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.
Features
Properties
- Privacy focused
- Lightweight
- Distraction-free
- Support for Themes
Features
- Dark Mode
- Works Offline
- No registration required
- No Tracking
- Spell Checking
- Tree structure
- Support for MarkDown
- Ad-free
- Syntax Highlighting
- Hierarchical Structure
- No Coding Required
- Full-Text Search
- Automatic Backup
- Live Preview
- Task Time Tracking
- Subtasks
- Kanban Board
- File Versioning
- File Tagging
- Comments and metadata saving
- Plot visualisation
- Outline organization
- Scene Management
novelWriter News & Activities
Recent News
Recent activities
- fthisimoverit liked novelWriter
forkingpaths added novelWriter as alternative to Fountain Markup- meowmiau liked novelWriter
- meowmiau reviewed novelWriter
full of features but can be as simple as you want it, works perfectly and is actively mantained. some of the features i like:
- being able to export in multiple formats
- importing dictionaries for spell checking
- easy formatting
- pretty themes and plenty of customization options
- offline, no ai forced upon your throat
- being able to write the chapters in scenes and then merge them in one
- an automatic time-tracker that records your writing sessions and tells you how much you've...
POX added novelWriter as alternative to Ferrite
arturoeanton added novelWriter as alternative to Rayuela Editor
leonisaiahdean added novelWriter as alternative to Novellier
softmizeappstudio added novelWriter as alternative to NovelShort- thinks Works Offline is a important feature of novelWriter
partialpoet added novelWriter as alternative to BookCatalyst
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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.
novelWriter information
Developed by
UnknownLicensing
Open Source (GPL-3.0) and Free product.Written in
Rating
Average rating of 4.7Alternatives
68 alternatives listedSupported Languages
- English
AlternativeTo Categories
Office & Productivity, News & Books, Backup & Sync, File ManagementGitHub repository
- 2,718 Stars
- 178 Forks
- 132 Open Issues
- Updated
Comments and Reviews
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
full of features but can be as simple as you want it, works perfectly and is actively mantained. some of the features i like:
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