Feature map

At a glance

Plotscribe is a writing app for novels and screenplays, built around a World: the manuscript, the characters and places in it, the plan, and the research, kept together and linked. Available for macOS, Windows, and Linux. The desktop app is free, with every writing, planning, and export feature, and needs no account. A web app runs the same screens in the browser.

Each section below names the feature as it appears in the app and links to the guide that covers it in full.

• Free on desktop: write, plan, build your World, import, and export, with no account, trial, or licence.
• Optional Workspace sync ($5/month, including the owner): your Worlds across computers, editing in the browser, and live co-writing. Each additional collaborator is $2/month.
• Never gated: reading, search, and Personal export, on desktop or in the browser.

Library: Worlds and books

• Library — every World you have, shown as Covers or as a Table, with Search Worlds and sorting by Recently opened, Name, Word count, or Date created.
• Locations — filter by All Worlds, Local (desktop), or a Workspace. Online-only Worlds are listed too, and Save to device downloads one to the desktop.
• New World — choose where it lives: Local, Local + sync, or Sync only. A World starts with one book, and can hold several books that share its characters, places, notes, and plan.
• Books in this World — every book as Covers or a Table with chapters, status, and words. Switch books from the switcher at the top of the sidebar.
• World inspector — Format, Location, Sync, Words, a Genre picker (or type your own), and Snapshots.
• World actions — Open, Rename…, Reveal in Finder (Show in File Explorer on Windows), Export a copy…, Export as Word…, Export to folder…, Remove from Library, Delete local copy…, and Delete online….
• Copy detection — when a World looks like a copy of another, Plotscribe asks whether to keep it linked or make it its own.

Desktop files

• A World on desktop is a folder with project.plotscribe and its media. It is yours: copy it, back it up, or move it.
• Open a World folder… (Ctrl/Cmd+O) and Import a .plotscribe file… in the Library’s More (…) menu, plus Reveal Manuscripts folder.
• Works offline, with no account and no network.
• Check for Updates… in the app menu and in Settings → Appearance. An update saves your work, installs, and restarts Plotscribe.

Import

• Import from Scrivener or Markdown… — a Scrivener project (.scriv, with its binder and notes) or a folder of Markdown, as a Novel or a Screenplay, with a preview before anything is created.
• Import document… — a Word (.docx) or plain-text file as a new chapter, in a chosen book and Part, or as a note. For Google Docs, download as .docx first.
• A .plotscribe World file — Import a .plotscribe file… on desktop, Open a file… in the browser.
• Research sources — Add PDF… and Save web page… bring a PDF or a web address in as a note.

The editor

• Autosave, with the last edit shown under the chapter’s title in the toolbar.
• A selection bar with paragraph styles, bold, italic, and a passage note.
• Text and formatting (Aa) — Writing or Manuscript view, paragraph format, Prose or Screenplay, typeface and text size, Entity highlights (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+M), Import document…, and Running header author….
• Typefaces — bundled prose typefaces (Charter by default), plus the fonts installed on your computer on desktop, with font search.
• Writing view — a comfortable column in your own type. Manuscript view — the text against the book’s page layout, with a page count.
• Focus (Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+F) — hides everything but the text, fades every paragraph but the one you’re writing, and keeps your word count, daily goal, and session in a small bar.
• Outline beside the prose (Ctrl/Cmd+backslash), with Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+backslash to cycle its width. On desktop, the plan can also open in its own window.
• Word and page count under the page.
• Undo and redo for text, and a separate structural Undo for reorganizing.

Goals and writing sessions

• Today — the words you added in this World on this device, with an optional daily goal, at the foot of the sidebar.
• Writing sessions — start a timer from the toolbar. Its countdown stays visible on every screen, with pause.
• Session — plan a session with a word goal and tasks.

Chapters, Parts, and order

• Manuscript in the sidebar — New chapter, New part, Search binder, drag to reorder, Rename…, and Delete chapter….
• Parts — group chapters, nest Parts inside Parts, and choose where each sits.
• Status — Stub, Draft, Revised, or Final, shown as a dot on each chapter.
• Not compiled — keep reference chapters in the World without them going into the exported book.
• Reading order is kept separate from story time. A flashback can sit late in the book and early in the timeline.

Chapter context

• A panel beside the prose with Status, Part, When, Synopsis, and Chapter notes.
• Chapter plan — the plot points for this chapter, read from the same records as the planning board.
• In this chapter — every entity named or linked in the chapter, with counts.
• Margin notes, Linked from, Filed under, Unrecognized names, Unresolved links, Earlier idea notes, Versions, and Attached notes.
• Reference — open an entity or pin a note in the same panel while you write.

Chapter versions

• New version — try another direction for a chapter, starting from a copy of the version you’re editing.
• Make main version — choose which version goes into the book. Compile, exports, and word counts use it, and every version keeps its text.
• Compare — in Chapter versions, choose Compare, then pick the two versions under Compare and with. Redline reads removed and added words together; Side by side puts each version in its own column.
• Previous change and Next change step through the differences. Words shows each side’s count and how it changed.
• Comparing never changes either version. Make main version is still the only way the book changes. Export comparison (.docx) saves that chapter’s comparison as Word. Compare does not rewrite the prose, and it works offline.
• Rename or delete versions. Deleting keeps a snapshot of the World.
• In a synced World, each writer chooses which version they’re in, and writers in the same version type together.

Screenplays

• Writing format is set per book, so one World can hold a novel and a screenplay.
• Screenplay-aware elements, spacing, and columns: scene headings, action, character cues, dialogue, parentheticals, and transitions.
• Return and Tab move between elements, such as from a character cue to dialogue. Fountain-style text is supported.

Characters, places, and other entities

• All entities (Ctrl/Cmd+3) — browse records as a Grid or List, search, and sort by Name, Most used, or Least used. Each type has its own row under World in the sidebar.
• Templates — Character, Place, Object, Organization, Creature or species, and Event, or coin your own type.
• A record has Overview, Profile, Continuity, Notes, Relationships, and In the manuscript tabs.
• Also called (aliases), Tags, a Colour, a portrait, and a reference image.
• Details — named values grouped and pinned so they show At a glance.
• POV flag — mark viewpoint characters.
• In the manuscript — every mention with a snippet, and Previous mention / Next mention to step through them in the prose.
• Names stay prose — recognized names and aliases link to their records without brackets. Select a name and choose New entity to file it. [[Name]] wiki links are also recognized.
• Strangers — names in the prose with no record yet, listed so you can Make an entity, or add the name to an existing record as an alias.

Linked details

• Type a name, a period, and a detail (Mara.eye) to insert that detail’s value into the prose.
• The inserted word stays linked: change the record, and the sentence follows.
• Format each occurrence — capitalization, and numbers as words or digits.
• Each detail keeps a history of its edits.

Relationships

• Add relationship — connect two entities with a preset or your own words, with a Preview sentence that checks direction.
• Graph — the chosen entity in the centre with its connections around it, filtered by Family, Friends & allies, Rivals, Work, Places, or Other.
• List — the same connections as rows, with Edit and Remove relationship.

Continuity

• Continuity facts on each entity, with their source.
• Review states — Found in the prose, Confirmed, and Intentional.
• Plan flags chapters that read out of order against their story dates, and characters filed in two places on the same date.

Planning

• Plan (Ctrl/Cmd+2) — plot points and plot lines across the chapters of a book, or of the whole World.
• Views — Outline (chapter by chapter, with synopsis, cast, status, and words), By plot line (a lane per thread), and By entity.
• Unassigned plot points wait until you drag them onto a chapter.
• Plan connections — the plot line, beat, and chapters of whatever you select.
• Find a chapter, Make this a chapter, New book…, and Rename this book….
• Every move reports what it did, with Undo.

Frameworks and beats

• Frameworks… — start from a built-in structure or write your own, then edit, rename, or duplicate it.
• Edit beats… — name and describe the beats you want.
• Each plot line can follow its own framework.

Story time

• Set when it happens… — give a chapter a story date or period, in your own words.
• Order by story time — gather chapters under their dates, with a count of how many are dated.
• Reads out of order — a flag where story time and reading order differ.

Notes, annotations, and tasks

• World Notes — research and reminders, with Quick notes (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+K) from anywhere.
• Attach one note to several chapters and entities without copying it, and Detach when it no longer helps.
• Filter by All notes, Tasks, Unattached, By entity, By chapter, or Attached here, and search them.
• Sources — keep a PDF or a saved web page as a note, and Convert to text when you want to edit it.
• Passage notes — anchored to a selection, with a margin marker; orphaned notes are kept for review.
• Tasks — Add task from a note, then mark it done or Reopen it.
• Copy note, Delete note, and Undo delete.

Search and navigation

• Go to (Ctrl/Cmd+K) — chapters, entities and aliases, notes, books, and actions such as New chapter, New entity, Import document…, Add PDF…, and Save web page….
• Quick Lookup (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+F) — the World wiki: search records by name, alias, or detail, see Pinned facts and Connections, and Keep beside writing.
• Back and Forward through the screens you’ve visited.
• Ctrl/Cmd+1 for the chapter you last wrote in, Ctrl/Cmd+2 for Plan, Ctrl/Cmd+3 for entities, Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+L for the Library, and Ctrl/Cmd+B to hide the sidebar.
• Help — a short FAQ, a tour of where things are, and guided onboarding.

Export and compile

• Export manuscript, grouped by who it’s for.
• To an agent: Submission package (title page, sample, and synopsis files) and Manuscript (.docx) in standard format.
• To an editor: Word, styled, with named styles.
• To a shop: EPUB, and Print PDF in 6 × 9, 5½ × 8½, 5¼ × 8, or 5 × 8 inches.
• For yourself: Everything, as Markdown and Everything, as plain text.
• Options — Times New Roman or Courier, a sample of 3 chapters, 10,000 words, or the entire manuscript, a title page with byline, genre, category, agent, and contact details, and saved presets.
• World exports — Export a copy… (.plotscribe, with media), Export as Word…, Export to folder… (Markdown), and Download World in the browser.

Backups and recovery

• Snapshots — automatic checkpoints on structural changes, and named snapshots you take yourself, in the World inspector.
• Structural Undo for reorganizing, text undo for typing, and chapter versions for alternative drafts.
• Exports are independent copies you keep outside the app.

Sync

• Set up sync — upload a World to a Workspace and open it on your other computers or in the browser.
• Offline edits wait and send when you reconnect. The toolbar shows Synced, Changes waiting to sync, Connecting, or Sync needs attention.
• Encryption protects your synced writing, with a year of version history.
• Diagnose sync delays, in the connection status, captures timings you can copy for support.

Teams and live collaboration

• Team Workspaces — invite co-writers by email, copy an invitation’s link to send yourself, and revoke it.
• Roles — Read, Write, Export, and Admin, each including the ones before it.
• Live typing — write in the same chapter at once, with each collaborator’s cursor.
• Collaborators edit in the browser through the Workspace’s subscription; they don’t buy their own.

The web app

• The same screens in a browser, after signing in. Editing needs membership in a subscribed Workspace.
• Without one, existing Worlds stay readable, searchable, and downloadable.
• Download World saves a .plotscribe file to open in the desktop app.

Settings and account

• Settings… (Ctrl/Cmd+,) — Appearance, Typography, and Account.
• Color themes — Light, Dark, Cream, Nord, Dracula, Solarized Light, White, Black, or System.
• Account — your author name, sync and collaboration, password, and signed-in machines.