Septangular
Chapter 1
Getting started
Septangular is a writing studio for novelists: one window for writing the book, planning it, keeping its world straight, tracking your progress and publishing it.
How Septangular keeps a book
A book in Septangular is an ordinary folder on your computer. Each scene is a plain text file in it, and a file called book.xml records the book’s shape: its parts, chapters and scenes in order, its title page, and the ways you build it. The folder also holds the book’s Story Bible, its notes, its outline and the history of every version you’ve saved.
Nothing is locked inside the app. You can back the folder up, sync it, or open its files in any other program, and Septangular sees the changes the next time it opens the book. Appendix C describes the folder in full.
Seven sections
Septangular’s window has seven sections, in the order a writer usually works. The icons down the left side of the window switch between them:
| Section | For |
|---|---|
| Manuscript | Writing: the book’s parts, chapters and scenes, the editor, and the title page. |
| Outline | Planning: the story’s beats and threads, each linked to the scenes that tell it. |
| Story Bible | The book’s world: an entry for each character, place and thing. |
| Notes | Research and loose scraps: text, links, pictures, PDFs and Word documents. |
| Statistics | Progress: targets, a due date, streaks, and words per day, chapter and status. |
| Versions | History: every save, snapshots, comparing and restoring. |
| Publishing | Building the book: manuscripts, and with Septangular Publish, ebooks and print books. |
Each has a chapter of its own in this manual.
What you need
Septangular runs on a Mac with macOS 12 (Monterey) or later, with Apple silicon or an Intel processor. Versions for Windows and Linux are planned.
It needs no internet connection and no account: your books stay on your computer, and Septangular never sends them anywhere.
Installing Septangular
Septangular isn’t released yet. When it is, you’ll download it from septangular.com; write to us to hear when it’s ready.
- Download Septangular from septangular.com. It comes as a disk image, a file ending in
.dmg. - Open the disk image, and drag Septangular to the Applications folder.
- Open Septangular from the Applications folder or Launchpad.
The same download runs on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
Your first book
The first time Septangular opens, it shows a welcome screen with two choices:
- New Project… starts a new book. Give it a title and choose where its folder goes. Septangular makes the folder with a first chapter holding an empty first scene, and opens the book on its Title Page.
- Open Project… opens a book you already have: choose its
book.xmlfile.
On the Title Page, fill in the book’s details and your own: your name and contact details go on the front page of every manuscript you send out. Then click First scene in the sidebar, and start writing. Septangular won’t make a new book in a folder that already has files in it, so a book never mixes with other files.
Your next book takes your name and contact details from the one that’s open, so you type them only once. The quick start follows a new book through its first hour.
Opening and closing books
Septangular shows one book per window. To open another, choose File → Open Project… ⌘O and choose its book.xml; to start one, File → New Project… ⌘N. A book that’s part of a series also offers its other books, as Chapter 10 describes.
Closing the window closes the book. Septangular keeps running with no window open, as Mac apps do; choose File → Open Project… or New Project… to open a window again.
When you start Septangular, it reopens the book you had open when you last quit. A book you closed before quitting isn’t reopened.
Saving your work
File → Save ⌘S saves the whole book at once: every scene, entry and note you’ve changed, and any change to the book’s structure, recorded together as one version of the book. The status bar at the bottom of the window says whether everything is saved.
Septangular also saves on its own every five minutes while there are unsaved changes. To change how often, or to turn it off, use Auto-save in the Versions section.
Until you save, changes wait: you can switch between scenes, and even sections, without losing them or their undo history. If you close the window or quit with unsaved changes, Septangular warns you first: choose Cancel to go back and save, or Discard Changes to close without them.
Septangular Ink and Septangular Publish
Septangular comes in two parts:
- Septangular Ink, the writing studio, is free: every section, for as many books as you like, with manuscripts in standard format, as PDF and Word.
- Septangular Publish is a one-time purchase that adds ebooks, print-ready paperbacks and hardcovers, cover templates, front and back matter, editions and box sets.
Without a licence, Publish’s ebooks and print books are built as a sample of their first three chapters, so you can try them first. To enter a licence key, choose Septangular → Septangular Publish…. Chapter 9 has the details.
Getting help
If something isn’t working as this manual says, see Appendix E. For anything else, write to info@septangular.com.