https://github.com/vkbo/novelwriter

novelWriter is an open source plain text editor designed for writing novels.
https://github.com/vkbo/novelwriter

editor linux macos meta-data novels novelwriter python qt5 synopsis text-editor windows writing-novels

Last synced: 8 days ago
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novelWriter is an open source plain text editor designed for writing novels.

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/vkbo/novelwriter
• Owner: vkbo
• License: gpl-3.0
• Created: 2018-09-22T15:40:59.000Z (over 6 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2025-04-20T21:12:09.000Z (13 days ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-04-24T08:06:42.988Z (9 days ago)
• Topics: editor, linux, macos, meta-data, novels, novelwriter, python, qt5, synopsis, text-editor, windows, writing-novels
• Language: Python
• Homepage: https://novelwriter.io
• Size: 37 MB
• Stars: 2,360
• Watchers: 27
• Forks: 139
• Open Issues: 125
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
  • Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
  • Funding: .github/FUNDING.yml
  • License: LICENSE.md
  • Code of conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

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README

        
# novelWriter

[![Linux](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions/workflows/test_linux.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions/workflows/test_linux.yml)

[![Windows](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions/workflows/test_win.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions/workflows/test_win.yml)

[![MacOS](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions/workflows/test_mac.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions/workflows/test_mac.yml)

[![Linting](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions/workflows/syntax.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/actions/workflows/syntax.yml)

[![CodeCov](https://codecov.io/gh/vkbo/novelWriter/branch/main/graph/badge.svg)](https://codecov.io/gh/vkbo/novelWriter)



novelWriter is a plain text editor designed for writing novels assembled from many smaller text

documents. It uses a minimal formatting syntax inspired by Markdown, and adds a meta data syntax

for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing. It's designed to be a simple text editor that allows

for easy organisation of text and notes, using human readable text files as storage for robustness.

The project storage is suitable for version control software, and also well suited for file

synchronisation tools. All text is saved as plain text files with a meta data header. The core

project structure is stored in a single project XML file. Other meta data is primarily saved as

JSON files.

For more details, and how to install and use novelWriter, please see the main website and

documentation.

**Project Links**

* Website: [novelwriter.io](https://novelwriter.io)

* Documentation: [docs.novelwriter.io](https://docs.novelwriter.io)

* Internationalisation: [crowdin.com/project/novelwriter](https://crowdin.com/project/novelwriter)

* PyPi Project: [pypi.org/project/novelWriter](https://pypi.org/project/novelWriter)

* Social Media: [fosstodon.org/@novelwriter](https://fosstodon.org/@novelwriter)

## Sponsors

  

  Free code signing on Windows provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.

## Implementation

novelWriter is written with Python and Qt6 with PyQt6 Python binding. It is released on Linux,

Windows and MacOS. It can in principle run on any Operating System that also supports Qt, PyQt and

Python.



  



## Project Contributions

Please don't make feature pull requests without first having discussed them with the maintainer.

You can make a feature request in the [issues tracker](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/issues),

or if the idea isn't fully formed, start a [discussion](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/discussions).

Please also don't make pull requests to reformat or rewrite existing code unless there is a very good reason for doing so.

Fixes and patches are welcome. Contributions related to packaging and installing novelWriter will

also be appreciated, but please make an issue or a discussion topic first. Before contributing any

code, please also read the full

[Contributing Guide](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).

Project credits are available in [CREDITS.md](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/CREDITS.md).

**Note:** New features and pre-releases are made on the `main` branch. Full releases are made from

the `release` branch. So if you're submitting a fix to a current release, **including changes to

documentation**, they must be made to the `release` branch.

### Translations

New translations are always welcome. This project uses Crowdin to maintain translations, and you

can contribute translations at the [Crowdin project page](https://crowdin.com/project/novelwriter).

If you have any questions, feel free to post them to the

[Translations of novelWriter](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/issues/93) issue thread.

## Licence

This is Open Source software, and novelWriter is licenced under GPLv3. See the

[GNU General Public License website](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html) for more

details, or consult the [License](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/LICENSE.md)

document. Bundled assets and their licences are listed in the

[Credits](https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/blob/main/CREDITS.md) document.