Reorganise and update README

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# Contributing
+# Contributing Guide
 
 When contributing to this repository, please first discuss the change you wish to make via the
 issue tracker with the owner of this repository before making a change. If you just want to make a

README.md

@@ -15,81 +15,30 @@
 
 <img align="left" style="margin: 0 16px 4px 0;" src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vkbo/novelWriter/main/setup/icons/scaled/icon-novelwriter-96.png">
 
-novelWriter is a Markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many
+novelWriter is a Markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels assembled from many smaller
-smaller plain text documents. It uses its own flavour of Markdown that supports a meta data syntax
+text documents. It uses a minimal formatting syntax inspired by Markdown, and adds a meta data
-for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing between files. It's designed to be a simple text
+syntax for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing between files. It's designed to be a simple
-editor that allows for easy organisation of text files and notes, built on plain text files for
+text editor that allows for easy organisation of text files and notes, built on plain text files
-robustness.
+for robustness.
 
-The plain text storage is suitable for version control software, and also well suited for file
+The plain text files are suitable for version control software, and also well suited for file
-synchronisation tools. The core project structure is stored in a project XML file. Other meta data
+synchronisation tools. The core project structure is stored in a single project XML file. Other
-is primarily saved in JSON files.
+meta data is primarily saved in JSON files.
 
 The full documentation is available at
 [novelwriter.readthedocs.io](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/).
 
-The contributing guide is available at
-[CONTRIBUTING](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).
-
-
 ## 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.
 
+## Project Contributions
 
-# Installing and Running
+Contributions to this project are welcome. However, please read the Contributing Guide before
-
+submitting larger additions ot changes to this project. You can find the guide here:
-For install instructions, please check the [documentation](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/) in
+[CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).
-the [Getting Started](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/int_started.html) section.
-
-## TLDR Instructions
-
-**Note:** You may need to replace `python` with `python3` and `pip` with `pip3` in the instructions
-below on some systems. You may also want to add the `--user` flag for `pip` to install in your user
-space only.
-
-### Install from PyPi
-
-novelWriter is available on [pypi.org](https://pypi.org/project/novelWriter/), and can be installed
-with:
-```bash
-pip install novelwriter
-```
-Dependencies should be installed automatically, but can also be installed directly with:
-```bash
-pip install pyqt5 lxml pyenchant
-```
-
-### Setup on Linux
-
-If you're running from source, the following commands will set up novelWriter on Linux:
-```bash
-pip install -r requirements.txt
-python setup.py install
-python setup.py xdg-install
-```
-
-### Setup on macOS
-
-If you're running from source, the following commands will set up novelWriter on macOS:
-```bash
-brew install enchant
-pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt
-pip3 install --user pyobjc
-```
-
-### Setup on Windows
-
-For Windows, you can either install via PyPi, or use the Windows installer available from the
-[releases](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/releases) page.
-
-## Debugging
-
-If you need to debug novelWriter, you must run it from command line. It takes a few parameters,
-which can be listed with the switch `--help`. The `--info`, `--debug` or `--verbose` flags are
-particularly useful for increasing logging output for debugging.
 
 
 # Key Features
@@ -99,8 +48,9 @@ Some features of novelWriter are listed below. Consult the
 
 ### Markdown Flavour
 
-novelWriter is _not_ a full-feature Markdown editor. It allows for a minimal set of formatting
+novelWriter is _not_ a full-feature Markdown editor. It is a plain text editor that uses
-needed for writing text documents for novels. These are currently limited to:
+Markdown-like syntax for adding a minimal set of formatting that is useful for the specific task
+of writing novels. The formatting is currently limited to:
 
 * Headings level 1 to 4 using the `#` syntax only.
 * Emphasised and strongly emphasised text. These are rendered as italicised and bold text.
@@ -116,20 +66,19 @@ In addition, novelWriter adds the following, which is otherwise not supported by
   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.
+  and inter-linking documents, and can also be included when generate a project outline.
-* Non-breaking spaces are supported as long as your system is using at least Qt 5.9. For earlier
+* A variety of thin and non-breaking spaces are supported. Some of them depend on the system
-  version, non-breaking spaces are converted to normal spaces when saving the document. This is
+  running at least Qt 5.9.
-  done by the Qt library.
+* Tabs can be used in the text, and should be properly aligned in both editor and viewer. This can
-* Thin spaces are also supported, as well as non-breaking thin spaces, with the same library
+  be used to make simple tables and lists. Full Markdown tables and lists are not supported. Note
-  version restriction as above.
+  that for HTML exports, most browsers will treat a tab as a space, so it may not show up like
-* Tabs can be used in the text, and should be properly aligned. The width of a tab in pixels can be
+  expected. If you import the HTML file to Libre Office, for instance, they should appear as
-  changed in Preferences. Note that for the HTML format, most browsers will treat a tab as a space,
+  expected.
-  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
+novelWriter Markdown-flavour document. These can be imported again into novelWriter. In addition,
-text is offered through the Qt library, although with limitations to formatting.
+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.
 
@@ -137,20 +86,16 @@ The HTML format is well suited for file conversion tools and import into other t
 ### 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
+syntax highlighting themes. Optional GUI themes are also available, including dark themes.
-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
+is the `Novel` folder, which contains all of the files that make up the finished novel. Each root
-folder can have subfolders. Folders have no impact on the final project structure, they are purely
+folder can have subfolders. Folders have no impact on the final project structure, they are there
-tools for organising the files in whatever way the user needs.
+for you to organise your files in whatever way you need.
 
 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
@@ -177,7 +122,87 @@ are clickable in the document view pane, and control-clickable in the editor. Th
 to quickly navigate between the documents while editing.
 
 
-## Licenses
+# Installing and Running
+
+For install instructions, please check the [documentation](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/) in
+the [Getting Started](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/int_started.html) section.
+
+
+## TLDR Instructions
+
+If you want to run novelWriter directly from the source code, you must run the `novelWriter.py`
+file from command line. For installations on Linux, macOS or Windows, see below.
+
+**Note:** You may need to replace `python` with `python3` and `pip` with `pip3` in the instructions
+below on some systems. You may also want to add the `--user` flag for `pip` to install in your user
+space only.
+
+
+### Install from PyPi
+
+novelWriter is available on [pypi.org](https://pypi.org/project/novelWriter/), and can be installed
+with:
+```bash
+pip install novelwriter
+```
+Dependencies should be installed automatically, but can also be installed directly with:
+```bash
+pip install pyqt5 lxml pyenchant
+```
+
+When installing via pip, novelWriter can be launched from command line with:
+```bash
+novelWriter
+```
+
+Make sure the install location for pip is in your PATH variable. This is not always the case by
+default.
+
+
+### Setup on Linux
+
+If you're installing from source, the following commands will set up novelWriter on Linux:
+```bash
+pip install -r requirements.txt
+python setup.py install
+python setup.py xdg-install
+```
+
+This should make novelWriter available as a regular application on your system, with a launceher
+icon and file association with novelWriter project files.
+
+### Setup on macOS
+
+If you're installing from source, the following commands will set up novelWriter on macOS:
+```bash
+brew install enchant
+pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt
+pip3 install --user pyobjc
+python setup.py install
+```
+
+At present, novelWriter isn't further integrated into the OS, so you must launch it from command
+line with:
+```bash
+novelWriter
+```
+
+
+### Setup on Windows
+
+For Windows, you can either install via PyPi, or use the Windows installer available from the
+[releases](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/releases) page. This should add the necessary icons
+to your desktop and start menu.
+
+
+## Debugging
+
+If you need to debug novelWriter, you must run it from command line. It takes a few parameters,
+which can be listed with the switch `--help`. The `--info`, `--debug` or `--verbose` flags are
+particularly useful for increasing logging output for debugging.
+
+
+# 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
@@ -204,7 +229,7 @@ Bundled assets have the following licenses:
   [sdras/night-owl-vscode-theme](https://github.com/sdras/night-owl-vscode-theme).
 
 
-## Screenshot
+# Screenshot
 
 **novelWriter with default system theme:**
 ![Screenshot 1](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vkbo/novelWriter/main/docs/source/images/screenshot_default.png)