Veronica Berglyd Olsen
221 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
221 lines
11 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/novelwriter.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. 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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The full credits are listed in [CREDITS.md](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/CREDITS.md).
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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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Please don't make feature pull requests without first having discussed them with the maintainer.
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You can make a feature request in the issue tracker, or if the idea isn't fully formed, start a
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discussion on the discussion page. Please also don't make pull requests to reformat or rewrite
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existing code unless there is a very good reason for doing so.
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Fixes and patches are welcome. Contributions related to packaging and installing novelWriter will
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also be appreciated, but please make an issue or a discussion topic first. Before contributing any
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code, please read the full [Contributing Guide](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).
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New translations are always welcome. Please read the additional
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[instructions](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/i18n/README.md) for further details.
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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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### Formatting Codes
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Although novelWriter is a plain text editor, it uses a Markdown-like syntax to allow for a minimal
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set of formatting that is useful for the specific task of writing novels.
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| Code | Usage | Description |
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|------------|----------|-------------|
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| `#` | Prefix | Headings level 1 to 4. |
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| `_` | Wrapped | Emphasised (italicised) text. |
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| `**` | Wrapped | Strongly emphasised (bold) text. |
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| `~~` | Wrapped | Strikethrough text. |
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| `%` | Prefix | A comment; does not count towards the word count.<sup>1</sup> |
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| `@` | Prefix | The following text is parsed as a keyword/value command for meta data. |
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| `>` | Prefix | The paragraph is indented one tab width from the left.<sup>2</sup> |
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| `<` | Suffix | The paragraph is indented one tab width from the right.<sup>2</sup> |
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| `>>` | Prefix | The paragraph is right-aligned.<sup>2</sup> |
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| `<<` | Suffix | The paragraph is left-aligned.<sup>2</sup> |
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| `>>`, `<<` | Wrapped | The paragraph is centred.<sup>2</sup> |
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<sup>1</sup> 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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<sup>2</sup> The indent and alignment codes are available from version 1.4.
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In additions:
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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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### Export Formats
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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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See the [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 and their licenses are listed in
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[CREDITS](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/CREDITS.md).
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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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