Veronica Berglyd Olsen
223 lines
11 KiB
ReStructuredText
223 lines
11 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _a_breakdown:
|
||
|
||
************
|
||
How it Works
|
||
************
|
||
|
||
.. _Fusion: https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/gallery.html
|
||
.. _Pandoc: https://pandoc.org/
|
||
.. _Open Document: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument
|
||
|
||
The main features of novelWriter are listed in the :ref:`a_intro` section. Here, we go into some
|
||
more details on how they are implemented. This is intended as an overview. Later on in this
|
||
documentation, these features will be covered in more detail.
|
||
|
||
|
||
.. _a_breakdown_design:
|
||
|
||
GUI Layout and Design
|
||
=====================
|
||
|
||
The user interface of novelWriter is intended to be as minimalistic as practically possible, while
|
||
at the same time provide a complete set of features needed for writing a novel.
|
||
|
||
The main window does not have an editor toolbar like many other applications do. This reduces
|
||
clutter, and since the documents are formatted with style tags, it is more or less redundant.
|
||
Most formatting features supported are available through convenient keyboard shortcuts. They are
|
||
also available in the main menu, so you don't have to look up formatting codes every time you need
|
||
them. For reference, a list of all shortcuts can be found in the :ref:`a_kb` section.
|
||
|
||
.. note::
|
||
novelWriter is not intended to be a full office type word processor. It doesn't support images,
|
||
links, tables, and other complex structures and objects often needed for such documents.
|
||
Formatting is limited to headers, emphasis, text alignment, and a few other simple features.
|
||
|
||
On the left edge of the main window, you will find a sidebar. This bar has buttons for the standard
|
||
views you can switch between, a quick link to the :guilabel:`Build Manuscript` tool, and a set of
|
||
project-related tools and quick access to settings at the bottom.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Project Tree View
|
||
-----------------
|
||
|
||
.. figure:: images/fig_project_tree_view.png
|
||
|
||
A screenshot of the Project Tree View.
|
||
|
||
When in :guilabel:`Project Tree View` mode, the main work area of the main window is split in two,
|
||
or optionally three, panels. The left-most panel contains the project tree and all the documents in
|
||
your project. The second panel is the document editor. An optional third panel on the right
|
||
contains a document viewer which can view any document in your project independently of what is
|
||
open in the document editor. This panel is not intended as a preview window, although you can use
|
||
it for this purpose if you wish as it will apply the formatting tags you have specified. The main
|
||
purpose of the viewer is for viewing your notes next to your editor while you're writing.
|
||
|
||
The editor also has a :guilabel:`Focus Mode` you can toggle either from the menu, from the icon in
|
||
the editor's header, or by pressing :kbd:`F8`. When :guilabel:`Focus Mode` is enabled, all the user
|
||
interface elements other than the document editor itself are hidden away.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Novel Tree View
|
||
---------------
|
||
|
||
.. figure:: images/fig_novel_tree_view.png
|
||
|
||
A screenshot of the Novel Tree View.
|
||
|
||
When in :guilabel:`Novel Tree View` mode, the project tree is replaced by an overview of your novel
|
||
structure for a specific Novel :term:`root folder`. Instead of showing individual documents, the
|
||
tree now shows all headings of your novel text. This includes multiple headings within the same
|
||
document.
|
||
|
||
Each heading is indented according to the heading level. You can open and edit your novel documents
|
||
from this view as well. All headings contained in the currently open document should be highlighted
|
||
in the view to indicate which ones belong together in the same document.
|
||
|
||
If you have multiple Novel root folders, the header of the novel view becomes a dropdown box. You
|
||
can then switch between them by clicking the :guilabel:`Outline of ...` text. You can also click
|
||
the novel icon button next to it.
|
||
|
||
Generally, the novel view should update when you make changes to the novel structure, including
|
||
edits of the current document in the editor. The information is only updated when the automatic
|
||
save of the document is triggered, or you manually press :kbd:`Ctrl+S` to save changes. You can
|
||
adjust the auto-save interval in :guilabel:`Preferences`. You can also regenerate the whole novel
|
||
view by pressing the refresh button at the top of the side panel.
|
||
|
||
It is possible to show an optional third column in the novel view, The settings are available from
|
||
the menu button ath the top.
|
||
|
||
If you click the arrow icon to the right of each item, a tooltip will pop up showing you all the
|
||
meta data collected for that heading entry.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Novel Outline View
|
||
------------------
|
||
|
||
.. figure:: images/fig_outline_view.png
|
||
|
||
A screenshot of the Novel Outline View.
|
||
|
||
When in :guilabel:`Novel Outline View` mode, the tree, editor and viewer will be replaced by a
|
||
large table that shows the entire novel structure with all the tags and references listed. Pretty
|
||
much all collected meta data is available here in different columns.
|
||
|
||
You can select which novel root folder to display from the dropdown box, and you can select which
|
||
columns to show or hide from the menu button. You can also rearrange the columns by drag and drop.
|
||
The app will remember you column order and size between sessions, and for each individual project.
|
||
|
||
|
||
Colour Themes
|
||
-------------
|
||
|
||
By default, novelWriter will use the colour theme provided by the Qt library, which is determined
|
||
by the Fusion_ style setting. You can also choose between a standard dark and light theme that have
|
||
neutral colours from :guilabel:`Preferences`. Other colour themes are also available, and more can
|
||
be contributed by users to the project.
|
||
|
||
Switching the GUI colour theme does not affect the colours of the editor and viewer. They have
|
||
separate colour themes called :guilabel:`Editor Themes`. They are separated because there are a lot
|
||
more options to choose from for the editor and viewer.
|
||
|
||
.. note::
|
||
If you switch to dark mode on the GUI, you should also switch editor theme to match, otherwise
|
||
icons may be hard to see in the editor and viewer.
|
||
|
||
|
||
.. _a_breakdown_project:
|
||
|
||
Project Layout
|
||
==============
|
||
|
||
This is a brief introduction to how you structure your writing projects. All of this will be
|
||
covered in more detail later.
|
||
|
||
The main point of novelWriter is that you are free to organise your project documents as you wish
|
||
into subfolders or subdocuments, and split the text between these documents in whatever way suits
|
||
you. All that matters to novelWriter is the linear order the documents appear at in the project
|
||
tree (top to bottom). The chapters, scenes and sections of the novel are determined by the headings
|
||
within those documents.
|
||
|
||
.. figure:: images/fig_header_levels.png
|
||
|
||
An illustration of how header levels correspond to the novel structure.
|
||
|
||
The four heading levels (**H1** to **H4**) are treated as follows:
|
||
|
||
* **H1** is used for the book title, and for partitions.
|
||
* **H2** is used for chapter tiles.
|
||
* **H3** is used for scene titles – optionally replaced by separators.
|
||
* **H4** is for section titles within scenes, if such granularity is needed.
|
||
|
||
The project tree will select an icon for the document based on the first heading in it.
|
||
|
||
This header level structure is only taken into account for :term:`novel documents`. For
|
||
:term:`project notes`, the header levels have no structural meaning, and the user is free to do
|
||
whatever they want. See :ref:`a_struct` and :ref:`a_notes` for more details.
|
||
|
||
.. versionadded:: 2.0
|
||
You can add documents as child items of other documents. This is often more useful than adding
|
||
folders, since you anyway may want to have the chapter heading in a separate document from your
|
||
individual scene documents so that you can rearrange scene documents freely.
|
||
|
||
|
||
.. _a_breakdown_export:
|
||
|
||
Building the Manuscript
|
||
=======================
|
||
|
||
The project can at any time be assembled into a range of different formats through the
|
||
:guilabel:`Build Manuscript` tool. Natively, novelWriter supports `Open Document`_, HTML5, and
|
||
various flavours of Markdown.
|
||
|
||
The HTML5 format is suitable for conversion by a number of other tools like Pandoc_, or for
|
||
importing into word processors if the Open Document format isn't suitable. In addition, printing
|
||
is also possible. Print to PDF is available from the print dialog.
|
||
|
||
In addition, you can export the content of the project to a JSON file. This is useful if you want
|
||
to write your own custom processing script in for instance Python, as the entire novel can be read
|
||
into a Python dictionary with a couple of lines of code. The JSON file can be populated with either
|
||
HTML formatted text, or with the raw text as typed into the novel documents.
|
||
See :ref:`a_export_options` for more details.
|
||
|
||
.. versionadded:: 2.1
|
||
You can now define multiple build definitions in the :guilabel:`Build Manuscript` tool. This
|
||
allows you to define specific settings for various types of draft documents, outline documents,
|
||
and manuscript formats. See :ref:`a_export` for more details.
|
||
|
||
|
||
.. _a_breakdown_storage:
|
||
|
||
Project Storage
|
||
===============
|
||
|
||
The files of a novelWriter project are stored in a dedicated project folder. The project structure
|
||
is kept in a file at the root of this folder called ``nwProject.nwx``. All the document files and
|
||
associated meta data is stored in the other folders below the project folder. For more technical
|
||
details about what all the files mean and how they're organised, see the :ref:`a_storage` section.
|
||
|
||
This way of storing data was chosen for several reasons. Firstly, all the text you add to your
|
||
project is saved directly to your project folder in separate files. Only the project structure and
|
||
the text you are currently editing is stored in memory at any given time. Secondly, having multiple
|
||
small files means it is very easy to synchronise them between computers with standard file
|
||
synchronisation tools. Thirdly, if you use version control software to track the changes to your
|
||
project, the file formats used for the files are well suited. Also the JSON documents have line
|
||
breaks and indents, which makes it easier to track them with version control software.
|
||
|
||
.. note::
|
||
|
||
Since novelWriter has to keep track of a bunch of files and folders when a project is open, it
|
||
may not run well on some virtual file systems. A file or folder must be accessible with exactly
|
||
the path it was saved or created with. An example where this is not the case is the way Google
|
||
Drive is mapped on Linux Gnome desktops using gvfs/gio.
|
||
|
||
.. caution::
|
||
|
||
You should not add additional files to the project folder yourself. Nor should you manually edit
|
||
files within it as a general rule. If you really must manually edit the text files, e.g. with
|
||
some automated task you want to perform, you need to rebuild the :term:`Project Index` when you
|
||
open the project again.
|
||
|
||
Editing text files in the ``content`` folder is less risky as they are just plain text. Editing
|
||
the main project XML file, however, may make the project file unreadable and you may crash
|
||
novelWriter and lose project structure information and project settings.
|