File Locations

novelWriter will create a few files on your system outside of the application folder itself. These file locations are described in this chapter.

Configuration

The general configuration of novelWriter, including everything that is in Preferences, is saved in one central configuration file. The location of this file depends on your operating system. The system paths are provided by the Qt QStandardPaths class and its ConfigLocation value.

The standard paths are:

• Linux: ~/.config/novelwriter/novelwriter.conf

• MacOS: ~/Library/Preferences/novelwriter/novelwriter.conf

• Windows: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\novelwriter\novelwriter.conf

Here, ~ corresponds to the user’s home directory on Linux and MacOS, and <USER> is the user’s username on Windows.

Note

These are the standard operating system defined locations. If your system has been set up in a different way, these locations may also be different.

Application Data

novelWriter also stores a bit of data that is generated by the user’s actions. This includes the list of recent projects form the Welcome dialog. Custom themes should also be saved here. The system paths are provided by the Qt QStandardPaths class and its AppDataLocation value.

The standard paths are:

• Linux: ~/.local/share/novelwriter/

• MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/novelwriter/

• Windows: C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\novelwriter\

Here, ~ corresponds to the user’s home directory on Linux and MacOS, and <USER> is the user’s username on Windows.

Note

These are the standard operating system defined locations. If your system has been set up in a different way, these locations may also be different.

The Application Data location also holds several folders:

cache

This folder is used to save the preview data for the Manuscript Build tool.

icons, syntax and themes

These folders are empty by default, but this is where the user can store custom theme files. See Customisations for more details.