Veronica Berglyd Olsen
246 lines
11 KiB
ReStructuredText
246 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
|
|
.. _Office Open XML: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML
|
|
.. _version control: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Version_control
|
|
|
|
The main features of novelWriter are listed in the a_intro chapter. In this chapter, 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 useful features needed for writing a novel.
|
|
|
|
The main window does not by default have an editor toolbar like many other applications do. This
|
|
reduces clutter, and since the documents are formatted with style tags, it is not needed most of
|
|
the time. Still, a small formatting toolbar can be popped out by clicking the left-most button in
|
|
the header of the document editor. It gives quick access to standard formatting codes.
|
|
|
|
Most formatting features supported are available through convenient keyboard shortcuts. They are
|
|
also available in the main menu under **Format**, 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`
|
|
chapter.
|
|
|
|
.. 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 headings, in-line basic text formats, text alignment, and a few other
|
|
simple features.
|
|
|
|
On the left side 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 **Build Manuscript** tool, and a set of
|
|
project-related tools and quick access to settings at the bottom.
|
|
|
|
.. versionadded:: 2.2
|
|
|
|
A number of new formatting options were added in 2.2 to allow for some special formatting cases.
|
|
At the same time, a small formatting toolbar was added to the editor. It is hidden by default,
|
|
but can be opened by pressing the button in the top--left corner of the editor header.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Project Tree and Editor View
|
|
----------------------------
|
|
|
|
.. figure:: images/fig_project_tree_view.png
|
|
|
|
A screenshot of the Project Tree and Editor View.
|
|
|
|
When the application is in **Project Tree View** mode, the 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 side 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. For instance if you need to
|
|
check that the formatting tags behave as you expect. However, the main purpose of the viewer is for
|
|
viewing your notes next to your editor while you're writing.
|
|
|
|
The editor also has a **Focus Mode** you can toggle either from the menu, from the icon in the
|
|
editor's header, or by pressing :kbd:`F8`. When **Focus Mode** is enabled, all the user interface
|
|
elements other than the document editor itself are hidden away.
|
|
|
|
The project tree will highlight with a different background colour the document that is currently
|
|
open in the editor.
|
|
|
|
.. versionadded:: 2.6
|
|
|
|
You can now drag and drop documents from the project tree onto the editor or viewer panels to
|
|
open them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Novel View and Editor View
|
|
--------------------------
|
|
|
|
.. figure:: images/fig_novel_tree_view.png
|
|
|
|
A screenshot of the Novel Tree and Editor View.
|
|
|
|
When the application is in **Novel Tree View** mode, the project tree is replaced by an overview of
|
|
your novel structure for a specific Novel 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, not its parent/child relationship to other
|
|
elements of your project. 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** type 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 **Preferences**.) You can also regenerate the whole novel view by
|
|
pressing the refresh button in the novel view header.
|
|
|
|
It is possible to show an optional third column in the novel view. The settings are available from
|
|
the menu button in the toolbar.
|
|
|
|
If you click the triangular icon to the right of each item, a tooltip will pop out showing all the
|
|
meta data collected for that heading.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Novel Outline View
|
|
------------------
|
|
|
|
.. figure:: images/fig_outline_view.png
|
|
|
|
A screenshot of the Novel Outline View.
|
|
|
|
When the application is in **Novel Outline View** mode, the tree, editor and viewer are 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 remembers your column order and sizes between sessions, and for each individual project.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Colour Themes
|
|
-------------
|
|
|
|
By default, novelWriter uses a light colour theme. You can also choose between a standard dark
|
|
theme that have neutral colours, or a series of other included themes, from **Preferences**.
|
|
|
|
If you wish, you *can* create your own colour themes, and even have them added to the application.
|
|
See :ref:`docs_more_custom_theme` for more details.
|
|
|
|
Switching the GUI colour theme does not affect the colours of the editor and viewer. They have
|
|
separate colour selectable from the "Document colour theme" setting in **Preferences**. They are
|
|
separated because there are a lot more options to choose from for the editor and viewer.
|
|
|
|
.. note::
|
|
|
|
If you switch between light and 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Project Search
|
|
--------------
|
|
|
|
A global search tool is available from the side bar. It allows you to search through your entire
|
|
project. The tool does not provide a replace feature. There is a search and replace tool available
|
|
in the document editor that acts on the open document.
|
|
|
|
.. versionadded:: 2.4
|
|
|
|
|
|
Switching Focus
|
|
---------------
|
|
|
|
If the project or novel view does not have focus, pressing :kbd:`Ctrl+T` switches focus to
|
|
whichever of the two is visible. If one of them already has focus, the key press will switch
|
|
between them instead.
|
|
|
|
Likewise, pressing :kbd:`Ctrl+E` will switch focus to the document editor or viewer, or if any of
|
|
them already have focus, it will switch focus between them,
|
|
|
|
These two shortcuts make it possible to jump between all these GUI elements without having to reach
|
|
for the mouse or touchpad.
|
|
|
|
|
|
.. _a_breakdown_export:
|
|
|
|
Building a Manuscript
|
|
=====================
|
|
|
|
The project can at any time be assembled into a range of different formats through the
|
|
**Build Manuscript** tool. Natively, novelWriter supports `Open Document`_, Microsoft Word Document
|
|
(known as `Office Open XML`_), HTML5, and various flavours of Markdown. You can also generate a PDF
|
|
document.
|
|
|
|
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 or Word Document format isn't suitable. The
|
|
Open Document format is supported by most office type applications, so is the Word Document format.
|
|
In addition, printing is also possible.
|
|
|
|
For advanced processing, 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 it into the novel documents.
|
|
|
|
See :ref:`docs_ui_manuscript` for more details.
|
|
|
|
.. versionadded:: 2.1
|
|
|
|
You can now define multiple build definitions in the **Build Manuscript** tool. This allows you
|
|
to define specific settings for various types of draft documents, outline documents, and
|
|
manuscript formats. See :ref:`docs_ui_manuscript` 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 are stored in other folders below the project folder. For a more technical
|
|
description of what all the files mean and how they're organised, see the :ref:`docs_technical_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, which means there is a smaller risk of losing data if the application or your computer
|
|
crashes.
|
|
|
|
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. All the JSON documents have line breaks and indents as
|
|
well, 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, as a rule,
|
|
manually edit files within it. If you really must manually edit the text files, e.g. with some
|
|
automated task you want to perform, you need to rebuild the Project Index when you open
|
|
the project again.
|
|
|
|
Editing text files in the ``content`` folder is less risky as these 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.
|