Metadata-Version: 2.1
Name: novelWriter
Version: 1.0rc2
Summary: A markdown-like document editor for writing novels
Home-page: https://novelwriter.io
Author: Veronica Berglyd Olsen
Author-email: code@vkbo.net
License: GNU General Public License v3
Project-URL: Bug Tracker, https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/issues
Project-URL: Documentation, https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/issues
Project-URL: Source Code, https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter
Description: # novelWriter
        
        [![Linux (3.6)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/workflows/Linux%20(3.6)/badge.svg?branch=main)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions)
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        [![Linux (3.9)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/workflows/Linux%20(3.9)/badge.svg?branch=main)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions)
        [![Windows (3.8)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/workflows/Windows%20(3.8)/badge.svg?branch=main)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions)
        [![macOS (3.8)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/workflows/macOS%20(3.8)/badge.svg?branch=main)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions)
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        [![docs](https://readthedocs.org/projects/novelwriter/badge/?version=latest)](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest)
        [![release](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/vkbo/novelwriter)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/releases)
        [![pypi](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/novelwriter)](https://pypi.org/project/novelWriter)
        [![python](https://img.shields.io/pypi/pyversions/novelwriter)](https://pypi.org/project/novelWriter)
        
        <img align="left" style="margin: 0 16px 4px 0;" src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vkbo/novelWriter/main/setup/icons/scaled/icon-novelwriter-96.png">
        
        novelWriter is a Markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many
        smaller plain text documents. It uses its own flavour of Markdown that supports a meta data syntax
        for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing between files. It's designed to be a simple text editor
        that allows for easy organisation of text files and notes, built on plain text files for
        robustness.
        
        The plain text storage is suitable for version control software, and also well suited for file
        synchronisation tools. The core project structure is stored in a project XML file. Other meta data
        is primarily saved in JSON files.
        
        The full documentation is available at [novelwriter.readthedocs.io](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/).
        
        The contributing guide is available in [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md).
        
        
        ### Development Status
        
        The application is still under initial development, but all core features have now been added. The
        core functionality has been in place for a while, and novelWriter is being used for writing projects
        by the author and collaborators.
        
        No new major features will be added at this time, until the application is stable. Until then,
        novelWriter is in a _beta_ state. Please report any issues you encounter via the repository's issue
        tracker.
        
        You should be able to use novelWriter for real projects, but as with all software, please make
        regular backups of your data. There is a built in backup feature that can pack the entire project
        into a zip file each time the main window or the project is closed. Please check the documentation
        for further details.
        
        
        ## Implementation
        
        The application is written in Python 3 using Qt5 via PyQt5. It is developed on Linux, but it should
        in principle work fine on other operating systems as well as long as dependencies are met. The unit
        tests are run on the latest versions of Ubuntu Linux, Windows Server and macOS.
        
        
        # Installing and Running
        
        novelWriter is available on [pypi.org](https://pypi.org/project/novelWriter/), and can be installed with:
        ```bash
        pip install novelwriter
        ```
        
        To upgrade an existing installation, use:
        ```bash
        pip install --upgrade novelwriter
        ```
        
        Dependencies are installed automatically, but can generally be installed with:
        ```bash
        pip install -r requirements.txt
        ```
        
        Below are some brief instructions on how to get started on different operating systems.
        
        
        ## Linux
        
        Either download the source, or install with pip.
        
        If you run from source, install the dependencies via pip, or directly from the OS repo.
        There are very few dependencies, and they should be available in the standard repo.
        The Python packages needed are `pyqt5`, `lxml` and `pyenchant`.
        
        ### Installing from Source
        
        You can also install novelWriter from source with:
        ```bash
        python3 setup.py sample
        sudo python3 setup.py install
        sudo python3 setup.py launcher
        ```
        
        The last line will install the application icons and set up a launcher for novelWriter.
        The method uses hardcoded paths, so it may or may not work for your Linux distro.
        If you have any issues, please submit a ticket so the script can be tuned.
        
        The script may prompt you to choose which executable to configure if it finds more than one.
        
        ### Running from Source
        
        If you want to run directly from the source, the application can be started with:
        ```bash
        ./novelWriter.py
        ```
        
        You can also create a launcher for running directly from source with:
        ```bash
        python3 setup.py xdg-install
        ```
        This will install the launcher and icons for the current user.
        To install them system-wide, run the above command with `sudo` or as root.
        
        For more install options, see [Build and Install novelWriter](setup/README.md).
        
        
        ## macOS
        
        These instructions assume you're using brew, and have Python and pip set up.
        If not, see the [brew docs](https://docs.brew.sh/Homebrew-and-Python) for help.
        
        Main requirements are installed via the requirements file.
        You also need to install the `pyobjc` package on macOS, so you must run:
        ```bash
        pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt
        pip3 install --user pyobjc
        ```
        
        For spell checking you may also need to install the enchant package.
        It comes with a lot of default dictionaries.
        ```bash
        brew install enchant
        ```
        
        ## Windows
        
        On Windows, you may first need to install Python.
        See the [python.org](https://www.python.org/) website for download packages.
        It is recommended that you install the latest version of Python 3.8.
        
        To install dependencies, run:
        ```bash
        pip install --user -r requirements.txt
        ```
        
        **Note:** On Windows, make sure Python3 is in your PATH if you want to launch novelWriter from
        command line. You can also right click the `novelWriter.py` file, create a shortcut, then right
        click again, select "Properties" and change the target to your python executable and
        `novelWriter.py`.
        
        It should look something like this:
        ```
        C:\...\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38\python.exe novelWriter.py
        ```
        
        You can also run the `make.py` script to generate a single executable, or an installer.
        See [Build and Install novelWriter](setup/README.md) for more details.
        
        
        ## Package Versions
        
        Exporting to Markdown requires PyQt/Qt 5.14. There are no known minimum for `lxml`, but the code
        was originally written with 4.2. The optional spell check library must be at least 3.0.0 to work
        with Windows 64 bit systems. On Linux, 2.0.0 also works fine.
        
        If no external spell checking tool is installed, novelWriter will use a basic spell checker based on
        standard Python package `difflib`. Currently, only English dictionaries are available for this spell
        checker, but more can be added to the `nw/assets/dict` folder. See the [README](nw/assets/dict/README.md)
        file in that folder for how to generate more dictionaries. Note that the difflib-based option is
        both slow and limited.
        
        ## Debugging
        
        If you need to debug novelWriter, you must run it from command line.
        It takes a few parameters, which can be listed with the switch `--help`.
        The `--info`, `--debug` or `--verbose` flags are particularly useful for increasing logging output
        for debugging.
        
        
        # Key Features
        
        Some features of novelWriter are listed below. Consult the documentation for more information.
        
        ### Markdown Flavour
        
        novelWriter is _not_ a full-feature Markdown editor. It allows for a minimal set of formatting
        needed for writing text documents for novels. These are currently limited to:
        
        * Headings level 1 to 4 using the `#` syntax only.
        * Emphasised and strong text. These are rendered as italicised and bold.
        * Strikethrough text.
        * Hard line breaks using two or more spaces at the end of a line.
        
        That is it. Features not supported in the editor are also not exported when using the export tool.
        
        In addition, novelWriter adds the following, which is otherwise not supported by Markdown:
        
        * A line starting with `%` is treated as a comment and not rendered on exports unless requested.
          Comments do not count towards the word count. If the first word of the comment is `synopsis:`, the
          comment is indexed and treated as the synopsis for the section of text under the same header.
          These synopsis comments can be used to build an outline and exported to external documents.
        * A set of meta data keyword/values starting with the character `@`. This is used for tagging
          and inter-linking documents, and can be used to generate a project outline.
        * Non-breaking spaces are supported as long as your system is using at least Qt 5.9. For earlier
          version, non-breaking spaces are converted to normal spaces when saving the document. This is done
          by the Qt library.
        * Thin spaces are also supported, as well as non-breaking thin spaces, with the same library version
          restriction as above.
        * Tabs can be used in the text, and should be properly aligned. The width of a tab in pixels can be
          changed in Preferences. Note that for the HTML format, most browsers will treat a tab as a space,
          so it may not show up like expected. If you import the HTML file to Libre Office, for instance,
          they should appear as expected.
        
        The core export format of novelWriter is HTML5. You can also export the entire project as a single
        novelWriter Markdown-flavour document. In addition, other exports to Open Document, PDF, and plain
        text is offered through the Qt library, although with limitations to formatting.
        
        The HTML format is well suited for file conversion tools and import into other text editors.
        
        
        ### Colour Themes
        
        The editor has syntax highlighting for the features it supports, and includes a set of different
        syntax highlighting themes. The GUI also has an optional dark theme in addition to the default
        system theme.
        
        New themes can easily be added to the `nw/assets/themes` folder. Have a look in the existing folders
        for examples of how to define the colours.
        
        
        ### Easy Organising of Project Files
        
        The structure of the project is shown on the left hand side of the main GUI. Project files are
        organised into root folders, indicating what class of file they are. The most important root folder
        is the Novel folder, which contains all of the files that makes up the finished novel. Each root
        folder can have subfolders. Folders have no impact on the final project structure, they are purely
        tools for organising the files in whatever way the user needs.
        
        The editor supports four levels of headings, which determines what level the following text belongs
        to. Headings of level one signify a book or partition title. Headings of level two signify the start
        of a new chapter. Headings of level three signify the start of a new scene. Headings of level four
        can be used internally in each scene to separate sections.
        
        Each novel file can be assigned a layout format, which shows up as a flag next to the item in the
        project tree. These are mostly to help the user track what they contain, but they also have some
        impact on the format of the exported document. See the documentation for further details.
        
        
        #### Project Notes
        
        Supporting note files can be added for the story plot, characters, locations, story timeline, etc.
        These have their separate root folders. These are optional files.
        
        
        ### Visualisation of Story Elements
        
        The different notes can be assigned tags, which other files can refer back to using the `@` meta
        keywords. This information can be used to display an outline of the story, showing where each scene
        connects to the plot, and which characters, etc. occur in them. In addition, the tags themselves are
        clickable in the document view pane, and control-clickable in the editor. They make it possible to
        quickly navigate between the documents while editing.
        
        
        ## Licenses
        
        This is Open Source software, and novelWriter is licensed under GPLv3. See the
        [GNU General Public License website](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html) for more details,
        or consult the [LICENSE](LICENSE.md) file.
        
        Bundled assets have the following licenses:
        
        * The Typicon-based icon themes by Stephen Hutchings are licensed under
          [CC BY-SA 4.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). The icons have been altered in
          size and colour for use with novelWriter, and some additional icons added. The original icon set
          is available at [stephenhutchings/typicons.font](https://github.com/stephenhutchings/typicons.font).
        * The Cantarell font by Dave Crossland is licensed under [OPEN FONT LICENSE Version 1.1](http://scripts.sil.org/OFL).
          It is available at [Google Fonts](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Cantarell).
        * The Tomorrow syntax themes use colour schemes taken from Chris Kempson's collection of code editor
          themes, licensed with the [MIT License](https://github.com/chriskempson/tomorrow-theme/blob/master/LICENSE.md),
          and the main repo is available at [chriskempson/tomorrow-theme](https://github.com/chriskempson/tomorrow-theme).
        * Likewise, the Owl syntax themes use colours from Sarah Drasner's code editor themes, licensed with
          the [MIT License](https://github.com/sdras/night-owl-vscode-theme/blob/master/LICENSE), and the
          main repo is available at [sdras/night-owl-vscode-theme](https://github.com/sdras/night-owl-vscode-theme).
        
        
        ## Screenshot
        
        **novelWriter with default system theme:**
        ![Screenshot 1](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vkbo/novelWriter/main/docs/source/images/screenshot_default.png)
        
        **novelWriter with dark theme:**
        ![Screenshot 2](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vkbo/novelWriter/main/docs/source/images/screenshot_dark.png)
        
Platform: UNKNOWN
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3 :: Only
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.7
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.8
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: Implementation :: CPython
Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3)
Classifier: Development Status :: 4 - Beta
Classifier: Operating System :: OS Independent
Classifier: Intended Audience :: End Users/Desktop
Classifier: Natural Language :: English
Classifier: Topic :: Text Editors
Description-Content-Type: text/markdown
