Studio, on your desktop.
Free to use offline. And the biggest Studio update yet.
Studio is now a desktop app for Mac and Windows. Every feature is free on your computer, with no account and no internet connection needed. It arrives with the largest update Studio has ever had: a new outline, wiki, grid and dashboard, Markdown, and a keyboard-first way to drive all of it.
macOS 11 or later · Windows 10 or later
Free on your computer. Offline by design.
One app that works on its own, and in sync when you want it.
Every feature, free
No internet required
Made for your BYOK
Sync when you want it
The biggest Studio update yet
Core tools reworked, and plenty that is brand new.
The outline, the wiki and the grid have been reworked, the project dashboard is now yours to arrange, the outline and the manuscript work as one, and Studio reads and writes Markdown. Add the command palette, a library of tools and fonts for your BYOK, writing fonts and a typewriter, and this is the largest update Studio has ever had. If you have used Studio before, parts of it may feel like a new app.
Everything below is in Studio on the web and in the desktop app, except the parts marked Desktop.
Want the step-by-step? The October 2026 update guide walks through every feature on this page, with short exercises to try.
An outline built to be typed
The outline editor has been rewritten. Plan in headers, subheaders and details, keep your hands on the keys, and see at a glance what is written and what is still a plan.
How to use it- Enter starts the next row, Tab and Shift+Tab change its level, and Alt+↑/↓ move it. Everything works with the mouse too.
- Drag a row by its grip to reorder it or tuck it under another. Anything underneath travels with it.
- Notes under any row, as long as you like, and color markers from the manuscript’s palette.
- Rows linked to a chapter show its live word count. Start writing turns a planned row into a new, linked file.
- Collapse sections, link rows to files, wiki entries or web pages, and send any row to the Scratch Pad.
Your plan and your book, in one order
A manuscript can now follow an outline. The outline's order becomes the manuscript's order, so moving a chapter in one moves it in the other, and the chapters you haven't written yet wait in their place.
How to use it- Choose Follow an Outline from the manuscript’s + menu. Studio can build the outline from your existing manuscript in one step.
- Acts appear as dividers between pages. Unwritten chapters show as “Not written yet”, with their beats listed underneath and a Start writing link.
- Colors are shared, and adding or removing a chapter on either side keeps both in step.
- Manuscripts that don’t follow an outline work exactly as they did before.
A story bible that knows your manuscript
The wiki has been redesigned around an index and a page, with linking as you type, previews wherever a name appears, and a quiet eye on every name in your chapters.
How to use it- Type [[ in a chapter or entry to link to a wiki entry, or create the entry on the spot.
- Hover any wiki link for a preview card with the picture, other names and the first few lines.
- Mentions: names from your wiki are underlined in your chapters without changing your text, and every entry lists the chapters it appears in.
- Quick facts on each entry, and categories that set up the same facts for every entry inside them.
- Also known as, Linked from, and List, Gallery or Table views for each category.
- Drag to organize, color entries and categories, and export to Word, Markdown or plain text.
The grid, now an open sheet
Tiles no longer sit in rows and columns. Each one is its own size, placed wherever you put it, on a sheet that keeps going in every direction. It's made for planning, mapping and moving ideas around.
How to use it- Drag to move, pull any edge or corner to resize, and line tiles up with alignment guides.
- Zoom around your pointer and pan freely. Zoom to fit frames the whole board.
- Select several tiles to move, size, group, copy and paste them together, connections included.
- Tiles, connections, labels, groups, colors and links all work as before.
- New grids start as open sheets. An existing grid switches when you choose Try the new grid, and its old layout stays in version history.
A first screen you arrange yourself
Choose what each project opens to. Show, hide and reorder every part of the dashboard, or skip it and land straight on your files.
How to use it- New parts to choose from: Continue writing, Manuscripts, Wikis, Scratch Pad notes, Tasks and Where I left off.
- Tick off the tasks from your Scratch Pad checklists right on the dashboard.
- Pin a note to yourself on the Scratch Pad and it waits for you on the dashboard.
- Arrange each project on its own, or use one arrangement for all of them.
- Prefer your files? Have the drawer open as soon as the project loads.
Customize shows, hides and reorders every part of the dashboard.
Write Markdown on your BYOK. See it formatted in Studio.
Studio now reads and writes Markdown. Turn it on for your BYOK and files from the device arrive formatted, while edits made in Studio go back to the device as Markdown.
How to use it- Headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, lists, quotes, links and code all come through formatted.
- The source view shows the raw Markdown, exactly as your BYOK receives it, and you can write there too.
- Set any single file to Markdown or plain text, whatever the device setting says.
- Studio offers to render Markdown it spots in a file, but never changes your text on its own.
- Typing # and a space now makes a heading in any text file. Import and export
.mdfiles.
Every action, a few keystrokes away
Press Cmd+K (Ctrl+K on Windows), type what you want and press Enter. The command palette reaches every action in Studio and teaches you the shortcuts as you go.
How to use it- Open files and projects, jump to chapters and wiki entries, and run any action for the file in front of you.
- Give commands nicknames, such as fm for Focus Mode, and set your own shortcuts.
- The new Keyboard tab in Account lists every command, and exports your setup to take to another computer.
- Cmd+/ shows the shortcuts that work where you are. And while you type, letters always type letters.
- Move through the file drawer, cards, the outline, the wiki index and split view from the keyboard.
Plug in your BYOK. Your writing comes with it.
Only the desktop app can see your BYOK directly. Connect the device with its USB cable in disk mode, or put its microSD card in your computer, and Studio recognizes it within seconds and offers to bring in everything you've written on it. No account, no internet, no Premium needed.
How to use it- One click on Bring in changes imports new and edited files, and creates any projects that aren’t in Studio yet.
- Before anything is imported, you see each file marked new, changed on the device, or already up to date.
- A file edited both on the BYOK and in Studio is never overwritten: the device’s version comes in as a separate copy.
- Studio saves a version before updating a file, and never deletes on its own. Files you deleted on the BYOK wait for you to trash them.
- Turn on Bring in changes automatically and it happens every time that BYOK connects. Eject from the same panel when you’re done.
Bringing writing in from a connected BYOK is one-way, from the device to Studio. To send edits made in Studio back to your BYOK, use Wi-Fi sync with Studio Premium.
Tools and fonts onto the card in one click
While it’s connected, the new BYOK Library puts the Toolbox and the Font Library inside the app. Pick a tool or a font, click Add, and it’s on the card. No downloads, no folders.
How to use it- Each tool’s guide and details, with a clear list of what will be added, updated or kept before anything is written.
- The notes, shortcuts and word lists your tools have saved are never overwritten by an update.
- Official tools are flagged when a newer version is available.
- Preview fonts exactly as the BYOK’s screen draws them, in your own sample text.
- Studio only writes to the card’s Scripts and Fonts folders, and never deletes anything there.
Write on a typewriter
Open any text file on a simulated manual typewriter and write onto a sheet of paper, with the sound of the keys. It's the same file underneath: what you type is saved as usual, and you can go back to the ordinary editor at any time.
How to use it- A bell rings near the margin and the carriage returns on its own, so you never think about line ends.
- Mistakes lift off with correction tape. There is no cursor to jump around with; back up to the word and type on.
- Full sheets roll out and fresh ones roll in. Read any earlier sheet, or put it back in the machine.
- Choose the enamel, trim, keys, paper, ribbon and typeface, and type to rain, a fireplace or a summer night.
- Paragraphs you don’t touch keep their formatting, so a chapter comes back to the editor as you left it.
A typeface for your words
Until now, everything you wrote was set in the same typeface as Studio's buttons and menus. Now the words are yours to set: eight faces chosen for long sessions, from the new Aa button beside the text. The interface keeps its own face, and your files don't change.
How to use it- Literata, Crimson Pro, Lora, Atkinson Hyperlegible, Courier Prime, IBM Plex Mono, your system font, or Studio’s own.
- Text files, manuscripts, wiki pages, cards, grid tiles, outline rows and Scratch Pad notes all use it.
- The Aa panel also holds line spacing and margins, and margins are now remembered between sessions.
- PDF and Word exports can use your writing font, or Times New Roman, Arial or Courier New for submissions.
Better, safer, everywhere
Alongside the headline features, plenty of smaller work.
Quality of life and bug fixes
Security updates
Your existing work is safe. Outlines, wikis, grids and manuscripts you made before open exactly as they were. Everything new is optional, and nothing changes until you choose it.
Start writing on your desktop.
Free to use, works offline, and in sync with Premium whenever you want it.
Already using Studio on the web? Every update is listed in the update log.
