A markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many smaller plain text documents.
It is designed to be a simple text editor that allows for easy organisation of text files and notes, with a meta data syntax for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing between files, and built on plain text files for robustness.
Latest Release
Version 1.1.1 released on February 21, 2021.
Read the Release Notes.
Key Features
Easy Project Overview
novelWriter allows you to break down your novel in whatever way you need, and your documents can be dragged and dropped, and organised into folders.
Cross-references to your project notes are defined by convenient meta keyword/value tags. You can even insert comments.
Project Outline
The Outline tab gives you a quick overview of the structure of your novel in terms of your chapters and scenes.
It also shows you all the associated meta data and cross-references in user defined columns.
Build & Export
The Build Novel Project tool lets you assemble all your files into a single document. You can filter what to include and make a draft of your novel, or an outline showing all your notes.
The result can be printed or saved to HTML, Open Document, Markdown, Plain Text, or PDF.
Dark Theme & Syntax
novelWriter defaults to your system’s colour theme, but also comes with an optional dark theme.
You can also choose from a number of light and dark syntax highlighting themes, and between four Typicons icon sets for dark and light backgrounds.
Want to know more?
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Download & Setup
Linux
Pre-Requisites: Make sure you have at least Python 3.6 installed on your system. You also need the following python3 packages on Ubuntu/Debian, or equivalen packages if you use another OS and package manager:
sudo apt install python3-pyqt5 python3-lxml python3-enchant
Installation: Download the tar.gz file, extract it, and run:
./setup.py install
Launcher: To install launcher icons, you can also run:
./setup.py xdg-install
Further Details: Linux Setup
Stable Version
| Version: | 1.1.1 from Feb 21, 2021 | Release Notes |
| Download: | Minimal Package | Full Source |
Testing Version
| Version: | 1.2 RC 1 from Mar 2, 2021 | Release Notes |
| Download: | Minimal Package | Full Source |
Windows
Pre-Requisites: Make sure you have Python installed. Version 3.6 or above is required. If you don't have Python, you can download the latest version from python.org. Make sure you select the "Add Python to PATH" option during installation.
Installation: Download the zip file, extract it to where you want to
keep the novelWriter program files, and run the setup_windows.bat
file inside the extracted folder. This will install the Qt libraries and a couple
of other needed packages from PyPi, and set up desktop and start menu icons.
Further Details: Windows Setup
Stable Version
| Version: | 1.1.1 from Feb 21, 2021 | Release Notes |
| Download: | Minimal Package | Full Source |
Testing Version
| Version: | 1.2 RC 1 from Mar 2, 2021 | Release Notes |
| Download: | Minimal Package | Full Source |
macOS
Pre-Requisites: Make sure you have Python installed. Version 3.6 or above is required. These instructions assume you're using the Homebrew version of Python. For further instructions, check the Python brew docs.
Install dependencies from PyPi with the following from command line:
pip3 install --user pyobjc -r requirements.txt
You should also install the enchant library for spell check support:
brew install enchant
Installation: There are no dedicated install scripts for macOS yet. It will be
added at some point. Contributins from Mac users would be appreciated. You can run
novelWriter by executing the novelWriter.py script.
Further Details: macOS Setup
Stable Version
| Version: | 1.1.1 from Feb 21, 2021 | Release Notes |
| Download: | Minimal Package | Full Source |
Testing Version
| Version: | 1.2 RC 1 from Mar 2, 2021 | Release Notes |
| Download: | Minimal Package | Full Source |
For older versions, please check the Releases page.