Manuscriptic

Manuscriptic is a writing app for authors. Notes and your manuscript live side by side in a binder. Rich text lets you control headings, fonts, and style. The manuscript can be compiled into a single document for reading, or for submitting for publication.

Download the latest Windows and Mac builds.

A binder of sections and scenes. Drag them into place.
Notes for characters, places, and research. Notes never compile.
Publishing pages for the title, copyright, dedication, epigraph, synopsis, query, acknowledgements, about the author, and a back page.
Snapshots kept inside the book file.
Compiles for different outputs, each with its own contents, structure, and formatting.
Word or PDF from Compile. The book itself is left as it is.
Rich text. A word can keep its own font and size. A paragraph can keep its own alignment.
Typewriter mode, statistics, and an inline spellchecker.
A dictionary for words this book spells on purpose.
Themes for the desk.
Import a project from Scrivener.

Binder

The binder is the book. It has three roots.

Manuscript is the story. The order here is the compile order.
Notes are for you: Characters, Places, Misc., and Research. Notes never compile.
Publishing holds the pages around the book.
A folder can hold other folders. Structure decides which levels print.
Select Manuscript, then New Scene or New Section.
Drag a row to move it.
Move to Trash takes a row out. Restore puts it back. Delete Permanently removes it.

Front and back matter

These are the pages around the story. They are not chapters. Compile keeps the type you set in the editor, unless Formatting says otherwise.

The title page open under Front Matter, with tokens in the text.

A new book puts Title page, Copyright, Dedication, and Epigraph in Front Matter.
Acknowledgements and About the Author start in Back Matter.
Synopsis, Query, and Back page sit beside those folders. A query is usually pasted into an email. It is not bound into the book.
Select the folder, then New Page.
The name in the binder is not printed on the page.
A word can keep its own font and size.
A paragraph can keep its own alignment. With none of its own, it uses the book's. Choosing the book's alignment again clears the paragraph's.
A new book is EB Garamond, 12 point, justified.
{$author}, {$title}, and the other tokens are filled when you compile. An empty one is named in the result.
Compile writes ticked front matter, then the manuscript, then ticked back matter, then the other ticked publishing pages. Each front or back page starts on a new page.

Snapshots

A snapshot is a copy of the book, stored inside the book file.

File → Take Snapshot records one and opens the shelf.
Snapshots in the footer only opens the shelf.
Take snapshot on the shelf records another. A manual snapshot stays until you delete it.
Automatic snapshots can be Off, 5 min, 15 min, or Hour. That choice belongs to this computer.
Automatic copies thin out. The last hour is kept, then one an hour for a day, then one a day for 30 days. Older automatic snapshots are dropped.
Restore this scene needs the open scene to exist in the snapshot you selected.
Restore the book replaces the book.
Import Scrivener… replaces the book, snapshots included.

Compiles

A compile is a named setup for one kind of output. Open it from File → Book Settings.

A new book has one compile, named Manuscript. New copies the one you are looking at.
You cannot delete the last compile.
The menu at the top of Contents, Structure, and Formatting chooses the compile.
Contents, Structure, and Formatting belong to that compile.
Author and Dictionary belong to the book. Every compile uses them.

Author

The name and address filled into tokens such as {$author}.

Use the author in Settings copies File → Settings. That author is for this computer.
Untick it to write an author for this book only.
Title, word count, year, and page number come from the book at compile.
The tokens are {$author}, {$pen}, {$address}, {$phone}, {$email}, {$title}, {$words}, {$year}, and {$page}.

Ticked rows are compiled. Notes are not in this list.

Contents, with The Gate unticked under The Tide.

Untick a folder and its pages stay out.
A ticked scene under an unticked folder is still written.
In the picture, The Gate is unticked, so that scene is left out.
Numbered folders are counted. Unnumbered keeps its title and stays out of the count.

Structure

The binder does not call a folder a chapter. Structure does, by how deep the folder sits.

Folder Level 1 is the outermost folder.
Chapters with scenes inside: Folder Level 1 is the chapter. It is included, and its title is printed.
Put a part around the chapters and Folder Level 1 becomes the part. It stays out until Include is ticked. The chapters are then Folder Level 2.
Number can be None, the folder name, 1, One, or i.
The number and the title can share a line, or take a line each.
Scene titles are off. Scenes break with #, or with * * *, or with a blank line.

Formatting

The ticks decide whether compile keeps the type from the editor. A word's font and a paragraph's alignment follow the same rule.

Manuscript uses the editor's fonts and sizes. Off, the manuscript uses this page: Times New Roman, 12 point, aligned left, double spaced, first line 0.5 in.
Front matter uses the editor's font, size, and alignment. On, so a front page keeps what you set while writing.
Back matter uses the editor's font, size, and alignment. On, for the same reason.
Turn a tick off and this page's font, size, and alignment replace that part. A word's own font, and a paragraph's own alignment, are kept only while the tick is on.
Margins start at 1 in. The header is {$author} / {$title} / {$page}. Page numbers sit in the header. The first page has neither header nor footer.

Dictionary

Words this book spells on purpose. They belong to the book, so every compile uses the same list.

Add a word here when the book spells it on purpose.
Remove takes it off the list.

Compile

File → Compile… writes a Word or PDF file. The book itself is left as it is.

Choose a compile, then Word or PDF.
The suggested file name is the book title.
The last choice is remembered for this book, on this computer.
Nothing ticked writes nothing.
An empty token is reported, as in 'Left blank: …'.
The file runs: ticked front matter, the manuscript, ticked back matter, then the other ticked publishing pages.