Veronica K. B. Olsen
125 lines
5.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
125 lines
5.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _a_intro:
|
||
|
||
************
|
||
Introduction
|
||
************
|
||
|
||
novelWriter is a simple, multi-document plain text editor using a modified markdown syntax to apply
|
||
simple formatting to the text. It is designed for writing novels, and allows for the component
|
||
documents to be ordered freely to create the desired structure of the novel. More details about how
|
||
projects are structured is covered in :ref:`a_struct`.
|
||
|
||
In addition, the project can contain notes on the various plot elements, characters, locations,
|
||
etc, that make up the story. These notes are organised in a set of category-specific top-level
|
||
folders (root folders), and each entry can be tagged and cross-referenced from within the novel
|
||
documents and notes. These tags make it possible to inter-link documents, and generate an overview
|
||
of the entire novel project and how the various documents and plot elements are interconnected.
|
||
This is covered in :ref:`a_proj` and :ref:`a_notes`.
|
||
|
||
These additional features are not standard in markdown, but are available through special meta
|
||
keywords described in :ref:`a_struct_tags`. Syntax highlighting is provided to make it easier to
|
||
verify that the markdown tags are used correctly.
|
||
|
||
An overview of the supported markdown syntax is covered in :ref:`a_ui`.
|
||
|
||
|
||
.. _a_intro_design:
|
||
|
||
Design Philosophy
|
||
=================
|
||
|
||
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.
|
||
|
||
.. 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, and bold, italicised and strikethrough text.
|
||
|
||
The main window does not have a toolbar like many other applications do. This reduces clutter, and
|
||
since the documents are formatted with markdown tags, is more or less redundant. However, all
|
||
formatting features supported are available through convenient keyboard shortcuts. They are also
|
||
available in the main menu. A full list of shortcuts can be found in the :ref:`a_ui_shortcuts`
|
||
section.
|
||
|
||
In addition, novelWriter offers a :guilabel:`Focus Mode` where all the user interface elements
|
||
other than the document editor itself are hidden away.
|
||
|
||
The colour scheme of the user interface defaults to that of the host operating system. In addition,
|
||
a dark theme is provided, and can be enabled in :guilabel:`Preferences` from the :guilabel:`Tools`
|
||
menu. A number of syntax highlighting themes are also available in :guilabel:`Preferences`. A set
|
||
of icon themes in colour and greyscale are also offered. The icons are based on the Typicons_ icon
|
||
set designed by Stephen Hutchings.
|
||
|
||
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, and
|
||
the optional third panel is a document viewer which can view any document in your project
|
||
independently of the document editor.
|
||
|
||
A second tab is also available on the main window. This is the :guilabel:`Outline` tab where the
|
||
entire novel structure can be displayed, with all the tags and references listed. Depending on how
|
||
you structure your novel documents, this outline can be quite different from your project tree.
|
||
Your project tree lists individual documents, your Outline tree lists the structure of the novel
|
||
itself as it appears in the text of the documents.
|
||
|
||
.. _Typicons: https://github.com/stephenhutchings/typicons.font
|
||
|
||
|
||
.. _a_intro_project:
|
||
|
||
Project Layout
|
||
==============
|
||
|
||
You are free to organise your project documents as you wish into subfolders, and split the text
|
||
between 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.
|
||
|
||
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.
|
||
|
||
|
||
.. _a_intro_export:
|
||
|
||
Project Export
|
||
==============
|
||
|
||
The project can at any time be exported to a range of different formats through the
|
||
:guilabel:`Build Novel Project` tool. Natively, novelWriter supports export to Open Document,
|
||
HTML5, and various flavours of Markdown.
|
||
|
||
The HTML5 export format is suitable for convertion by a number of other tools like Pandoc, or for
|
||
importing into word processors. In addition, printing and printing to PDF is also possible.
|
||
|
||
It is also possible to 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.
|
||
|
||
A number of filter options can be applied to the produced document, allowing you to export 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 export features and formats.
|
||
|
||
|
||
.. _a_intro_screenshots:
|
||
|
||
Screenshots
|
||
===========
|
||
|
||
**novelWriter with default system theme:**
|
||
|
||
.. image:: images/screenshot_default.png
|
||
:width: 800
|
||
|
||
**novelWriter with dark theme:**
|
||
|
||
.. image:: images/screenshot_dark.png
|
||
:width: 800
|