novelWriter icon
novelWriter icon

novelWriter

 23 likes

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

License model

  • FreeOpen Source

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Qt
3.8 / 5 Avg rating (4)
23likes
2comments
0news articles

Features

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Properties

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

Features

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

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novelWriter information

  • Developed by

    Unknown
  • Licensing

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

  • Rating

    Average rating of 3.8
  • Alternatives

    55 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English

AlternativeTo Categories

Office & ProductivityNews & BooksBackup & SyncFile Management

GitHub repository

  •  2,432 Stars
  •  147 Forks
  •  119 Open Issues
  •   Updated Jun 12, 2025 
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Our users have written 2 comments and reviews about novelWriter, and it has gotten 23 likes

novelWriter was added to AlternativeTo by C.A. on Sep 17, 2019 and this page was last updated Sep 25, 2024.

Comments and Reviews

   
 Post comment/review
Top Positive Comment
Guest
Dec 30, 2020
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

Top Negative Comment
davidhill01
Jun 14, 2023
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

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