Veronica K. B. Olsen
146 lines
5.8 KiB
ReStructuredText
146 lines
5.8 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _a_started:
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***************
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Getting Started
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***************
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.. _main website: https://novelwriter.io
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.. _GitHub: https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/releases
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.. _PyPi: https://pypi.org/project/novelWriter/
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This section contains brief guides to how you can get novelWriter running on your computer. These
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are the methods currently supported by the developer. Packages may also be available in other
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package managers, but those are not managed by the developer. A Windows installer file is also
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provided on the GitHub_ releases page and linked from the `main website`_.
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As novelWriter matures, more options for how to install it and get it running will be added. For
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non-Windows users the install process is at the present time best suited for people used to working
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with the command line. But even if you're not, the install process is fairly straightforward.
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The next pages have specific install instructions for the various operating systems novelWriter can
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run on. The instructions below are supplementary information, instructions for alterbative methods,
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and additional build options.
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.. note::
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The text below assumes the command ``python`` corresponds to a Python 3 executable. For
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operating systems with both Python 2 and 3, the command ``python3`` may be needed instead. On
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Linux, the scripts can also be made executable and run without the ``python`` command. Likewise,
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``pip`` may need to be replaced with ``pip3``.
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.. _a_started_depend:
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Dependencies
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============
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novelWriter has been designed to rely on as few dependencies as possible. Aside from the packages
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needed to communicate with the Qt GUI libraries, only one package is required for handling the XML
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format of the main project file. Everything else is handled with standard Python libraries.
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The following Python packages are needed to run novelWriter:
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* ``pyqt5`` – needed for connecting with the Qt5 libraries.
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* ``lxml`` – needed for full XML support.
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* ``pyenchant`` – needed for efficient spell checking (optional).
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PyQt/Qt should be at least 5.2.1, but ideally 5.10 or higher for nearly all features to work.
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Searching using regular expressions requires 5.3, and for full Unicode support, 5.13. There is no
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known minimum version requirement for package ``lxml``, but the code was originally written with
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4.2, which is therefore set as the minimum. It may work on lower versions. You have to test it.
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Optionally, a package can be installed to interface with the Enchant spell checking libaries, but
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this isn't strictly required. If no external spell checking library is available, novelWriter falls
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back to using the internal ``difflib`` of Python to check spelling. This is a much slower approach,
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and it is less sophisticated than full spell checking libaries, but if you only work with small
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files, the performance loss is not noticeable. The spell check library must be at least 3.0 to work
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with Windows. On Linux, 2.0 also works fine.
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If you install from PyPi, these dependencies should be installed automatically. If you install from
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source, dependencies can still be installed from PyPi with:
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.. code-block:: console
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pip install -r requirements.txt
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.. _a_started_install:
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Installing via PyPi
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===================
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The application is written in Python 3 using Qt5 via PyQt5. It is developed on Linux, but it should
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in principle work fine on other operating systems as long as dependencies are met.
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You can download the latest version of novelWriter from the source repository on GitHub_.
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novelWriter is also hosted on PyPi_, and can be installed on all operating systems that support Qt5
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and Python 3. It is regularly tested on Linux, Windows and macOS. The latest version of novelWriter
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is |release|.
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To install from PyPi you must first have the ``python`` and ``pip`` commands available on your
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system. If you don't, see specific instructions for your operating system later in this document.
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To install novelWriter from PyPi, use the following command:
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.. code-block:: console
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pip install novelwriter
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To upgrade an existing installation, use:
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.. code-block:: console
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pip install --upgrade novelwriter
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When installing via pip, novelWriter can be launched from command line with:
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.. code-block:: console
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novelWriter
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Make sure the install location for pip is in your PATH variable. This is not always the case by
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default.
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.. _a_started_docs:
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Building the Documentation
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==========================
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If you installed novelWriter from a package, the documentation should be included. If you're
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running novelWriter from the source code, a local copy of this documentation can be generated. It
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requires the following Python packages on Debian and Ubuntu.
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* ``python3-sphinx``
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* ``python3-sphinxcontrib.qthelp``
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Or from PyPi:
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.. code-block:: console
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pip install sphinx sphinxcontrib-qthelp
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The documentation can then be built from the ``docs`` folder in the source code by running:
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.. code-block:: console
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make html
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If successful, the documentation should be available in the ``docs/build/html`` folder and you can
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open the ``index.html`` file in your browser.
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The documentation can also be built for the Qt Assistant. To build the help packages from the
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documentation source, run the following from the root source folder:
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.. code-block:: console
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python setup.py qthelp
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The setup script will copy the generated files into the ``nw/assets/help`` folder, and novelWriter
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will detect the presence of the files and redirect the menu help entry to open help locally instead
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of sending the user to the website. Pressing the :kbd:`F1` key will in any case try to open help
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locally first, then send you to the website as a fallback.
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.. note::
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In order for the local version of help to work, the Qt Assistant must be installed on the local
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computer. If it isn't available, or novelWriter cannot find it, the help feature will fall back
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to redirecting you to the documentation website.
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