Septangular

User Manual

Everything Septangular does, and how to do it: every section of the app, every command and setting, how your book is kept on disk, and what to do when something goes wrong.

New to Septangular? The quick start takes a new book from its first page to a manuscript in seven steps. This manual is the full story, chapter by chapter: read it straight through, or go to the chapter you need. The appendices are for looking things up.

Download the whole manual as a PDF

Chapter 1Getting startedWhat you need, installing Septangular, your first book, opening and closing books, and how saving works.
Chapter 2The windowThe parts of Septangular’s window and how they behave in every section: the section icons, the sidebar, the editor and its header, the status bar, and the View menu’s choices for how it all looks.
Chapter 3ManuscriptWriting the book: its parts, chapters and scenes, the Title Page, the editor, splitting and combining, side by side, focus mode, the live preview, alternative drafts, Find, the Stash, and deleting safely.
Chapter 4OutlinePlanning the story as nested outline items with notes, linking them to the scenes that tell them, and seeing every plotline across the book’s chapters.
Chapter 5Story BibleEntries for the story’s characters, places and things, in categories of your own: adding them, their other names, renaming, moving and deleting them, and one bible for a series.
Chapter 6NotesText notes, web links, pictures, PDFs and Word documents kept with the book: adding them, finding them, opening them, and turning a note into a Story Bible entry.
Chapter 7StatisticsThe Overview’s gauges, cards and chart and how each number is worked out, targets and a due date, growth by part and chapter, and the book by status.
Chapter 8VersionsHow every save becomes a version of the whole book, auto-save and sessions, comparing and restoring, snapshots, a scene’s history, Find in History, and the writing record.
Chapter 9PublishingBuild configurations and the configuration editor, manuscripts, ebooks, print books and cover templates, front and back matter, editions, published editions and Septangular Publish.
Chapter 10SeriesSeveral books sharing one Story Bible and one history: making a series, the series bar, adding and ordering books, and box sets.
Appendix AMenus and shortcutsEvery command in Septangular’s menus, with its keyboard shortcut, and the keys that work in the editor and the sidebar.
Appendix BWriting scenesExactly what a scene file can hold, how each thing comes out in a manuscript, an ebook and a print book, how words are counted, and the files for front and back matter and the Story Bible.
Appendix CThe project folderWhat’s in a book’s folder and a series’ folder, what Septangular reads when it opens a book, changing files outside Septangular, backing up and syncing, moving a book, and where your own settings are kept.
Appendix Dbook.xmlThe full reference for book.xml, the file that describes a book: every element and setting, what’s required, the defaults, the messages Septangular gives about it, and series.xml.
Appendix ETroubleshootingWhat to do when a book won’t open, a scene is missing, a build fails or comes out as a sample, something needs getting back, or the window isn’t as you left it, and how to report a problem.