriter.py
python novelWriter.py
python3 novelWriter.py
```
It also takes a few parameters for debugging and such, which can be listed with the switch `--help`.
In the root assets folder there are icons and scripts and a template for setting up a launcher on
Gnome desktops. You may need to modify those scripts slightly, but as they are, they work on Debian
and Ubuntu. For other operating systems, please consult your operating system documentation for how
to make those. Feel free to submit more if you are able to make them.
## Package Dependencies
It is recommended that novelWriter runs with Qt 5.10 or later, and Python 3.6 or later. Running with
Qt as low as 5.2.1 and Python 3.4.3 has been tested, and worked in the past, but there are no
guarantees that this will keep working as these are not a part of the test builds.
For the apt package manager on Debian/Ubuntu systems, the following Python3 packages are needed:
* `python3-pyqt5` for the GUI
* `python3-lxml` for writing project files
These are optional, but recommended:
* `python3-enchant` for better spell checking
Alternatively, the packages can be installed with `pip` by running
```bash
pip install -r requirements.txt
```
in the application folder.
You can also do them one at a time, skipping the ones you don't need:
```bash
pip install pyqt5
pip install lxml
pip install pyenchant
```
PyQt/Qt should be at least 5.3, but ideally 5.10 or higher for nearly all features to work.
Exporting to Markdown requires PyQt/Qt 5.14. There are no known minimum for `lxml`, but the code
was originally written with 4.2. The optional spell check library must be at least 3.0.0 to work
with Windows 64 bit systems. On Linux, 2.0.0 also works fine.
If no external spell checking tool is installed, novelWriter will use a basic spell checker based on
standard Python package `difflib`. Currently, only English dictionaries are available for this spell
checker, but more can be added to the `nw/assets/dict` folder. See the [README](nw/assets/dict/README.md)
file in that folder for how to generate more dictionaries. Note that the difflib-based option is
both slow and limited.
Note: On Windows, make sure Python3 is in your PATH if you want to launch novelWriter from command
line. You can also right click the `novelWriter.py` file, create a shortcut, then right click again,
select "Properties" and change the target to your python executable and `novelWriter.py`.
It should look something like this:
```
C:\...\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38\python.exe novelWriter.py
```
## Key Features
Some features of novelWriter are listed below. Consult the documentation for more information.
### Colour Themes
The editor has syntax highlighting for the features it supports, and includes a set of different
syntax highlighting themes. The GUI also has an optional dark theme in addition to the default
system theme.
New themes can easily be added to the `nw/assets/themes` folder. Have a look in the existing folders
for examples of how to define the colours.
### Auto-Saving and Document Stats
Open documents and the project file itself is saved regularly on a timer. The status of this is
indicated by two indicators on the right hand side of the status bar. Latest project word count is
shown next to these indicators in the status bar. The counts are updated regularly, but not
as-you-type.
The word count for documents is presented in a footer in the document editor itself. Both project
and document word counters will also show how many words you've added in the current writing
session.
### Easy Organising of Project Files
The structure of the project is shown on the left hand side of the main GUI. Project files are
organised into root folders, indicating what class of file they are. The most important root folder
is the Novel folder, which contains all of the files that makes up the finished novel. Each root
folder can have subfolders. Folders have no impact on the project structure, they are purely tools
for organising the files in whatever way the user needs.
The editor supports four levels of headings, which determines what level the following text belongs
to. Headings of level one signify a book or partition title. Headings of level two signify the start
of a new chapter. Headings of level three signify the start of a new scene. Headings of level four
can be used internally in each scene to separate sections.
Each novel file can be assigned a layout format, which shows up as a flag next to the item in the
project tree. These are mostly to help the user see what they contain, but they also have some
impact on the format of the exported document. See the documentation for further details.
#### Project Notes
Supporting note files can be added for the story plot, characters, locations, story timeline, etc.
These have their separate root folders. These are optional files.
### Visualisation of Story Elements
The different notes can be assigned tags, which other files can refer back to using special meta
keywords. This information can be used to display an outline of the story, showing where each scene
connects to the plot, and which characters, etc. occur in them. In addition, the tags themselves are
clickable in the document view pane, and control-clickable in the editor. They make it possible to
quickly navigate between the documents while editing.
## Screenshot
**novelWriter with default system theme:**