SmartEdit Writer Knowledge Base
Getting started — creating a new project
What do you see the first time you open SmartEdit Writer? Learn about the basics to get you started: how to create a new project, what you will see when that project is opened for the first time, how to create scenes, notes and folders, and a brief run down of the commonly used features of SmartEdit Writer. This is an overview topic. Each area of the software is expanded on in more detail in the topics below.
Read MoreThe Project Manager
The Project Manager is the first screen you see when you click the desktop icon. From here you open a recent project, create a new project or browse to a project on a USB device. From here you can see when a project was created and modified, along with its current word count.
Read MoreScenes, Fragments & Notes — the SmartEdit Writer workflow
Learn about the structure of your SmartEdit Writer project — how folders, scenes and notes all work together, allowing you to build a project that meets your own individual way of working. Learn how all of these elements hang together on a single screen. This topic also explains Fragments, and how they should be used to store bits and pieces of work that may not form part of your current or finished manuscript.
Read MoreThe Research Tree — Collecting images, bookmarks and files in your project
The Research Tree allows you to gather together all sorts of bits and pieces about your work-in-progress. Here you can store images, files, PDF documents, links to websites and web pages. Basically, anything that is of use to you in your project. And the best part is, the design is fluid, which means you get to decide how everything is structured.
Read MoreMenus and Toolbars — an Overview
There are five toolbars in SmartEdit Writer, each focusing on a particular area of the app. This topic offers a brief overview of what each toolbar does.
Read MoreThe Word Processor
The SmartEdit Writer word processor is designed to look and feel like Microsoft Word, only without the clutter and distractions of so many features. It operates from a single toolbar ribbon which contains common word processing functionality and none of the more obscure features that tend to be used by business users rather than novel writers. This topic covers what’s in the word processor and what’s not, and highlights some key features you might not be aware of.
Read MoreThe spell checker and associated features
A spell checker is a must have in any word processor, even though many writers leave it switched off while working on their first draft. The spell checking dictionaries used in SmartEdit Writer come from the Open Office project, and are extensive. This topic outlines how the spell checker and its associated features such as auto-correction work, and highlights what’s not in the spell checker — yet!
Read MoreDaily Word Count
The daily word count keeps track of how many words you write each day and presents those figures to you in a simple list. No more hiding. No more lying to yourself. Allowing SmartEdit Writer to remember your word count totals can be a great motivator.
Read MoreSearching — Finding something in your project
There are three ways to search for something in your SmartEdit Writer project. You can open a standard Find dialog and search inside the current scene. You can run a global Find operation to search inside every scene and note across your project. And you can search for a named item (scene, note, image, etc.) in a particular tree.
Read MoreAutomatic backups and automatic saving
SmartEdit Writer is designed for novel and short story writers. It’s not a generic writing tool like Microsoft Word. As such, it has some key features designed just for its target users, such as automatic project backups every time you close a project, automatic saving as you type — so you never need to worry about losing work — and an easy method of backing up your project to a zip file at any time.
Read MoreDocument Drafts
Document Drafts were introduced in Version 9 of SmartEdit Writer and are unique. While it’s common across writing apps to be able to create snapshots or copies of scenes, no other app allows for a full Document Draft to be made and interacted with. Drafts are created with a single click, and store a complete read-only copy of your Document that you can open, browse and refer back to at any time. No messing around with zipped backups or project copies! And best of all, you can export a full copy of that Draft as a single Word document.
Read MoreCustomising the user interface
Some customisation is allowed inside SmartEdit Writer, but only some. This topic covers what is allowed and what’s not. For example, left and right sections can be switched off to free up more space for the word processor, the menus and toolbars can be hidden to allow the application to come close to full screen, and zoom options exist to increase the size of the text in the word processor for those with high resolution monitors or those with sight issues.
Read MoreShortcut keys in SmartEdit Writer
Learn about the various shortcut key combinations you can use inside the software. Once you learn a few of the core keyboard shortcuts, navigating around the software and adding new scenes and notes will get quicker.
Read MoreImporting Word documents
Learn how to import individual word documents or folders of Word documents. The import process can handle folders filled with documents and automatically creates a corresponding folder structure in your Document tree. PageFour users have a button just for them that allows a PageFour Notebook to be selected for import. There are some limitations in this process, so PageFour users should read this topic carefully.
Read MoreExporting your finished novel to a Word document
Let’s face it, your publisher or editor is going to want a Word document, not a SmartEdit Writer project. Learn how to export all your scenes out of your SmartEdit Writer project into a single Word document. This topic explains how Notes and Fragments are excluded and the few shortcomings of the current export process.
Read MoreWorking on multiple PCs
It’s rare that a writer works on only a single PC or lap-top over the course of a novel. In some cases writers switch between machines multiple times a day, in others, every few weeks. This topic explains how to copy a project from one PC to another, and offers some warnings about using cloud based services such as Dropbox and OneDrive for working on a live project. (Don’t do it!) If you use cloud storage for sharing files, you need to read this topic in detail.
Read MoreWhat is SmartEdit Editor?
New in Version 7: SmartEdit Writer comes with all the editing power of SmartEdit for Word built in — all 100% free. Check your work for over-used words and phrases, see all those adverbs in one place, look for unusual dialogue tags of inconsistent acronyms, long sentences and unusual punctuation. Improve your novel by running the Editor checks and making changes.
Read MoreRunning SmartEdit Editor checks for the first time
Learn the basics about the SmartEdit Editor user interface, how results appear inside SmartEdit Writer and how you go about analysing them and making changes to your document. After reading this topic you should be able to run your first checks in Editor and start making immediate changes.
Read MoreOverview of SmartEdit Editor checks — adverbs, dialogue tags, homonyms, etc.
Learn about the various word and phrase usage checks, from the adverb, redundancy and cliché checks to the homonym, dialogue tags and proper nouns checks. This topic comes with some great screenshots from our sample novel, highlighting how extensive the results are and how easy it is to identify areas for improvement in your novel.
Read MoreSentence structure & punctuation
This topic covers the many punctuation checks in SmartEdit Editor and goes into detail on the popular Sentence Start check. Our sample novel begins a sentence with the word ‘And’ 198 times. Do you have a similar habit and if so, would you like to know about it? The sentence length check is also discussed, showing you how to identify extra long sentences in your document with a single click.
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