Veronica Berglyd Olsen
147 lines
6.2 KiB
ReStructuredText
147 lines
6.2 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _docs_ui_projects:
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*****************
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Managing Projects
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*****************
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Your text in novelWriter is organised into projects. Each project is meant to contain one novel
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and associated notes. If you have multiple novels in a series, with the same characters and shared
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notes, it is also possible to keep all of them in the same project by creating multiple **Novel**
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root folders. See :ref:`docs_usage_project_roots` for more details.
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.. _docs_ui_projects_new:
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Creating A New Project
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======================
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You can create a new project from the **Project** menu by selecting **Create or Open Project**.
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This will open the **Welcome** dialog, where you can select the :guilabel:`New` button that will
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assist you in creating a project. This dialog is also displayed when you start novelWriter.
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A novelWriter project requires a dedicated folder for storing its files on the local file system.
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If you're interested in the details of how projects are stored, you can have a look at the section
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:ref:`docs_technical_storage`.
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A list of recently opened projects is maintained, and displayed in the **Welcome** dialog. A
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project can be removed from this list by selecting it and pressing the :kbd:`Del` key or by
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right-clicking it and selecting the **Remove Project** option.
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.. figure:: images/fig_welcome.jpg
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The project list (left) and new project form (right) of the **Welcome** dialog.
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Project-specific settings are available in **Project Settings** in the **Project** menu. See
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further details below in the :ref:`docs_ui_projects_settings` section.
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Details about the project's novel text, including word counts, and a table of contents with word
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and page counts, is available through the **Novel Details** dialog. Statistics about the project
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is also available in the **Manuscript Build** tool.
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Template Projects
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-----------------
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From the Welcome dialog you can also create a new from another existing project. If you have a
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specific structure you want to use for all your new projects, you can create a dedicated project to
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be used as a template, and select to copy an existing project from the "Prefill Project" option
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from the **New Project** form.
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.. _docs_ui_projects_settings:
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Project Settings
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================
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The **Project Settings** can be accessed from the **Project** menu, or by pressing
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:kbd:`Ctrl+Shift+,`. This will open a dialog box, with a set of tabs.
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General Settings
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----------------
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The **Settings** tab holds the project name, author, and language settings.
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The **Project Name** can be edited here. It is used for the main window title and for generating
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backup files. So keep in mind that if you do change this setting, the backup file names will change
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too.
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You can also change the **Author** and **Project Language** setting. These are only used when
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building the manuscript, for some formats. The language setting is also used when inserting text
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into documents in the viewer, like for instance labels for keywords and special comments.
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If your project is in a different language than your main spell checking language is set to, you
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can override the default setting here. The project language can also be changed from the **Tools**
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menu.
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You can also override the automatic backup setting for the project if you wish.
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.. _docs_ui_projects_settings_status:
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Status and Importance
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---------------------
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Each document or folder of type **Novel** can be given a "Status" label accompanied by a coloured
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icon with an optional shape selected from a list of pre-defined shapes. Each document or folder of
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the remaining types can be given an "Importance" label with the same customisation options.
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These labels are there purely for your convenience, and you are not required to use them for any
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other features to work. No other part of novelWriter accesses this information. The intention is to
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use these to indicate at what stage of completion each novel document is, or how important the
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content of a note is to the story. You don't have to use them this way, that's just what they were
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intended for, but you can make them whatever you want.
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Both status and importance labels can be exported and imported so you can share them between
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projects, or define a standard set for all your writing projects. When you import labels to a
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project, they are always added as *new* labels.
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See also :ref:`docs_usage_project_status`.
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.. note::
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Status or importance level currently in use cannot be deleted, but they can be edited.
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Text Auto-Replace
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-----------------
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A set of automatically replaced keywords can be added in this tab. The keywords in the left column
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will be replaced by the text in the right column when documents are opened in the viewer. They will
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also be applied to manuscript builds.
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The auto-replace feature will replace text in angle brackets that is in this list. The syntax
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highlighter will add an alternate colour to text matching the syntax, but it doesn't check if the
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text is in this list.
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.. note::
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A keyword cannot contain spaces. The angle brackets are added by default, and when used in the
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text are a part of the keyword to be replaced. This is to ensure that parts of the text aren't
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unintentionally replaced by the content of the list.
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.. _docs_ui_projects_backup:
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Backup
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======
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An automatic backup system is built into novelWriter. In order to use it, a backup path to where
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the backup files are to be stored must be provided in **Preferences**. The path defaults to a
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folder named "Backups" in your home directory.
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Backups can run automatically when a project is closed, which also implies it is run when the
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application itself is closed. Backups are date stamped zip files of the project files in the
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project folder (files not strictly a part of the project are ignored). The zip archives are stored
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in a subfolder of the backup path. The subfolder will have the same name as the **Project Name**
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defined in :ref:`docs_ui_projects_settings`.
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The backup feature, when configured, can also be run manually from the **Tools** menu. It is also
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possible to disable automated backups for a given project in **Project Settings**.
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.. note::
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For the backup to be able to run, the **Project Name** must be set in **Project Settings**. This
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value is used to generate the name and path of the backups. Without it, the backup will not run
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at all, but it will produce a warning message.
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