Veronica K. B. Olsen
123 lines
5.6 KiB
ReStructuredText
123 lines
5.6 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _a_intro:
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************
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Introduction
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************
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novelWriter is a simple, multi-document plain text editor using a modified markdown syntax to apply
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simple formatting. It is designed for writing novels, and allows for the component documents to be
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ordered freely to create the desired structure of the novel. More details about how projects are
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structured is covered on the :ref:`a_struct` page.
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In addition, the project can contain notes on the various plot elements, characters, locations, etc,
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that make up the story. These notes are organised in a set of category-specific top-level folders,
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and each entry can be tagged and cross-referenced from within the novel files and other notes. These
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tags make it possible to inter-link documents, and generate an overview of the entire novel project
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and how the various files and plot elements are interconnected. This is covered on the :ref:`a_proj`
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and :ref:`a_notes` pages.
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These additional features are not standard in markdown, but are available through special meta
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keywords. Syntax highlighting is provided to make it easier to verify that the markdown tags are
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used correctly. The syntax is covered on the :ref:`a_ui` page.
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.. _a_intro_design:
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Design Philosophy
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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 a complete set of features needed for writing a novel.
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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 structure and objects often needed for such document. Formatting
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is limited to headers, and bold, italicised and strikethrough text.
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The main window does not have a toolbar like most other applications do. This reduces clutter, and
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since the documents are formatted with markdown tags, is more or less redundant. However, all
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formatting features supported are available through convenient keyboard shortcuts. They are also
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available in the main menu. A full list of shortcuts can be found in the :ref:`a_ui_shortcuts`
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section.
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In addition, novelWriter offers a :guilabel:`Focus Mode` where all the user interface elements other
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than the document editor itself are hidden away.
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The colour scheme of the user interface defaults to that of the host operating system. In addition,
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a dark theme is provided, and can be enabled in :guilabel:`Preferences` from the :guilabel:`Tools`
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menu. A number of syntax highlighting themes are also available in :guilabel:`Preferences`. A set of
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icon themes in colour and greyscale are also offered. The icons are based on the Typicons_ icon set
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designed by Stephen Hutchings.
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The main window is split in two, or optionally three, panels. The left-most contains the project
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tree and all the files in your project. The second panel is the document editor, and the optional
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third panel is a document viewer which can view any document in your project.
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A second tab is also available on the main window. This is the :guilabel:`Outline` tab where the
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entire novel structure can be displayed, with all the tags and references listed. Depending on how
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you structure your novel project files, this outline can be quite different than your project tree.
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Your project tree lists files, your Outline tree lists the structure of the novel itself.
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.. _Typicons: https://github.com/stephenhutchings/typicons.font
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.. _a_intro_project:
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Project Layout
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==============
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You are free to structure your project files as you wish in subfolders, and split the text between
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files in whatever way suits you. All that matters to novelWriter is the linear order the files
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appear at in the project tree (top to bottom). The chapters, scenes and sections of the novel are
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determined by the headings within those files.
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The four heading levels (**H1** to **H4**) are treated as follows:
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* **H1** is used for the book 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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This header level structure is only taken into account for novel files. For the files designated as
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project notes, the header levels imply no structural meaning, and the user is free to do whatever
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they want. See the :ref:`a_struct` page for more details.
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.. _a_intro_export:
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Project Export
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==============
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The project can at any time be exported to a range of different formats. Natively, novelWriter
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supports export to plain text file, HTML document, novelWriter flavoured markdown, standard
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markdown (requires Qt 5.14), and to a basic Open Document.
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In addition, printing and printing to PDF is also possible. The best supported export format is
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HTML, which can be imported or converted by a number of other tools like Pandoc, or simply imported
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into Libre Office Writer and similar word processors.
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It is also possible to export the content of the project to a JSON file. This is useful if you want
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to write your own processing script in for instance Python as the entire novel can be read into a
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Python dictionary with a couple of lines of code.
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A number of filter options can be applied to the produced document, allowing you to export a draft
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manuscript, a reference document of notes, an outline based on chapter and scene titles with a
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synopsis each, and so on. See the :ref:`a_export` page for more details on export features and
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formats.
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.. _a_intro_screenshots:
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Screenshot
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==========
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**novelWriter with default system theme:**
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.. image:: images/screenshot_default.png
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:width: 800
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**novelWriter with dark theme:**
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.. image:: images/screenshot_dark.png
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:width: 800
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