Ainali
210 lines
10 KiB
ReStructuredText
210 lines
10 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _a_breakdown:
|
||
|
||
************
|
||
How it Works
|
||
************
|
||
|
||
.. _Fusion: https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/gallery.html
|
||
.. _Pandoc: https://pandoc.org/
|
||
.. _Typicons: https://github.com/stephenhutchings/typicons.font
|
||
.. _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 even 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, is more or less redundant. However,
|
||
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 Novel Project` tool, and a set
|
||
of project-related tools as well as quick access to settings at the bottom.
|
||
|
||
|
||
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 is 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
|
||
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 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
|
||
---------------
|
||
|
||
When in :guilabel:`Novel Tree View` mode, the project tree is replaced by an overview of your novel
|
||
structure. 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.
|
||
|
||
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 "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 initiated though. You can adjust the aut-save interval in
|
||
:guilabel:`Preferences`. You can also regenerate the whole novel view by pressing the refresh
|
||
button at the top.
|
||
|
||
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
|
||
------------------
|
||
|
||
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
|
||
-------------
|
||
|
||
The default colour theme of the user interface is the default theme from the Qt library. By
|
||
default, novelWriter is loaded with the Fusion_ style setting. (You can override this with the
|
||
``--style=`` setting when starting novelWriter.)
|
||
|
||
There is a standard dark theme provided as well, which is similar to the default Qt theme. Some
|
||
other light and dark colour themes are also provided. You can select which one you prefer from in
|
||
:guilabel:`Preferences` .
|
||
|
||
A number of syntax highlighting themes are also available in :guilabel:`Preferences`. These are
|
||
separate settings because there are a lot more options for syntax highlighting.
|
||
|
||
.. note::
|
||
If you switch to dark mode on the GUI, you should also switch syntax highlighting 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.
|
||
|
||
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 novel documents. For the 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.
|
||
|
||
.. note::
|
||
You can add documents as child items of other documents if you wish. 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.
|
||
|
||
|
||
.. _a_breakdown_export:
|
||
|
||
Building the Manuscript
|
||
=======================
|
||
|
||
The project can at any time be assembled into a range of different formats through the
|
||
:guilabel:`Build Novel Project` 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
|
||
and printing to PDF is also possible.
|
||
|
||
You can also export the content of the project to a JSON file. This is useful if you want to write
|
||
your own 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 either with HTML
|
||
formatted text, or with the raw text as typed into the novel documents. See :ref:`a_export_options`
|
||
for more details.
|
||
|
||
A number of filter options can be applied to the :guilabel:`Build Novel Project` tool, allowing you
|
||
to make a draft manuscript, a reference document of notes, an outline based on chapter and scene
|
||
titles with a synopsis each, and so on. See :ref:`a_export` for more details on build features and
|
||
formats.
|
||
|
||
|
||
.. _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 sync 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 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.
|
||
|