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Starting, opening and importing books, the welcome screen, and My Books in Studio

This article covers how to start a new book, how to open one you've already saved, how to bring in a manuscript you wrote somewhere else, what the welcome screen offers, and how to manage your books on the My Books shelf in Studio.

Starting a new book

In Studio, you can start a book from the welcome screen or from My Books:

  • 1. Click Start a New Book.
  • 2. Give your first chapter a title and start writing.
  • 3. Choose File → Save (Ctrl+S) and pick where to keep the book.

After you save once, the book saves itself as you work.

In either program, you can also choose File → New (Ctrl+N). This starts an empty book called "Untitled" with one chapter, ready for its title.

Opening a book you've saved

A Pendrilo book is a single file ending in .pendrilo. To open one, use any of these methods:

  • Choose File → Open… (Ctrl+O) and select the file.
  • Choose File → Open Recent and pick a book from the list. It shows your last 10 books. Clear Menu empties the list.
  • Double-click a .pendrilo file in your file manager.
  • Drag the file onto the Pendrilo window. The window says "Drop to open."
  • In Studio, click Open a Project… on My Books.

If Pendrilo is already running when you open a file, the file opens in the running window. Pendrilo also remembers where its window was on each monitor.

Bringing in a manuscript you already have

Pendrilo can turn a manuscript from another program into a Pendrilo book, and it finds the chapters for you. It reads these formats:

  • Word documents (.docx)
  • Ebooks (.epub)
  • PDFs (.pdf)
  • Markdown (.md)
  • Plain text (.txt)
  • Screenplays in Fountain (.fountain) or Final Draft (.fdx) format, in Studio only

To import a file, do any of these:

  • Click Import a Book (EPUB, Word, PDF)… on the welcome screen or on My Books.
  • Choose File → Import… or Book → Import a Book or Script….
  • Drop the file onto the Pendrilo window.

When the import finishes, Pendrilo reports the chapters and parts it found, the front matter pages, pictures and notes, and the book details it filled in. Save the book to keep it as a Pendrilo project. A newly imported book starts with the Classic theme as a 6 × 9 paperback. You can change both at any time.

Imports from a PDF work differently. A PDF records only letters and their positions on the page, so Pendrilo rebuilds the chapters from the layout. Pictures, footnotes, tables and pages set in more than one column are not brought in. A hyphen at the end of a line may be lost, and poetry may not split into paragraphs correctly. A scanned PDF needs text recognition (OCR) first. Read the result carefully before you rely on it.

The welcome screen

When no book is open, Pendrilo shows its welcome screen. You see it after you clear File → Open Recent, or when your last book has been moved.

In the Formatter, the welcome screen has:

  • Import a Book (EPUB, Word, PDF)… to bring in a manuscript.
  • Open a Project… to open a Pendrilo book you've saved.
  • A RECENT list of books you've opened lately.

In Studio, the first screen also has Start a New Book, Start a New Screenplay and Explore the Sample Book. Once you've saved a book, Studio opens on My Books instead.

My Books: your shelf in Studio

Once you've saved a book in Studio, Studio opens on My Books. Every book you open or save in Studio goes on this shelf. Each book stays in its own file, wherever you keep it. The shelf only remembers where each file is.

Across the top are Start a New Book, New Screenplay, Open a Project…, Import a Book (EPUB, Word, PDF)…, Sample Book and the Backups menu.

  • Grouping: Books in a series are grouped together, in series order. Books in a universe are grouped under the universe's name. Standalone books are shelved together.
  • Totals: A strip across the top shows your WRITING STREAK, WORDS TODAY, WORDS THIS WEEK and BEST STREAK across all your books.
  • Sorting: Sort by Recently opened, Title A–Z, Recently added, Word count or My own order. With My own order, drag a card onto another card to move it.
  • Search: The search box looks through the text of every book on the shelf. Type your words and press Enter. Click a result to open that book at those words.
  • Stages: Each card shows the book's stage: Draft, Revising, Complete or Live. Click the stage to change it.

Each card has a menu with these options:

  • Open and Show in Folder
  • Choose Cover Picture… (or Change Cover Picture…) and Remove Cover Picture, to show the cover on the card
  • Duplicate, which saves a copy of the whole book beside the original, for trying another version
  • Archive, which files the book at the bottom of My Books. Nothing is deleted. Put Back on the Shelf brings it back.
  • Take Off My Books, which removes the card only. The book's file stays where it is.

If a book's file has been moved or deleted, its card says so.

To return to My Books from an open book, click ‹ My Books in the top bar, or choose Book → My Books. The book saves itself first.

When Pendrilo asks you to save

If you start a new book or open another one while the current book has never been saved, Pendrilo asks Save changes to …? Choose one of these:

  • Save to save the current book first.
  • Don't Save to close it without saving.
  • Cancel to stay where you are.

The bottom-right corner of the window shows Not saved as a project yet until you save a new book. After that, it shows Saving… and then Saved as you work.

The first-run sample and tour

The first time Pendrilo opens, it shows a sample book and a short welcome tour. The Formatter's sample is a short novel, already formatted. Studio's sample is a short book with its outline, plot board and codex filled in.

  • Click Next to move through the tour, Back to go back, and Done at the end.
  • To see the tour again, choose Help → Getting Started.