Codicier

Codicier is a desktop app for authors who write books, stories, and essays.

What it does

Codicier keeps each writing project in a folder of plain Markdown files. A binder on the left shows the parts, chapters, scenes, notes, and research of the project. The page in the middle shows the text of one scene, or all the scenes of a chapter as one scroll. The inspector on the right can show the data of the selected item. The app saves the text one second after the last edit.

The app also does these things:

• It counts the words of the scene, the chapter, and the book. It shows the count against the word goal of the project.
• It keeps snapshots of a scene. It shows the differences between a snapshot and the current text, and it restores a snapshot.
• It writes a zip backup of a project when the project closes, and every hour while you write. The home screen shows the date of the last backup, and restores a backup as a new project.
• It searches the full text of the project, also with regular expressions. It replaces words across the manuscript.
• It has a focus mode with typewriter scroll.
• It shows the work as index cards, an outline table, a beat board, a plot grid, and a timeline in story time.
• It tracks a word target for each session, a goal and a deadline for the project, a history of the words of each day, and writing sprints.
• It has a codex of the characters, places, items, factions, lore, and terms of the story, with links from the text and a list of mentions.
• For essays and non-fiction, it maps each claim to its evidence, keeps a bibliography of sources with citations, keeps a bank of quotes, shows research images and PDF files, and tracks where each piece was submitted.
• It prints a chapter or the whole manuscript, or saves it as a PDF file.
• It exports the manuscript to DOCX, EPUB, Markdown, or PDF.
• It imports a Scrivener 3 project, a folder of Markdown files, or a Word file (DOCX).
• It has a command palette that finds every command and every item by name.
• It keeps the layout of the panes for each project. A key map file sets the key of each command.

The app runs as a native window. It does not use a web view. It works offline: it sends no telemetry and needs no network connection. Typesetting beyond a plain print is not part of the app.

The project is in development. Not all features are complete.

Requirements

• Linux. The app is built and tested on Arch Linux. Other systems are not tested.
• A C++20 compiler, such as GCC or Clang.
• CMake 3.21 or later.
• Qt 6.12 or later, with the Qt Base and Qt Declarative modules.
• toml++ 3 or later.
• git, for the versions of a project.
• Hunspell and pkg-config. For the spell check, also a Hunspell dictionary, such as hunspell-en_us or hunspell-en_gb.
• Optional: a MyThes thesaurus, for synonyms, such as the mythes-en package. The app reads the th_*.dat files in /usr/share/mythes.
• Optional: poppler-qt6, to show the PDF files of the research inside the app. The build uses it when pkg-config finds it. Without it, a PDF opens in the PDF app of the system.

On Arch Linux, install the requirements with this command:

sudo pacman -S --needed gcc make cmake git pkgconf qt6-base qt6-declarative tomlplusplus hunspell hunspell-en_us

The fonts Literata and Inter are in the repo. The app has them inside the program file.

Install

1. Get the source code:

   git clone https://github.com/Orpheus-21/codicier.git
   cd codicier
   

2. Configure the build:

   cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
   

3. Build the app:

   cmake --build build -j "$(nproc)"
   

4. Start the app:

   build/codicier
   

To run the tests, use this command after step 3:

ctest --test-dir build

Usage

At the first start, choose a folder for your writing. This folder is a workspace. Each project in it is a folder. Click "New project" to make a project. Choose one of these kinds: blank, short story, novella, novel, series, essay, essay collection, or non-fiction book. Each kind starts with its own structure of items, and the dialog shows that structure before you create the project. A blank project has one scene and no word goal. "Create" opens the new project on its first scene.

In an empty workspace, click "Open a sample" to open a short sample novel. The sample has chapters, scenes, codex entries, relations, plotlines, beats, tension ratings, and dates in the story. The app opens the sample from a temporary folder, outside the workspace. It does not show in the list of projects, and it has no backup. A banner says so. When you close the sample, the app deletes it.

The home screen shows each project with its author, its kind, its words, and the date of the last edit.

Type in the search field at the top of the home screen to search the text of every project in the workspace. The search needs two letters or more. It ignores case. Each result shows the project, the scene, and the words near the match. The first 50 results show. Click a result to open the project at that scene. The trash and the saved searches stay out.

Each project row has a restore button and a menu button:

• The restore button lists the zip backups of the project. Choose one to unpack it as a new project. The new folder has " (restored)" after the name, and so has the new title. The old project does not change.
• "Rename…" gives the project a new title and a new folder name. The app refuses if another window has the project open. The backups of the project keep their link to it.
• "Make a copy" makes a project with " (copy)" after its title. The copy has no .codicier folder.
• "Export as a zip…" writes the project to one zip file that you choose.
• "Move to the archive" moves the project to the archive folder in the workspace. The app does not bring a project back from the archive. Move the folder by hand to bring it back.

Every scene opens at the cursor and the scroll place where you left it. The project keeps these places when it closes.

The first time you open a project, three hints point at the binder, the page, and the command palette. Press Escape or click a hint to see the next one.

In a project, the arrow at the top left goes back to the workspace. Hover over a button at the top right to see its name and its key.

The command palette

Press Ctrl+Shift+P and type a part of a name. The palette lists the commands and the items of the binder that match. Up and Down choose a line. Enter runs the command or opens the item.

Keys in the project

These are the default keys. The key map file can change each key. See "Configuration".

Key	Action
Ctrl+Shift+P	Find a command or an item.
Ctrl+B	Make the selection, or the word at the cursor, bold. Press again to undo the bold.
Ctrl+I	Make the selection, or the word at the cursor, italic. Press again to undo the italic.
Ctrl+F	Find in the open scene. Enter goes to the next match, and Shift+Enter to the match before.
Ctrl+R	Find and replace in the open scene.
Ctrl+Shift+R	Track and review the changes of the open text.
Ctrl+Shift+H	Highlight the selection, or the word at the cursor, with == marks. Press again to take the highlight away.
Ctrl+=	Make the text of the page larger.
Ctrl+-	Make the text of the page smaller.
Ctrl+0	Put the text of the page back to 19 px.
Alt+Left	Go back to the text that was open before, with the cursor where you left it.
Alt+Right	Go forward again.
Ctrl+\	Show the text before this one on a second page, or close the second page.
F6	Move to the next pane: the binder, the page, then the inspector.
Ctrl+N	Make a new scene.
Ctrl+Shift+N	Make a new chapter.
Ctrl+Alt+N	Make a new part.
Ctrl+Alt+M	Make a new note.
F2	Rename the item.
Ctrl+K	Split the scene at the cursor.
Ctrl+Shift+J	Merge the scene with the next scene.
Ctrl+Shift+Del	Move the item to the trash.
Ctrl+Shift+S	Take a snapshot of the open text.
Ctrl+Shift+C	Open the codex.
Ctrl+Shift+A	Add a quick idea to the Ideas note.
Ctrl+,	Open the settings.
Ctrl+Shift+K	Show or hide the corkboard.
Ctrl+Shift+O	Show or hide the outliner.
Ctrl+Alt+K	Comment on the selected words.
Ctrl+Alt+O	Show the open comments.
Ctrl+Shift+G	Open goals and progress.
Ctrl+Shift+T	Start or stop a sprint.
Ctrl+Shift+F	Search the project.
Ctrl+H	Replace across the manuscript.
Ctrl+Shift+B	Show or hide the binder.
Ctrl+Shift+I	Show or hide the inspector. If your key map file still has the old default, Ctrl+I, the app moves it to Ctrl+Shift+I.
F11	Start or stop focus mode.
Escape	Stop focus mode, or close the search panel.
Ctrl+P	Print a chapter or the manuscript, or save it as a PDF file.
Ctrl+E	Export the manuscript.
Ctrl+W	Close the project and go back to the workspace.
F1	Show every command and its key.

The views and dialogs that you open less often, such as the timeline, the insights, the plot grid, and the sources, have no key. Run them from the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P), or give them a key in the key map. The default keys leave alone the keys of input methods such as fcitx5 and IBus.

Tab types a tab character on the page. Use F6 to move the keyboard focus to the page and away from the page.

Each view and dialog works with the keyboard alone. When a view opens, the keyboard focus goes into it. Tab moves to each control, card, and node, and a ring shows the focus. Return or Space opens the card or the node with the focus. Each view and dialog has a name for screen readers.

The page hides the Markdown marks, such as the # of a heading and the stars of bold and italic, outside the paragraph with the cursor. The file keeps every mark, and a copy of the text includes them. The setting "Markdown marks" shows them everywhere.

As you type, the page changes straight quotes to curly quotes, -- to an em dash, and ... to an ellipsis. Press Ctrl+Z once to get back the characters that you typed. The settings turn each change off.

The status bar shows the words of the scene, the chapter, the book, and the session. With text selected, it also shows the words of the selection. At the right end, it shows "Saved", "Saving", or "Not saved". "Not saved" stays until a save works.

The inspector shows the reading time of the open item, and the insights show the reading time of each chapter and of the manuscript. The time uses 238 words a minute, the average speed of silent reading for adults.

In the binder, Ctrl+click adds an item to the selection, and Shift+click selects the items from the open item to the clicked one. The binder menu then sets the status, adds a tag, or moves to the trash on all selected items, and a drag moves all of them. The binder menu also gives an item a colour label, which the binder, the outliner, and the cards show, and duplicates an item with everything below it.

"Make names for characters" in the command palette makes names: real names, or names invented in the style of a culture, for 14 cultures. Click a name to add it to the codex as a character. The name lists come from Wikidata, which is in the public domain (CC0).

On the page, the names and aliases of the codex have a quiet underline. A pause over a name shows the start of its entry, and Ctrl+click opens it. The corkboard can colour each card by its point of view character, and the inspector of a scene has optional fields for its goal, conflict, and outcome.

The corkboard and the outliner show the open chapter, or every scene of the book with "Whole book". The project keeps the choice. The corkboard shows the cards in a grid. Older projects can hold card places from the free board of earlier versions. The app keeps them in binder.toml and does not show them.

"New idea canvas" in the add menu of the binder makes a canvas with the notes. Double-click the canvas for a note, add cards of the texts of the manuscript, and drag from the dot on the right of a node to another node to draw a line. Click a node and press Delete to remove it. The canvas saves to a file in canvases/.

Ctrl+Shift+R opens the changes panel. "Track changes" keeps the open text as it is now. From then on, the page underlines each insert and marks each deletion, and the panel lists every change with the removed words struck through. "Accept" keeps a change, and "Reject" puts the old words back. "Accept all and stop" ends the tracking.

The insights also list the phrases of three to six words that come back in other scenes, the names of the codex by their mentions, and the words per sentence of each chapter. For an English project they give the Flesch reading ease too.

Goals and progress (Ctrl+Shift+G) set a word goal for each day. The status bar then shows the words of today against it, and the days in a row. The dialog also shows the minutes of writing today, a history grid with month and weekday labels, and a chart of the words of the last 30 sessions. A session ends when a project closes. When a sprint ends, the window asks for attention.

The project menu turns on numbers for the chapters and the scenes in the binder and the outliner. The titles do not change.

Right-click a misspelled word on the page to see spelling suggestions. Right-click a correct word to see its synonyms from the thesaurus. Click a word in the list to put it in place of the word on the page.

The project menu, under the title of the project, chooses the spelling language from the Hunspell dictionaries on the computer. The settings list the dictionaries.

Right-click an item in the binder and choose "Open beside" to show it on a second page next to the main page. Each page saves its own text.

In focus mode, the paragraph with the cursor stays bright and the other paragraphs are dim. The settings choose the sentence in place of the paragraph, the words between double quotes only, or no dimming. With the dialogue choice, the narration is dim and the dialogue stays bright.

An edit that removes 600 characters or more at once (about 100 words) takes a snapshot first. The snapshot has the title "Before large deletion" and holds the text as it was before the edit.

Copy and cut put plain text and rich text on the clipboard. Both have no Markdown marks.

Press Ctrl+Shift+A to add a quick idea. Type one line and press Enter. The app adds the line with the date to the end of the note "Ideas", and makes the note if the project has none. The open item and the focus stay where they are.

The command "Leave a note for next time" in the command palette keeps one line in the project. The project shows the line at the top when it opens, until you click "Done".

Undo works across a restart: each save keeps the last 20 saved states of a text in .codicier/undo/ in the project folder, and Ctrl+Z steps back through them when the text opens again. A change from another program starts a new history.

When you open a chapter or a part, its scenes show as one page. The project menu, under the title of the project, chooses the mark between two scenes: * * *, #, or a blank line.

Keys in the binder

Key	Action
Up, Down	Select the item above or below.
Left, Right	Close or open the item.
Enter	Open the item and move to the page.
Alt+Up, Alt+Down	Move the item up or down.
F2	Rename the item.
Delete	Move the item to the trash.

You can also drag an item to a new place in the binder. A right click on an item opens a menu with more actions, such as "Merge with next scene" and "Restore".

Drag the line between two panes to change the width of a pane. The buttons at the top right of the page show or hide the binder and the inspector. The app saves the open item, the open panes, and their widths for each project.

The inspector

The inspector shows the data of the selected item: synopsis, status, point of view, place, time, word target, tags, and notes. A scene can also have a tension rating from 1 to 5. The "Manuscript" choice leaves an item out of the word count of the book. The inspector also lists the snapshots of a scene. Click "Compare" to see the differences, or "Restore" to go back to a snapshot.

Views of the work

The buttons at the top right of the page, and the keys in the table above, change what the middle of the window shows.

• Corkboard: the items in the open chapter, part, or folder as index cards, with their synopsis. Drag a card onto another card to change the order in the binder. Click a card to open it.
• Outliner: the texts under the open item as a table, with status, POV, place, time, words, and custom fields. Click a header to sort the table.
• Beat board: choose a plot framework (three acts, Save the Cat, the Hero's Journey, Kishōtenketsu, or Snowflake), then drag scenes onto its beats.
• Plot grid: the scenes against the plotlines. Click a cell to put a scene on a plotline, or drag a mark to another plotline. Add plotlines in the inspector of a scene.
• Timeline: the scenes and entities with a date in the story, on a track for each POV character or each plotline.
• Relationship graph: the characters, and the other entities with a relation, with an arrow for each relation. The choice "Family" at the top shows the family tree instead: the people with a parent link, one row for each generation. The command "Show or hide the family tree" opens that layout.
• Insights: charts of the manuscript. They show the words of each chapter and scene, the share of each POV and of dialogue in each chapter, the 30 most used words without common English words, and how often each character of the codex is named in each chapter. They also list the scenes with no POV, date, or synopsis, and the scenes still in draft in a chapter that is marked final. When you rate scenes, they draw one tension line across the book. Click a scene in a list to open it.

Give a scene or an entity a date in its inspector, as year-month-day, such as 1847-03-04. To use your own months, choose "Edit the calendar of the story" in the command palette and write one month on each line with its number of days, such as Frostmonth 40.

Goals and progress

Press Ctrl+Shift+G to set a word target for one session, and a word goal and a deadline for the project. The status bar shows the words of the session and the words to write each day to reach the goal. The dialog also shows a heat map of the words of each day, from history.toml in the project folder, and your streak of days in a row. Press Ctrl+Shift+T to start a writing sprint. The length is 25 minutes by default, and you can change it in the same dialog.

The codex

The codex holds the entities of the story: characters, places, items, factions, lore, and terms. Each entity has a page for its description, like a scene. Press Ctrl+Shift+C to open the codex panel. The panel groups the entities by type and has a filter field. Use its + button to add an entity.

The inspector of an entity shows these parts:

• Aliases: other names of the entity, split by commas.
• A field for each field of its type.
• Mentions: each text of the manuscript that names the entity by its title or an alias, with the count of mentions. Click a line to open the text.

The codex list shows the first scene in which each entity appears. Below the list, the panel offers names that come back four times or more inside a sentence and have no entry. Click a name to add it as a character.

To add fields to a type, or to make a new type such as "Ships", choose "Types and fields" in the + menu of the codex panel. The app saves the types and their fields in project.toml.

To link two entities, open one, type the name of the relation in its inspector, such as "sister of", and choose the other entity in the "Link to" menu. Choose "Parent of" for a parent link of the family tree.

To add a map, choose "New map…" in the add menu, and choose an image. The app copies the image into the project. Right-click the map to pin a place of the codex. Click a pin to open its place, drag it to move it, or right-click it to remove it.

To link to an entity, type [[ on the page. A list of entities opens under the cursor and filters as you type. Press Enter or Tab to insert the link, such as [[Mara Vell]]. Press Escape to close the list. Ctrl+click a link to open the entity. A link also finds an entity by an alias.

Versions

A project can keep versions of all its files. Choose "Turn on versions" in the project menu or the command palette, or click "Turn on versions" in the empty versions panel. The app makes a git repository in the project folder, or uses the repository that already holds the folder, and saves a first version. You do not need to know git: the app runs it for you, and never uses the network.

• Press Ctrl+Alt+S to save a version with a short message. By default, the app also saves a version when a project with changes closes.
• Choose "Show the versions" in the command palette to see the versions of the project. The inspector of a text lists the versions of that text.
• Click "Compare" next to a version in the inspector to see the changes since that version, word by word.
• Restore a text from the compare view, or the whole project from the list of versions. Before a restore, the app saves a version of the state before, so you can undo a restore.

Spelling and style

The page underlines each word that the dictionary does not know. The app uses the Hunspell dictionary for the language of the project, and works offline. Right-click an underlined word to see suggestions, or to add the word to the project dictionary, dictionary.txt in the project folder. The names and aliases of the codex count as known words.

The settings can also mark repeated words, filter words such as "just" and "seemed", adverbs that end in -ly, and passive voice. Each mark is a soft tint. These marks are off by default.

Revision

A draft pass is one round of revision. Choose "Draft passes" in the command palette, name the pass, and start it. The app keeps a snapshot of each text at the start of each pass. With "Tint the passes" on, the page gives the words of each pass a soft background in the color of that pass.

Choose "Show or hide the revision checklist" in the command palette. Choose a pass, add checks such as "Cut filter words", and tick each check for each chapter.

Select words on the page and press Ctrl+Alt+K to add a comment. A dotted line marks the commented words. Press Ctrl+Alt+O to see every open comment. Click a comment to open its text with the words selected, and click "Resolve" when it is done. The comments are in binder.toml, so the Markdown files stay prose only.

Essays and research

The tools for essays (the argument map, the sources, and the quote bank) show in essays, essay collections, and non-fiction projects. The setting "Tools for essays" shows them in every project. A new essay starts with the parts of an argument: a thesis, two claims, the counter-arguments, a conclusion, and an evidence note. In an essay, an essay collection, or a non-fiction project, the inspector sets the part of the argument of each text. For an evidence item, the inspector also chooses the claims that it supports. Choose "Show or hide the argument map" in the command palette. It shows the thesis, each claim with its evidence, the counter-arguments, and the conclusion, and it marks each claim with no evidence.

Choose "Edit the sources" in the command palette to add, change, or remove the sources of the project. The app gives each source a key, such as kurlansky2002. Type [@ on the page to choose a source, and press Enter to insert its key as [@kurlansky2002]. Type ; @ inside the brackets to add a second source. A pause on a key shows the source.

Choose "Show the quote bank" in the command palette. Add the words of a quote, choose its source, and type its page. Drag a quote onto the page, or press Return or click "Insert", to put it at the cursor with its citation, such as “…” [@kurlansky2002, p. 12].

To add a research file, click the add button of the binder and choose "Add a research file". The app copies the file into research/. An image shows fit to the page, and a PDF shows its pages. Another kind of file opens in its own app. The inspector of a research file links it to texts, and the inspector of a text lists its research files.

Choose "Track the submissions" in the command palette to record a submission: the piece, where it went, and the date. The list shows the open submissions first. Choose Accepted, Rejected, or Withdrawn to close one, or click "All" to see every submission.

Print

Press Ctrl+P. Choose "This chapter" or "The whole manuscript", and choose a printer or "Save as PDF". The print uses the font and the size of the page. Each chapter starts on a new page with its title, the scene break mark of the project comes between scenes, and each page has a number at the foot. Scenes that are left out of the manuscript stay out. A project with two or more books (folders or parts at the top of the manuscript) also offers each book as a choice. The paper is Letter in the United States and A4 in other places, with margins of 25 mm.

Export

Press Ctrl+E, choose a format, and click "Export". The file holds every chapter in reading order, without the scenes that are left out of the manuscript. A project with two or more books (folders or parts at the top of the manuscript) also offers each book. The export then holds that book only and uses its title.

Format	What you get
Word (DOCX)	A title page, then each chapter as a heading that starts a new page. Bold, italic, and the scene break mark carry over.
EPUB	An e-book with a title page, one file for each chapter, and a table of contents.
PDF	The same pages as a print, in the font and the size of the page.
Markdown	One file: the title, then each chapter as a ## heading with its scenes.

The app writes DOCX and EPUB itself, so the export needs no other program.

Import

On the home screen, click "Import" and choose what to import. The app makes a new project in the workspace with the name of the source and opens it. An import only reads the source and never changes it.

Source	What you get
A Scrivener project	See "Import from Scrivener" below.
A folder of Markdown files	Each .md file becomes a scene, in the natural order of the file names, so 2 comes before 10. Each subfolder with .md files becomes a chapter. A first line # Title becomes the title of the scene; else the file name does.
A project zip	A zip that "Export as a zip…" or a backup wrote. The new project has the name of the zip file and keeps its title.
A Word file (DOCX)	The headings of the highest level start the chapters. A paragraph of ***, * * *, or # starts a new scene. Bold, italic, and line breaks carry over, and the title page stays out.

Import from Scrivener

Choose "A Scrivener project" and choose the folder of a Scrivener 3 project, such as My Novel.scriv.

In Scrivener	In Codicier
The Draft	The manuscript. A folder of folders becomes a part, a folder of texts becomes a chapter, and a text becomes a scene. A text with sub-documents becomes a chapter, and its own text becomes the first scene.
The Research folder and other top folders	Folders of notes. Images, PDF files, and other media go to the research section.
The Trash	Not imported.
The text	Markdown, with bold, italic, and line breaks. Fonts and colours are not imported.
Synopsis and document notes	The synopsis and the notes of the item.
"Include in Compile" off	"Left out" of the manuscript.
Label	The nearest label colour. The label name goes into the tags, as label: Plot.
Status	Draft, revised, or final, from the status name. The status name goes into the tags, as status: First Draft.

The note "Imported from Scrivener" lists what did not come over, with counts: items in the Trash, snapshots, linked comments and footnotes, collections, the custom metadata, the compile settings, and the project targets. Inline annotations stay in the text as plain words.

Search and replace

Press Ctrl+Shift+F and type. The results show the title of each item and the text near the match. The search ignores case and accents. Click a result to open it with the match selected.

Click the .* button, or press Alt+R, to search with a regular expression. Click the bookmark button to save the search in the binder. A saved search shows its current results when you click it.

Press Ctrl+H to replace. Type the old words, press Tab, and type the new words. The panel shows each match with the change before the app changes a file. Click the replace button to make the change. Before the change, the app takes a snapshot named "Before replace" of each scene with a match.

Configuration

Press Ctrl+, or click the settings button on the workspace screen to change these settings. Each change applies at once. The settings with the labels on the top buttons and the animations are in the Accessibility part. The app saves the text 1 second after the last edit.

Setting	Default	What it does
Theme	System	System, Light, Dark, Sepia, Night, Mist, or High contrast. System follows the light or dark setting of the system. In High contrast, all text has a contrast of 7 to 1 or more.
Accent colour	Theme	Theme, Blue, Green, Plum, or Red. The colour of links, the main buttons, and the focus ring. High contrast keeps its own accent.
Font of the text	Literata	The font of the page. The list shows the fonts of the computer.
Font of the menus	Inter	The font of the binder, the inspector, and the menus.
Size of the text	19 px	The size of the text on the page, from 14 px to 28 px.
Width of the page	66 characters	The width of the text column, from 45 to 90 characters.
Size of the menus	Normal	Normal, Large, or Larger: 100, 115, or 130 percent. The text of the menus and panels changes. The text on the page does not.
Animations	On	Off stops all motion in the app.
Markdown marks	Hide outside the cursor	"Show" shows the marks in every paragraph.
Line spacing	Normal	Close, Normal, or Wide: 1.3, 1.5, or 1.8 lines.
Space between paragraphs	One line	Half a line, one line, or none with a first-line indent, as in a printed book. The file does not change.
Focus mode dims	Other paragraphs	Nothing, other paragraphs, other sentences, or everything but dialogue.
When the app starts	Show the home screen	"Open the last project" opens the project that was open at the last quit.
Focus mode shows	Only the page	"The page and the bars" keeps the top bar and the status bar in focus mode.
Tools for essays	In essays and non-fiction	"In every project" also shows the argument map, the sources, and the quote bank in fiction.
Daily reminder to write	Off	A time such as 09:30. Once a day at that time, while the app runs, a desktop notification reminds you to write.
Change as you type	All on	Curly quotes, -- to an em dash, and ... to an ellipsis. Click a choice to turn it on or off.
Labels on the top buttons	Icons only	Show puts the name of each button next to its icon.
First-run hints	On	The hints show once. "Show them again" shows them on the next project that opens.
Backup while you write	On	Writes a zip backup of the open project every hour, if it changed.
Backup folder	~/.local/share/codicier/backups	The folder for the zip backups. Each project has its own folder in it.
Backups to keep for each project	10	The number of zip backups to keep. The app deletes older backups. The value is from 1 to 1000.

The app writes the settings and the list of workspaces to ~/.config/codicier/settings.ini.

The key map

The file ~/.config/codicier/keys.ini holds the key of each command. The app writes the file with the default keys when a project opens. To change a key, edit the line of the command:

[keys]
scene.new=Ctrl+N
focus=F11

An empty value turns the key of the command off. The app reads the file when a project opens. If two commands have the same key, only one of the two commands uses the key, and the status bar shows a warning. A key that is not valid also shows a warning.

The layout of a project

The app writes the layout of each project to .codicier/state.toml in the project folder. The file also keeps the open item, the place of the cursor, and the scroll place, so a project opens where you left it. Delete the file to go back to the default layout.

How it works

The code has three parts:

• src/model reads and writes projects. It holds the binder, the file names, the file watcher, the snapshots, the differences, and the backups. It uses only Qt Core.
• src/index keeps the search index. It is an SQLite database with full text search in .codicier/index.db in the project folder.
• src/app and qml make the window. The C++ classes in src/app give the project, the settings, and the key map to the QML views.

A project folder holds project.toml, binder.toml, and the Markdown files. The sources are in sources.json as CSL-JSON, which Zotero and pandoc read, and the quote bank is in quotes.json. binder.toml holds the structure of the binder and the data of each item. A Markdown file holds only the prose. The app writes each file through a temporary file, so a crash cannot leave half a file. The app can delete the .codicier folder and build it again at any time. docs/format.md describes the format in full.

When another program changes a file of an open project, the app loads the new text. If the text in the app has changes that are not saved, a bar above the text asks which text to keep: "Keep mine" or "Load theirs". "Load theirs" first keeps a copy of the text of the app in .codicier/recovered/.

The app writes unsaved text to .codicier/journal/ 200 ms after each edit, and a save removes it. If the app stops before a save, the next open keeps that text as a snapshot named "Recovered after a crash", and a bar offers to compare it.

One window at a time writes to a project. The first window takes the lock file .codicier/lock. A second window on the same project opens it read-only, and the status bar says why. A lock of a program that ended counts as free.

License

Codicier is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or any later version. See the LICENSE file.