Veronica K. B. Olsen
228 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
228 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
# novelWriter
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[](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions/workflows/test_linux.yml)
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[](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions/workflows/test_win.yml)
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[](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions/workflows/test_mac.yml)
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[](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions)
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[](https://codecov.io/gh/vkbo/novelWriter)
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[](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest)
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[](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/releases)
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[](https://pypi.org/project/novelWriter)
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[](https://pypi.org/project/novelWriter)
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<img align="left" style="margin: 0 16px 4px 0;" src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vkbo/novelWriter/main/setup/icons/scaled/icon-novelwriter-96.png">
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novelWriter is a plain text editor designed for writing novels assembled from many smaller text
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documents. It uses a minimal formatting syntax inspired by Markdown, and adds a meta data syntax
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for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing. It's designed to be a simple text editor that allows
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for easy organisation of text and notes, using human readable text files as storage for robustness.
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The project storage is suitable for version control software, and also well suited for file
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synchronisation tools. All text is saved as plain text files with a meta data header, the core
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project structure is stored in a single project XML file, and other meta data is primarily saved as
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JSON files.
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The full documentation is available on [readthedocs.io](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io).
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## Implementation
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The application is written in Python 3 (3.6+) using Qt5 and PyQt5 (5.3+). It is developed on Linux,
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but should in principle work fine on other operating systems as well as long as dependencies are
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met. It is regularly tested on Debian and Ubuntu Linux, Windows, and macOS.
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## Project Contributions
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Contributions to this project are welcome. However, please read the
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[Contributing Guide](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) before
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submitting larger additions or changes.
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If you want to help translating novelWriter into another language, please see the
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[README](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/i18n/README.md) in the `nw/assets/i18n`
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folder.
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## Key Features
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Some key features of novelWriter are listed below. Consult the
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[documentation](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io) for more information.
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### Markdown Flavour
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Note that novelWriter is _not_ a proper Markdown editor. It is a plain text editor that uses
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Markdown-like syntax to allow for a minimal set of formatting that is useful for the specific task
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of writing novels. The formatting is currently limited to:
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* Headings levels 1 to 4 using the `#` syntax only.
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* Emphasised and strongly emphasised text. These are rendered as italicised and bold text.
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* Strikethrough text.
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* Hard line breaks using two or more spaces at the end of a line.
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That is it. Features not supported in the editor are also not exported when using the export tool.
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In addition, novelWriter adds the following syntax used for its additional features:
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* A line starting with `%` is treated as a comment and not rendered on exports unless requested.
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Comments do not count towards word counts and other statistics.
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* If the first word of the comment is `synopsis:`, the comment is indexed and treated as the
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synopsis for the section of text where it occurs. These synopsis comments can be used to build an
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outline and exported to external documents.
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* A set of meta data keyword/values starting with the character `@`. These are used for tagging
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and inter-linking documents, and can also be included when generating a project outline.
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* A variety of thin and non-breaking spaces are supported. Some of them depend on the system
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running at least Qt 5.9. Earlier versions of Qt will unfortunately strip them out when saving.
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* Tabs can be used in the text, and should be properly aligned in both editor and viewer. This can
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be used to make simple tables and lists. Note that for HTML exports, most browsers will treat a
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tab as a space, so it may not show up like expected. Open Document exports should produce the
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expected result.
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The core export formats of novelWriter are Open Document and HTML5. Open Document is an open
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standard for office type documents that is supported by most office applications. See
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[Open Document > Application Support](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument#Application_support)
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for more details.
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You can also export the entire project as a single novelWriter-flavour document. These can later be
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imported again into novelWriter. In addition, printing and export to PDF is offered through the Qt
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library, although with limitations to formatting.
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### Colour Themes
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The editor has syntax highlighting for the features it supports, and includes a set of different
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syntax highlighting themes. Optional GUI themes are also available, including dark themes.
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### Easy Organising of Project Files
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The structure of the project is shown on the left hand side of the main window. Project files are
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organised into root folders, indicating what class of file they are. The most important root folder
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is the `Novel` folder, which contains all of the files that make up the novel itself. Each root
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folder can have subfolders. Subfolders have no impact on the final project structure, they are
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there for you to organise your files in whatever way you want.
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The editor supports four levels of headings, which determine what level the following text belongs
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to. Headings of level one signify a book or partition title. Headings of level two signify the
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start of a new chapter. Headings of level three signify the start of a new scene. Headings of level
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four can be used internally in each scene to create separate sections.
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Each novel file can be assigned a layout format, which shows up as a flag next to the item in the
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project tree. These are mostly to help the user track what they contain, but they also have some
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impact on the format of the exported document. See the
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[documentation](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io) for further details.
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### Project Notes
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Supporting notes can be added for the story plot, characters, locations, story timeline, etc. These
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have their separate root folders and are optional to use.
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### Visualisation of Story Elements
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The different notes can be assigned tags, which other files can refer back to using `@`-prefixed
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meta keywords. This information can be used to display an outline of the story, showing where each
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scene connects to the plot, and which characters, etc. occur in them. In addition, the tags
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themselves are clickable in the document view pane, and control-clickable in the editor. They make
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it possible to quickly navigate between the documents while writing.
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## Standard Installation
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For a regular installation, it is recommended that you download one of the minimal zip files from
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the [Releases](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/releases) page or the
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[novelwriter.io](https://novelwriter.io/) website.
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The [documentation](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/) has detailed install instructions for
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[Linux](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/setup_linux.html),
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[Windows](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/setup_windows.html), and
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[macOS](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/setup_mac.html).
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They are pretty straightforward.
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## Running from Source
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If you want to run novelWriter directly from the source code, you must run the `novelWriter.py`
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file from command line.
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**Note:** You may need to replace `python` with `python3` and `pip` with `pip3` in the instructions
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below on some systems. You may also want to add the `--user` flag for `pip` to install in your user
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space only.
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### Dependencies
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Dependencies can generally be installed from PyPi with:
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```bash
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pip install -r requirements.txt
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```
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### Additional Steps for Linux
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On Linux, you can most likely find the dependencies in your distribution's repository. On Ubuntu
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and Debian, run:
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```bash
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sudo apt install python3-pyqt5 python3-lxml python3-enchant
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```
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If you want to set up a launcher and icons on Linux, you can run:
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```bash
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python setup.py xdg-install
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```
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### Additional Steps for macOS
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First, make sure you have properly set up Python3 with Homebrew. If not, check their
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[documentation](https://docs.brew.sh/Homebrew-and-Python).
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In addition, the following steps are necessary to install all dependencies:
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```bash
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brew install enchant
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pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt
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pip3 install --user pyobjc
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```
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### Additional Steps for Windows
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Windows does not by default come with Python installed. If you haven't installed it already, get it
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from [python.org/downloads](https://www.python.org/downloads/). Remember to select "Add Python to
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PATH" during the installation.
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The script `windows_install.bat` in the `setup` folder can be used to create desktop and start menu
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icons for novelWriter. The script will also install dependencies for you from PyPi.
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## Internationalisation
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If you install from source, you must build the translation files yourself if you want to switch to
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a different GUI language than British English. This requires that you have the Qt translation
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framework installed. Check the specific instruction in the README in the `i18n` source folder for
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how to build the translation files.
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## Debugging
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If you need to debug novelWriter, you must run it from the command line. It takes a few parameters,
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which can be listed with the switch `--help`. The `--info`, `--debug` or `--verbose` flags are
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particularly useful for increasing logging output for debugging.
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## Licenses
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This is Open Source software, and novelWriter is licensed under GPLv3. See the
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[GNU General Public License website](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html) for more
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details, or consult the [LICENSE](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/LICENSE.md) file.
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Bundled assets have the following licenses:
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* The Typicons-based icon themes by Stephen Hutchings are licensed under
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[CC BY-SA 4.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). The icons have been altered in
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size and colour for use with novelWriter, and some additional icons added. The original icon set
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is available at
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[stephenhutchings/typicons.font](https://github.com/stephenhutchings/typicons.font).
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* The Cantarell font by Dave Crossland is licensed under
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[OPEN FONT LICENSE Version 1.1](http://scripts.sil.org/OFL).
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It is available at [Google Fonts](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Cantarell).
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* The Tomorrow syntax themes use colour schemes taken from Chris Kempson's collection of code
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editor themes, licensed with the
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[MIT License](https://github.com/chriskempson/tomorrow-theme/blob/master/LICENSE.md),
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and the main repo is available at
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[chriskempson/tomorrow-theme](https://github.com/chriskempson/tomorrow-theme).
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* Likewise, the Owl syntax themes use colours from Sarah Drasner's code editor themes, licensed
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with the [MIT License](https://github.com/sdras/night-owl-vscode-theme/blob/master/LICENSE), and
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the main repo is available at
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[sdras/night-owl-vscode-theme](https://github.com/sdras/night-owl-vscode-theme).
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## Screenshots
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**novelWriter with default system theme:**
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**novelWriter with dark theme:**
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