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