.. _main_documentation:

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Documentation
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| **Release Version:** 2.8.2
| **Release Date:** Sunday, 25 January 2026
| **Docs Updated:** Sunday, 25 January 2026

**PDF:** :download:`novelWriter-2.8.pdf <../more/novelWriter-2.8.pdf>` [ :ref:`Other Versions <more_docs>` ]

novelWriter is an open source plain text editor designed for writing novels assembled from
individual text documents. It uses a minimal formatting syntax inspired by Markdown, and adds a
meta data syntax for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing. It is designed to be a simple text
editor that allows for easy organisation of text and notes, using human readable text files as
storage for robustness.

.. figure:: images/screenshot_multi.png
   :class: dark-light
   :align: center
   :width: 500

**Useful Links**

* Website: https://novelwriter.io
* Documentation: https://docs.novelwriter.io
* Public Releases: https://releases.novelwriter.io
* Internationalisation: https://crowdin.com/project/novelwriter
* Source Code: https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter
* Source Releases: https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/releases
* Issue Tracker: https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/issues
* Feature Discussions: https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/discussions
* PyPi Project: https://pypi.org/project/novelWriter
* Social Media: https://fosstodon.org/@novelwriter

.. toctree::
   :hidden:

   self
   More Documents <../more/index>

.. toctree::
   :caption: Getting Started
   :hidden:

   usage/introduction
   usage/organising_project
   usage/chapters_and_scenes
   usage/basic_formatting
   usage/comments
   usage/tags_and_references
   usage/alignment_and_indent
   usage/advanced_formatting
   usage/front_back_matter
   usage/howto

.. toctree::
   :caption: The User Interface
   :hidden:

   user_interface/main_window
   user_interface/projects
   user_interface/editor_viewer
   user_interface/split_and_merge
   user_interface/manuscript
   user_interface/statistics

.. toctree::
   :caption: Other Features
   :hidden:

   features/dialogue
   features/story_comments
   features/shortcuts
   features/vim_mode

.. toctree::
   :caption: In-Depth Topics
   :hidden:

   more/counting
   more/typography
   more/dictionaries
   more/customise
   more/handling_errors
   more/project_format

.. toctree::
   :caption: Technical Topics
   :hidden:

   technical/locations
   technical/storage
   technical/source
   technical/tests