Books, sections, drafts, and scenes

A book holds sections. Most sections are chapters. A section holds drafts, and a draft holds scenes. You write in scenes.

Sections#

The sidebar on the left lists every section, with its word count. The top of it says how many chapters the book has. Drag a section to move it. The section menu on a row lets you rename it, change its section type, take its number off, export it on its own, or archive it.

New chapter at the bottom of the sidebar adds a chapter in one click. The arrow beside it opens a short menu for the other types: a part, a story, or a prologue, a dedication, and an epilogue.

A new chapter has no title. It shows its number, such as “Chapter Two,” and takes the next number when you move it. Type a title above the first scene to name it. Clear the title and the number comes back. Press Enter in the title and the cursor moves to the first scene. A chapter you import without a title does the same.

Type /chapter in a scene to start a new chapter right after this one. It opens with the cursor in its first scene. Anything you typed is saved first.

The number beside a chapter is a Roman numeral. A chapter can be left out of the numbering from its section menu.

Front matter, body, and back matter#

Not every section in a book is a chapter. A section can be a dedication, a foreword, or a prologue at the front; a chapter, a part, or a story in the body; or an epilogue, an afterword, acknowledgments, or an About the author section at the back. Pick the section type from the section menu, or from the arrow beside New chapter to add a new one.

The sidebar sorts the book into those three groups, so a dedication written on day two sits at the front where it belongs rather than between chapters four and five. An export reads the book in the same order.

The group headings only appear once you have more than one group in use. A short story, or a novel with nothing wrapped around it, stays a plain list. Click a heading to collapse that group.

Drag a section into another group to move it there. It takes that group’s usual type: a prologue at the front, a chapter in the body, an epilogue at the back. Change the type from its section menu.

Two body types exist for books that are not novels. A part is a divider inside the story, for a book written in parts. A story is one piece on its own, for a collection. Neither takes a chapter number, so the chapters around them keep counting properly. A part holds no drafts and no picture. A book that starts with an empty part opens on the section after it. A part called by a number word, such as One, reads “Part One” in the sidebar and in Plan.

Your books#

The book menu at the top left lists your books, the one you wrote in last first and the sample book last. Pick one to switch to it, or All books to see them together, each with its cover, its word count, and when you last wrote in it. The feather beside the menu opens the same page. New book starts another.

The shelf lists your books in the same order. On that page, the New book tile at the end of the shelf turns into a title field when you click it. Type a name and press Enter, and the book opens. Escape puts the tile back.

A book with no cover picture gets a cover drawn from its title and author, and a long title is cut with an ellipsis. Point at it and press New cover for another one. The same button is on the cover in Settings > Book. A picture you add as the cover always replaces it. A book with a book goal shows a thin bar along its cover, filling up toward the goal. The sample book carries a small Sample tag, and a book with nothing written yet shows no date.

Import a book at the top right of the page brings in a file, and so does dropping a file anywhere on the page. It reads the same files as Settings and shows what it found before anything is written. See Import and export.

The archive#

Nothing in FoxQuill removes a section right away. Archive takes it out of the book: it leaves the sidebar, stops counting toward the word count, and stops appearing in an export, in a share link, or in anything the AI reads. Every draft, scene, and note on it stays exactly as it was.

An archive icon appears at the bottom of the sidebar once there is something in it, with the number beside it. Open it to put a section back in the book, or to remove one with Delete forever. That is the only way to remove a section. It asks first, and it cannot be undone. Close takes you back to the book. Beats planned on that section go back to the strip under the Threads board. Any share link to it is closed, as long as FoxQuill can reach the sharing service at that moment.

A section put back returns to its place in the book. Moving other sections while it was away can shift where that is by a place or two.

The Trash#

Deleting a book puts it in the Trash. The button is in Settings, at the end of the Book group. The book leaves the book menu and the list of books, and everything in it stays exactly as it was: every section, draft, card, note, and picture.

Trash appears at the bottom of the book menu at the top left once there is something in it, with the number beside it. Settings has an Open the Trash button too. Each book shows the day it was deleted and how many days it has left. Close takes you back to the book.

Restore puts the book back, whole.
Delete forever asks first, then removes the book and its pictures from this computer. This cannot be undone.

A book stays in the Trash for 30 days. After that FoxQuill deletes it forever the next time it starts, or within a day if it is left running. A backup you made earlier is a separate file and is not touched, and the daily copy in the data folder still holds any book that was in the Trash that day.

If every book is in the Trash, FoxQuill opens on the page for starting a new one, with the Trash under it. A link or a bookmark to a book in the Trash opens a short page with a Restore button instead of the book.

After the trial has ended, you can look in the Trash but not restore or delete from it, and nothing in it is deleted until you can write again.

Drafts#

Every section starts with one draft, called Draft 1, holding one empty scene. Add another when you want to rewrite a section without losing what is there. Only one draft is active at a time. The active draft is what the word count, the export, and the Library all read.

While a section has one draft, nothing about drafts shows on the page. To add a second, point at the top of the page, click the small label above the title, such as CHAPTER II, and choose New draft. When the title already says it, as “Chapter One” does, the label stays out of sight until Tab reaches it. That choice is there once Show more tools is on in Settings, or once a section already has two drafts. From then on a pill in the top left of the page names the open draft, and its menu switches, renames, duplicates, and deletes drafts.

A draft can have notes of its own, such as an outline for that draft only. See Notes kept for one draft. Duplicating a draft copies its notes too.

Deleting a draft takes it out of the section. Each scene with something in it goes to the Archive, where it can be put back, and the draft’s own notes move to the section. A scene with nothing in it is simply removed. Deleting the last draft is not allowed.

Scenes#

A scene is one run of prose. Hover a scene to see its controls. They fade away while you type and come back when you move the mouse.

Subtitle and POV are short labels for your own use. They show once Show more tools is on in Settings, or a scene in the book already has one.
Summary and notes opens a panel with the scene’s summary and its notes.
The menu moves the scene up or down, duplicates or deletes it, and opens its history. Deleting a scene sends it to the Archive with its notes and history, and Restore in the Archive puts it back where it was. A scene holding only a picture asks first before it goes.

A scene’s word count shows under it when you point at it.

Pasted plain text gets the same curly quotes, dashes, and ellipses as typed text.

To move a scene into another section, drag its card on the Corkboard, or its row in the Outline, both in the Plan tab.

Starting a new scene#

There are three ways, and each one puts the cursor at the start of the new scene, ready to type.

Press New scene at the end of the section.
Type /scene at the start of a line, or after a space, to split a scene at the cursor. The empty lines at the cut go.
Press Enter on an empty line that has another empty line directly above it. Both empty lines go, and a new scene starts there. The first time you press Enter on an empty line, a short note says so.

Press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) right after a split, before you type in the new scene, and the two scenes join again.

A line you draw in a scene with ---, or with *** and a space, shows the same small ornament that sits between scenes.

Paragraphs and drop caps#

Settings > Writing > Font, page, and paragraphs sets how a book’s pages are set. These are per book. What a new book starts with is set under Settings > This app > New books.

Paragraphs are Indented or Spaced. Indented works like a printed book: a first-line indent and no gap between paragraphs. The first paragraph after a heading, a line, or the start of a scene has no indent. Spaced leaves a gap between paragraphs and no indent. A new book starts Indented. A book made before this setting existed keeps Spaced until you change it.
Drop cap is Off, Classic, or Raised. It sets a large first letter on the opening paragraph of each chapter and story. A paragraph that opens with a quote mark or a dash gets none. A Classic cap also waits until the opening paragraph is long enough to sit beside three lines, in the writing view and in an EPUB, as in a PDF. A new book starts with Classic. A book made before this setting existed keeps Off.

The paragraph style is how the page looks while you write. An export sets its own indent under Page and type in Compile. The drop cap goes into a PDF or an EPUB as it is set here. A Word file leaves it out, and so does a standard manuscript. Tab does not indent in the text: the setting does.

Set aside#

Set aside cuts words out of a scene and keeps them, so cutting never costs you anything.

Select the words in a scene.
Press Set aside in the small toolbar that appears over a selection.

The words leave the scene. They are listed under Set aside in the Kept tab of the side panel, with the section they came from and the date. The panel opens on that tab when it is open. The tab shows only while something is in it. With the side panel closed, a small note beside the words says “Set aside” and has a Restore button, in case you cut them by mistake. If the save does not go through, the words stay where they were. Ctrl+Z right after puts the words back and takes them off the list.

Restore puts a passage back. FoxQuill finds its place by the words that were around it, even if you have written a lot since, and opens that scene. If those words are gone, the passage goes to the end of the scene. The menu beside a passage copies it or deletes it for good, and asks before the delete.

A passage you set aside is not in the book: it does not count toward the word count and is not exported.

Flags#

A flag marks a place in the text to come back to, such as a name to choose or a fact to check.

Press Ctrl+Shift+X (Cmd+Shift+X on a Mac) to drop a flag at the cursor. The side panel opens on its Kept tab with a note field, so you can say what the flag is for. The note saves as you type. Enter or Escape closes it and puts the cursor back in the text. In focus mode the flag is dropped and the note can wait.

Every open flag in the book is listed under Flags in the Kept tab, in reading order, with its note. Go to takes you to the flag in the text, in any section. Resolve removes the flag. Backspace over a flag in the text removes it too. A section with an open flag shows a small dot in the sidebar.

A flag never reaches an export, a share link, or a word count.

Find and replace#

Press Ctrl+F to find words in the section you are in, or Ctrl+H to find and replace them. A small box opens at the top right of the page. Every match is lit, and the one you are on is lit more strongly.

Enter goes to the next match and Shift+Enter to the one before. The arrows do the same.
Words you select in the text before pressing Ctrl+F become the search, and it starts from where your cursor is.
Match case tells capitals apart. Whole word finds “the” but not “then.”
A straight quote finds a curly one, so searching for don't finds don’t.
A flag in the middle of a word does not split it: “wonder” is found with a flag between any two letters, and Replace keeps the flag.
A card mention counts as its name. Replacing it changes the words it shows and keeps the link to its card.

Whole book searches every section. A list under the box shows each match with the words around it. Click one to go there, even in another section. Archived sections and drafts that are not active are left out, the same as an export.

Replace changes the match you are on and moves to the next. Replace all changes every match in the section, or in the whole book when Whole book is on. Before it changes a scene, FoxQuill keeps a copy of it in that scene’s History, marked “before Replace all.” Press Undo under the box to put every scene back. Anything you typed in them since is kept in History too.

Press Escape to close the box. The cursor goes back into the text, just after the match you were on.

Find looks in the text of your scenes. It does not search summaries, notes, or the Library.

History#

FoxQuill saves a copy of a scene as you write: whenever it has changed by about fifty words since the last copy, or ten minutes after the last copy if you are still writing. It also keeps one before a Replace all changes the scene, and one of the other version when another window or device saved the scene while you were writing in it. It keeps the last thirty. The scene menu’s History shows those copies with the date and the word count. Restoring one keeps the current version as a copy too, so nothing is lost either way.

Pictures#

Type /picture to put a picture in the text. /image still works. A section can also have one picture at the top of its page. Add a picture shows under the title when you point at the top of the page. Hover the picture and press the crop icon to choose which part shows and how close in. The picture itself is never cut.