novelWriter icon
novelWriter icon

novelWriter

novelWriter is a Markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many smaller plain text documents. It uses its own flavor of Markdown that supports a meta data syntax for comments, synopsis and cross-referencing between files.

Screenshot of older version

Cost / License

  • Free
  • Open Source

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Qt
  • Python
-
No reviews
25likes
2comments
0news articles

Features

Suggest and vote on features

Properties

  1.  Privacy focused
  2.  Lightweight
  3.  Distraction-free
  4.  Support for Themes

Features

  1.  Dark Mode
  2.  No registration required
  3.  No Tracking
  4.  Spell Checking
  5.  Tree structure
  6.  Support for MarkDown
  7.  Works Offline
  8.  Ad-free
  9.  Syntax Highlighting
  10.  Hierarchical Structure
  11.  No Coding Required
  12.  Full-Text Search
  13.  Automatic Backup
  14.  Live Preview
  15.  Task Time Tracking
  16.  Subtasks
  17.  Kanban Board
  18.  File Versioning
  19.  File Tagging
  20.  Comments and metadata saving
  21.  Plot visualisation
  22.  Outline organization
  23.  Scene Management

novelWriter News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent News

No news, maybe you know any news worth sharing?
Share a News Tip

Recent activities

Show all activities

novelWriter information

  • Developed by

    Unknown
  • Licensing

    Open Source (GPL-3.0) and Free product.
  • Written in

  • Alternatives

    61 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

Office & ProductivityNews & BooksBackup & SyncFile Management

GitHub repository

  •  2,657 Stars
  •  176 Forks
  •  125 Open Issues
  •   Updated  
View on GitHub

Popular alternatives

View all

Our users have written 2 comments and reviews about novelWriter, and it has gotten 25 likes

novelWriter was added to AlternativeTo by C.A. on and this page was last updated .

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Top Positive Comment
Guest
2

has just the right amount of structure to help with your writing, without getting in your way

It cleanly separates content from metadata, allowing you to leave in-line comments and headings in your writing, without polluting the finished product

as well as being open source, novelWriter is actively maintained

Review by a new / low-activity user.
davidhill01
0

Doesn't work on Win7 - "api-ms-win-core-path-l1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer" which is apparently due to Python withdrawing support upstream

Review by a new / low-activity user.

Featured in Lists

A list with 62 apps by xlin without a description.

List by C.A. with 62 apps, updated

A selection of tools to enhance your writing, creativity, and storytelling. From novel-writing software to …

List by Jezebelisgone with 40 apps, updated

A list with 15 apps by desbest without a description.

List by desbest with 15 apps, updated

What is novelWriter?

novelWriter is a Markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many smaller plain text documents. It uses its own flavor 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 organization 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 synchronization tools. The core project structure is stored in a project XML file. Other meta data is primarily saved in JSON files.

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.
  • Emphasized and strong text. These are rendered as italicized and bold.
  • Strikethrough text.
  • Hard line breaks using two or more spaces at the end of a line.

Features not supported in the editor are also not exported when using the export tool.

The core export format of novelWriter is HTML5. You can also export the entire project as a single novelWriter Markdown-flavor document. In addition, other exports to Open Document, PDF, and plain text is offered through the Qt library, although with limitations to formatting.

Other features include:

  • Syntax highlighting for the editor and syntax highlight themes
  • User interface themes including dark theme
  • Auto save documents and project files on a set timer
  • Document stats including word count
  • Easily organize files in root folders and sub folders
  • Assign tags to notes

More information can be found on the Github page.

Official Links