Installing

Download Studio from byok.io/studio/desktop. It needs macOS 11 or later, or Windows 10 or later.

• Mac. Open the downloaded .dmg and drag Studio into Applications. It is signed and notarized by Apple, so there is nothing to approve. Apple silicon and Intel Macs each have their own download.
• Windows. Run the downloaded .exe and follow the installer. If a blue "Windows protected your PC" screen appears, click More info, check that the publisher reads BYOK LLC, then click Run anyway.

Free on its own

Open Studio and start writing. In local mode your whole library lives on your computer: text files, manuscripts, cards, grids, outlines, wikis and the Scratch Pad. Everything works offline, and version history for every file is kept on your computer too.

In sync with Premium

Sign in from the app with your Studio account. With Studio Premium, your existing library syncs down to the desktop and every change flows both ways between the desktop, the web app, the mobile app and your BYOK over Wi-Fi. You can keep writing offline; changes catch up when you're back online. Without Premium, the desktop keeps its own local library. Premium starts with a 14-day free trial.

Backing up

Account › Sync › Back up saves your whole library to a single file. Restore puts it all back from that file, on this computer or another one. It's also how you move a local library from one computer to another.

Updates

Studio checks for updates in the background and downloads them quietly. When one is ready, a small Restart to update card appears. Nothing is forced: if you never click it, the update installs the next time you quit. You can also choose Check for Updates… from the Studio menu. Your version is shown in Account, under Sync.

Your writing stays yours

Nothing you write, and no file or project names, ever leave your computer unless you turn on sync. The app sends anonymous usage and crash reports so we can see what breaks; switch them off any time in Account › Sync › About. Found a bug? Open the menu and choose Report Bug; it files a ticket with your version attached.

The command palette

Press Cmd + K anywhere. A small box appears with one text field. Type a few letters of what you want, such as "focus", "close", or the name of a chapter, and the list narrows as you type. Use the arrow keys if you need to, press Enter, and it happens.

The list is ordered by where you are: in a manuscript, manuscript actions come first; in an outline, outline actions come first. Next to each item is its shortcut, if it has one. You don't have to learn these. They're shown every time, so they sink in on their own. The third time you run something from the palette that has a shortcut, Studio mentions the shortcut once.

The search icon in the header opens the palette too.

Opening files and projects

• Cmd + O lists the files in the current project.
• Cmd + Shift + O lists your projects.
• On the project grid, the search box looks across every project.
• Cmd + \ opens and closes the file drawer and puts the keyboard in the file list.

Working with two files side by side

• Cmd + Shift + 1 and Cmd + Shift + 2 move between the two files.
• Cmd + Shift + S swaps their positions.
• Cmd + Shift + Backspace closes the one you're in.
• When Studio asks which side to open a file on, press 1 or 2.

A thin outline briefly appears around the file you land in, so you always know where you are.

Moving around inside files

Where	Keys	What happens
File drawer	↑ ↓ Enter	Move through files, open the highlighted one
File drawer	→ ← Cmd + ↑	Into a folder, back out, up to the parent folder (icon view uses all four arrows)
File drawer	Type a name	Jumps to the first matching file
Cards	Arrow keys	Select a card, then move around the grid
Cards	Enter Esc	Edit the selected card; stop editing or deselect
Cards	Cmd + Enter	New card in this section
Cards	Cmd + D / Cmd + Backspace	Duplicate / delete the selected card
Cards	Alt + ↑ Alt + ↓	Jump to the previous or next section
Outline	↓ or ↑	Put the cursor in the first or last row
Manuscript	Cmd + Alt + ↑ / ↓	Previous or next section, cursor placed in the page
Any file	Cmd + F	Find
Anywhere	Cmd + Z / Cmd + Shift + Z	Undo / redo in cards, grids and outlines

Everything else each file type can do is in the palette while that file is open: card color, links, Scratch Pad, sections, grid rows and columns, wiki entries, rename, tags, description, version history, export, and more.

Making it yours

• Nicknames. Give any command a short nickname, such as fm for Focus Mode. Type the nickname in the palette and that command jumps to the top; press Enter and you're done.
• Your own shortcuts. In the palette, highlight a command and press Cmd + . (or → when the search box is empty) to see its options: set a nickname, change or add a shortcut, remove it, or reset it. To change a shortcut, choose Change shortcut and press the keys you want. Studio refuses combinations that would type a character, and tells you why. If a key is already in use, Studio still saves it and tells you which command it was taken from.
• The Keyboard tab. In your Account, the Keyboard tab lists every command with its nickname and keys. You can search, change, reset, and export your setup to a file to take to another computer.
• The cheat sheet. Press Cmd + / at any time to see the shortcuts that work where you are right now.

The three levels

Every row in an outline is one of three kinds:

• Header (marked I): the big parts, shown in bold.
• Subheader (marked II): the parts inside a header.
• Detail (marked III): the points inside a subheader.

The small Roman numeral to the left of each row tells you which it is. Rows step to the right as they go deeper, with a faint line showing which header or subheader they belong to. You don't have to use all three. A list of headers is a fine outline. Three is the limit, though: there is nothing deeper than a detail.

Starting an outline

A new outline opens with a short note about the three levels and one button: Add your first header. Click it, type the header's name, and you're off.

Adding rows with the keyboard

Once you're typing in a row, you can keep going without touching the mouse.

• Enter finishes the row and starts a new one of the same kind right below it. If the row has rows tucked under it, the new row goes at the top of those, so it stays in its section.
• Shift + Enter adds a line break inside the row, for a longer note.
• Enter on an empty subheader or detail moves it out one level instead of making another empty row.
• Backspace on an empty row deletes it and puts you at the end of the row above.
• ↑ and ↓ move between rows. In a long row that wraps onto several lines, they move between its lines first. Esc leaves the row.

Changing a row's level

• Tab moves a row in one level: a header becomes a subheader of the header above it; a subheader becomes a detail.
• Shift + Tab moves it out one level.
• The row's toolbar has the same two actions as buttons.

Rows underneath come along for the ride, and nothing changes order on screen. Because there are only three levels, a header that already has details under it can't be moved in (its details would have nowhere to go). The outline tells you so and leaves things as they are.

Adding rows with the mouse

There are three places to click, each in its own spot:

• Add header, always at the bottom of the outline.
• Add subheader, under any header that's still empty.
• Insert here, which appears when you hover the gap between two rows. If only one kind of row fits there, one click adds it. If more than one would fit, a small menu lets you pick Header, Subheader or Detail.

Moving rows

• Alt + ↑ and Alt + ↓ swap a row with the one above or below it.
• Drag the grip that appears at the left of a row when you hover it. Drag up and down to reorder. Drag right to tuck a row under the one above it, or left to pull it out. While you drag, the row shows where it will land. Anything under the row travels with it, and a small count shows how many rows are coming along.

If a drag would push a section past three levels, the row snaps back and a message explains why.

Collapsing sections

Click the arrow at the left of a header or subheader to hide everything under it. A count appears on the row so you know how much is tucked away. Click again to open it. Studio remembers what you collapsed. Undo is for your words and structure, so it won't reopen a section you closed.

The row toolbar

Hover a row, or click into it, and a small toolbar appears at its right end:

• Outdent and Indent: the same as Shift + Tab and Tab.
• Add to Scratch Pad: sends the row's text to your Scratch Pad.
• Link (or Remove link if the row already has one).
• Delete: removes the row and anything under it. The message at the bottom of the outline says how many rows went; click Undo there, or press Cmd + Z, to bring everything back.

Rows also have notes, color markers, word counts and a Start writing button; the next part covers those.

Links

A row can point to something: another file in the project, a wiki entry, or a web address. Click Link in the row's toolbar, or press Cmd + Shift + K while typing in the row, and choose what to link. A linked row shows a small chip after its text; click the chip to open what it points to. Links are optional; most rows will never need one.

Scratch Pad

• From the outline: the toolbar's Scratch Pad button copies a row's text to the Scratch Pad for later.
• Into the outline: drag a note from the Scratch Pad onto the outline. A line shows where it will land. If it could become more than one kind of row there, Studio asks which. Notes you captured as outlines drop in with their structure intact.

Undo, redo and the palette

Cmd + Z undoes the last change; Cmd + Shift + Z redoes it. The arrows at the top of the file do the same. Every outline action is also in the command palette (Cmd + K): new row, indent, outdent, move up or down, collapse, delete, add to Scratch Pad, and add, open or remove a link. With no row selected, press ↓ to jump into the first row or ↑ for the last, so the keyboard can take over without a click.

Export

The file menu offers Export Outline as plain text or Markdown, indented by level, with the option to include linked file names and descriptions. Notes are included, indented under their row.

Your existing outlines are safe. Outlines you made before open exactly as they were, and nothing about how they're saved has changed.

Notes under a row

Every row can hold notes: the paragraph (or five) about what happens there, as long as you like. Press Cmd + Enter in a row, or click Notes in its toolbar, and a quieter text area opens under the row. Type, then press Cmd + Enter or Esc to go back to the row's text.

Notes stay closed by default. A row with notes shows their first line in gray under its text; click that line to open them. Notes travel with the row when you move it, and they are not a row of their own, so they never use up a level. Export includes them, indented under their row.

Color markers

The Color button in the row toolbar gives a row a marker, from the same palette the manuscript uses for its sections. It shows as a bar at the row's left edge. It's a label, nothing more; it doesn't change what the row is.

What a linked chapter tells you

A row linked to a text file no longer shows just a chip. The chip says how many words the file has, or empty if nothing has been written in it yet, or missing if the file was deleted. The count keeps up while you write, whether the file is open on its own or as a page in a manuscript, so the outline shows at a glance what is real and what is still a plan.

Click the chip to open the file. When a manuscript that follows the outline is open beside it, the chip scrolls that manuscript to the chapter instead, and the row's toolbar gains an Open file button for the times you want the file on its own. Holding Cmd while you click the chip does the same.

Start writing

A row with no link has a Start writing button in its toolbar. It makes a new text file named after the row (you can change the name in the usual box), links the row to it, and opens the file. The file lands next to the outline, not wherever the drawer happens to be. From then on the row shows the file's word count. This is how a plan turns into a chapter without leaving the outline.

A manuscript that follows an outline

This is the big one. Point a manuscript at an outline and the outline's order becomes the manuscript's order. Chapters you haven't written are there too, in their place, waiting.

Turning it on

• You already have a manuscript. Open it, open its + menu and choose Follow an Outline…. Pick New outline from this manuscript and Studio makes an outline with one header named after the manuscript and every section as a subheader under it, already linked and colored, and opens it beside the manuscript. The same offer sits at the top of the manuscript's list view.
• You already have an outline. Same menu, and pick the outline. Rows that link to the manuscript's files match up on their own. Sections the outline doesn't have yet are added to it as linked rows, so nothing goes missing.

What you see

• Act dividers. Rows above your chapters show as small capitals with a rule, between the pages.
• Pages. Chapters with a file are pages, as always.
• Chapters you haven't written. They appear in their place, grayed, with "Not written yet" and a Start writing link. Click it and the naming box opens; confirm, and the placeholder becomes a page.
• Beats. Rows under an unwritten chapter show as a short gray list beneath its placeholder, so the plan is in view. Once the chapter is written, they stay in the outline.
• The navigator on the manuscript's left edge lists the outline's rows instead of the sections, with unwritten chapters grayed. Acts are labels; the chapters under them sit in one flat list whatever level their rows are on, because pages have no levels.

One order

Drag a section in the manuscript, or drag a row in the outline, and the other one follows. There is only one list. The manuscript's list-view button becomes an Outline button, because the outline now does that view's job: open the outline beside the manuscript, change which outline, or stop following. At the top of a followed outline, Followed by and the manuscript's name take you the other way.

Colors are shared

Set a marker on a section or on its row and the other side gets it. Clear it on either side and both clear.

Adding and removing

• Link a row to a text file in the outline and the manuscript picks the file up as a page.
• Add a file to the manuscript the old way, from the drawer or the + menu, and it gets a linked row in the outline where you added it.
• Remove a section from the manuscript and its row stays in the outline as a plan; only the link goes.
• Remove a row's link in the outline and its page leaves the manuscript. The file itself is untouched, and the row carries on as a plan. Link the row to a different file and that file takes the page's place.
• Link a row to something that isn't a text file, such as a grid or a wiki entry, and the manuscript leaves it alone: no page, and no offer to replace the link.

If the outline goes missing

Trash or delete a followed outline and the manuscript works as a plain manuscript again, with a notice at the top. Restore the outline from the trash and the manuscript reconnects by itself. Stop following in the notice drops the link and keeps the current order. Two manuscripts can follow the same outline; a manuscript follows one outline at a time.

How the manuscript reads your levels

The manuscript doesn't care what you call the levels. It finds the level your linked files sit on and calls that chapters. For an outline made from a manuscript that's level 2. Someone who writes in scenes gets the same rule on whatever level their scene files are on. With no files yet, chapters are level 2 if the outline has any, otherwise level 1.

Rows	In the manuscript
Above chapter level	Act dividers, whether or not they have chapters under them yet.
At chapter level	Chapters. A page if there's a file, a "Not written yet" placeholder if not.
Below chapter level	Beats. Never pages. Listed under an unwritten chapter, kept in the outline once it's written.
Any row with a text file	A page, at any level. Scenes written as level 3 under chapters get pages too.

Grouping chapters into acts

An outline made from a manuscript is one header with every chapter under it. To split it into acts, insert a row where the next act begins, type its name, and press Shift + Tab. Outdenting a row folds everything below it underneath, so chapters 21 to 69 drop under "Act Two" in one keystroke. The same fold happens from the gap menu: between two subheaders, choosing Header puts the new header there and takes the rows below with it.

Also in this update

• Opening big files. Opening a long manuscript can take a moment. If it takes longer than about half a second, a small "Opening…" pill appears at the bottom of the window so you know the click landed. Ordinary files open before it ever shows.
• The row toolbar only shows an Open button while a following manuscript is open beside the outline; the rest of the time the chip after the row already opens the link. "Open row link" is always in the palette.

Your existing files are safe. Outlines and manuscripts you made before open exactly as they were. Notes and colors are new, optional fields on a row, and a manuscript only follows an outline when you tell it to.

The layout

Open a wiki file and you'll see two areas:

• The index, on the left: everything in the wiki, in a tree. Search sits at the top, and two buttons at the bottom make a new entry or a new category.
• The page, on the right: whatever you clicked in the index. That's an entry, a category, or an overview of the whole wiki when nothing is selected.

The index stays put while you read, so you can move between entries without losing your place. Want more room? The small panel button at the top of the index hides it, and a matching button on the page brings it back. If the wiki is in a narrow space, such as split next to a chapter, the index becomes a full-width list and entries open over it with a back arrow.

Making entries and categories

• New entry makes an entry wherever you are: inside the category you have open, or at the top level. The title is ready for you to type. Press Enter to jump into the body.
• New category makes a category in the same spot and lets you name it right away. Enter confirms, Esc cancels.

You don't need a category before you make an entry.

Organizing

• Drag any row in the index by the grip that appears on hover. Drag a little to the right to put it inside the category above, or left to pull it out.
• Right-click any row, or use the three-dots button on a page, for color, rename, move to, duplicate, export, delete and, on categories, new entry or new subcategory.
• Color shows as a colored folder for categories and a small dot for entries.
• Collapse a category with its arrow. The wiki remembers which ones you folded, even after you close it.
• Deleting a category always asks first and tells you how many things are inside.

Reading and writing an entry

Entries are always editable; there's no edit button. Click anywhere in the body and type. The formatting bar appears while you're writing and fades away when you're not.

• Title at the top. Click to change it; press Enter to move into the body.
• Breadcrumb under the title shows where the entry lives. Click any part of it to go there.
• Add image puts a picture at the top right of the entry. Hover the picture to remove it. Images up to 10 MB are accepted and resized automatically, so phone photos are fine.
• The body works like any text file: headings, bold, italic, lists, quotes, alignment and pictures. The first paragraph is set slightly larger. That's the summary line, the way an encyclopedia entry begins.

Linking

There are two ways to link to a wiki entry:

• The fast way. In a chapter or a wiki entry, type two square brackets [[ and start typing a name. A list of matching entries pops up; use the arrow keys and press Enter to link. If nothing matches, the last option lets you create a new entry with that name, so you can link to something before you've written it.
• The careful way. Select some text, click Link in the little popup, choose the Wiki entries tab and pick one. Use this when the link text should be different from the entry's name.

Click a link in a chapter or entry and the wiki opens on that entry.

Peeking without leaving

Hold your mouse over any wiki link anywhere in Studio: in a chapter, an outline row, or another entry. After a moment, a preview card appears with the picture, location, other names, the first few lines and an Open entry button.

Mentions: the wiki knows your manuscript

You don't have to link anything for the wiki to notice a name.

• In a chapter, any word that matches an entry's name gets a faint dotted underline. Hover it for the preview card; click it to open the entry. Your text is never changed, so exported chapters show plain words.
• At the bottom of every entry, Mentioned in lists each chapter that contains the name, with a count. Click one and the chapter opens with Find already searching for that name.
• The Detect switch turns this off for a single entry. That's handy for names that are also ordinary words, like Rose or Will.
• Matching respects capitals ("Rose" matches, "rose" doesn't), and names shorter than three letters are ignored.

Other names

Under the title is Also known as. Add nicknames or titles such as "the Widow". They work everywhere names do: the [[ list finds them, mentions detect them, and the preview card shows them.

What links here

At the bottom of each entry, Linked from lists everything that links to it (chapters, outline rows, cards, grid tiles and other entries) and Links to lists the entries it links to. Click any of them to open it.

Quick facts

On the right of an entry, under the picture, is a small box of facts: Age, Role, Home, whatever you like.

• Click Add a fact, type a name, press Enter, then fill in the value.
• Click a fact's name to rename it; hover the row to remove it.
• If a value matches the name of another entry, a small arrow appears beside it. Click the arrow to jump there.

Categories can set up the facts

Open a category and look under its title for Facts for entries here. Add Age, Role and Home there, and every entry in that category, including its subcategories, gets those rows ready to fill in. Facts that come from a parent category have a dashed outline.

Categories also have a one-line description under the title. Click it to edit. It appears as the preview wherever the category is listed.

Three ways to view a category

On a category page, the small switch beside Entries changes the view. Studio remembers your choice for each category.

• List: names and the first lines of each entry.
• Gallery: cards with the picture, two facts and a short excerpt.
• Table: one row per entry, one column per fact. Click a cell and type to change a fact without opening the entry.

Finding things

• Search at the top of the index filters as you type, through names, categories and entry text. Esc clears it.
• The command palette (Cmd + K) has "Go to wiki entry…" from anywhere in your project. While a wiki is open, it also covers nearly everything else: making, renaming, moving and deleting entries, switching views, colors, export and more.
• In a chapter, the palette offers "Link to wiki entry…" and "Create wiki entry from selection…", which makes a new entry from the words you've selected and links them.

Wiki shortcuts

Cmd + Enter	New entry
Alt + ↑ / Alt + ↓	Previous / next item in the index
Cmd + D	Duplicate the selected entry or category
Cmd + Backspace	Delete the selected entry or category (asks first)

Duplicate and delete don't do anything while you're typing, so they can't go off by accident.

Getting around the index with the keyboard

With the wiki in front and your cursor not in a text box, press ↓ or ↑ and the index takes over. You can also run "Focus index" from the palette. Then:

↑ ↓	Move the highlight
Enter	Open the highlighted entry or category
→ / ←	Expand a category or step into it / collapse it or step back out
Home / End	Jump to the top / bottom
F2	Rename
Backspace	Delete (asks first)
Esc	Back to the page

In the search box, ↓ moves into the results and Enter opens the first one.

Export

Right-click an entry (or use the three-dots button) and choose Export for a single entry, or use Export Wiki in the file menu for the whole thing. Both come as Word, Markdown or plain text, with nicknames and facts included between the title and the body.

Your existing wiki is safe. Nothing you made before has changed. New things like facts, other names and descriptions simply appear empty on older entries until you add them.

Getting the new grid

• New grids start as the new grid. Make one from the drawer or the dashboard as usual.
• A grid you already have switches when you ask. Open it and click Try the new grid, the sparkle at the bottom of the grid's toolbar. Your tiles, connections, labels, groups, colors and links all come along, in the same places.

A switched grid looks the way it did. If you had dragged row or column borders to resize them, a tile's edge may move a few pixels to line up with the new sheet, never enough to change which tiles sit next to each other.

Placing and sizing tiles

The sheet is marked with faint dots, one at every corner of a small square. Tiles line up with the squares, which keeps a board tidy without boxing you in.

• Moving. Drag a tile. It follows your pointer, and a dashed outline shows where it will land. Let go and it settles into place. If the outline turns red, the tile would cover another one, and letting go puts it back where it was.
• Sizing. Click a tile and handles appear on every edge and corner. Drag any of them. A tile can be as small as two squares each way, and as large as you like.
• Several at once. Select a few tiles and drag one of them; they move together. Drag an edge of one and the others take the same width, or the same height for a top or bottom edge. It's the quick way to make a row of tiles match.
• New tiles. Double-click empty space, or click Add tile (+) in the toolbar. The new tile opens ready for typing.

Selecting, copying and pasting

Click a tile to select it, and Shift-click to add or remove others. Drag across empty space to draw a box: every tile it touches is selected. Cmd + A selects them all and Esc lets go. Delete removes the selection.

Cmd + C, X and V copy, cut and paste. Pasted tiles keep their layout and the connections between them, and land in the middle of what you're looking at. Right-click a tile for Cut, Copy, Paste here and Delete; right-click empty space for New tile here, New label and Paste here.

Everything a tile could do

The tiles are the same tiles. Double-click one to write in it, with the same formatting toolbar as before. Click one once for its toolbar: color, a link to a file, a wiki entry or a web address, add to the Scratch Pad, and delete. With several selected, the toolbar can group them, and a group's colored box follows its tiles wherever they go.

Connections work as they always have. Move your pointer near a tile's edge and a dot appears; drag it to another tile to draw an arrow. Click an arrow to change its line or color, or remove it. Labels, the sticky notes, are there too: Add label in the toolbar puts one in the middle of the view.

An open sheet

The sheet has no edges. It grows as you place tiles further out, to the left and upward as well, so even the first tile you ever made can sit in the middle of the screen.

• Zoom. Hold Cmd and scroll, or pinch on a trackpad. The sheet zooms around your pointer, so whatever is under it stays there. Zoom to fit in the toolbar frames everything at once.
• Pan. Hold Space and drag the sheet, or drag with the middle mouse button. Ordinary scrolling works too.

Making it yours

Two buttons near the bottom of the toolbar change how the sheet looks while you work. Both are remembered for as long as the grid is open.

Button	What it does
Units	Shows the squares as dots, as faint lines, or not at all. Click to go from one to the next.
Alignment guides	While you move or size a tile, a thin line appears when one of its edges lines up with another tile's. Good for tidy boards; turn them off when you'd rather map freely.

Going back

There is no button in the grid to switch back. Instead, every switch saves the grid as it was in version history, as a version called Before switching to the new grid. Open the file's gear menu and click the history icon, find that version, and restore it. The grid returns exactly as it was, in the old layout. That version is kept for good; version history never clears it out.

Good to know

• Search results and exports still come from the grid as it was before you switched, and a grid made new doesn't show up in them yet.
• Dragging a note from the Scratch Pad onto the grid isn't in the new grid yet.
• Headers are retired. Tiles that were headers in an older grid keep their look; right-click one and choose Remove header style to make it an ordinary tile.
• The old grid gets the same zoom and pan, and it can now scroll far enough to put any tile in the middle of the screen.

Your existing grids are safe. Nothing changes until you click Try the new grid, and the grid as it was stays in version history, ready to restore.

Customize

Open a project and, with no file open, look to the top right of the dashboard: a quiet Customize button sits there. Click it and a panel lists everything the dashboard can show. Each line has a checkbox to show or hide it and arrows to move it up or down. Some lines have a setting or two underneath, like how many rows Recent shows. Changes apply as you make them, behind the panel, so you can watch the page rearrange. Done or Esc closes it, and Reset to default puts the dashboard back the way it came.

Each project remembers its own arrangement, on this computer. Nothing changes until you open the panel, so if you like the dashboard as it is, it stays that way.

What the dashboard can show

Parts that have nothing to show step aside on their own. If nothing is starred, there's no empty Favorites box; if a project has no manuscripts, the Manuscripts list waits until it does. Narrower parts sit two to a row; the wider ones take the full width.

Part	What it does
Greeting	Good morning, afternoon or evening. Or, if you'd rather, the project's name.
New file	The buttons for making a text file, manuscript, grid, cards, wiki or outline, and Import. Choose which ones to show; the drawer's New menu always has them all.
Continue writing	One card for the file you edited last, with where it lives and when. Click it and you're back at the place you left.
Recent	Files by last edit. Choose 3, 6, 10 or 15 rows.
Favorites	Starred files by last edit, with the same choice of rows.
Manuscripts	Your manuscripts, and which outline each one follows.
Wikis	Your wikis, with how many entries each holds.
Scratchpad notes	Your latest notes from the Scratch Pad, and a line to jot a new one down. Enter saves it. Click a note to open the Scratch Pad.
Tasks	The open items from every checklist on your Scratch Pad. Tick one off right here, add one, or click one to open the Scratch Pad on its Tasks view.
Where I left off	A note to your future self. Type one here and it stays on the dashboard until you unpin it. See "Pinned notes" below.
Tags	Every tag in the project. Click one to see its files.

The arrow keys walk the file lists: Down and Up move through the rows, Left and Right hop between two lists sitting side by side, and Enter opens the file under the highlight.

Pinned notes

Notes on the Scratch Pad can now be pinned. Hover a note and a pin appears beside copy and delete; click it and the note moves to the top of the Scratch Pad and stays there, in the full view and in the small pop-up alike. Click the pin again to let it go.

The dashboard's Where I left off part shows your pinned notes as cards. It's meant for the sentence you want to read before anything else next time: "the argument in chapter twelve starts too late", "ask about the ferry timetable". Type it on the dashboard or pin it on the Scratch Pad; both end up in the same place. The small pin on a card unpins it, and the note itself stays on the Scratch Pad.

Landing on your files instead

If you'd rather the project screen simply be your files, it can be. At the top of the Customize panel, turn on Open the drawer when the project opens. From then on, entering that project brings the drawer up to the full height of the window once everything has loaded, with your folders and files where you left them. The dashboard is still underneath: the drawer's restore button brings it back to its usual height, and collapsing the drawer shows the dashboard again.

This happens when you come into the project, not every time you close a file. Close the last file during a session and you land on the dashboard, with the drawer one click away as always. If you also hide Greeting and New file, the drawer's New menu makes files from then on.

The same dashboard everywhere

If you'd rather not arrange each project separately, turn on Use for all projects at the bottom of the panel. The arrangement you're looking at becomes the one every project uses, and changes you make from any project apply to all of them. Turn it off again and the project you're in keeps that arrangement as its own, while projects you had arranged before go back to how you had them. A brand-new project starts from the shared arrangement when there is one, so you never set the dashboard up twice.

Your dashboard is unchanged until you change it. The standard arrangement is exactly what you had before this update, and Reset to default brings it back at any time. The tutorial project keeps the standard dashboard.

Turning it on

Open the Devices page and turn on Markdown on your BYOK. That's the whole setup. From then on:

• Files that arrive from your BYOK are read as Markdown. Headings, bold, italic, lists, quotes, links and code appear formatted in Studio, with no symbols showing.
• Edits you make in Studio go back to the device as Markdown, so a heading you add here arrives on the BYOK as # Heading, ready to keep working on.
• Markdown decides how line breaks work (a blank line starts a new paragraph; a single Enter keeps lines together), so the Line breaks setting grays out while the switch is on.

If you don't write Markdown, leave the switch off. Nothing about your files or your sync changes.

What travels, and what doesn't

In Markdown	In Studio
# through ######	Headings 1 to 6. Studio's format menu now goes to Heading 6 as well.
**bold**, *italic*, ~~struck~~	Bold, italic, strikethrough.
- item, 1. item	Bulleted and numbered lists, including nested ones.
> quote	A quote.
[words](address)	A link.
`code` and ``` blocks	Inline code and code blocks, spacing kept.
---	A horizontal rule.
	Shown as a link in Studio; goes back to the device as a picture.

A few things Markdown can write have no home in a Studio text file yet: tables, tick-box lists and footnotes. They stay exactly as you typed them and go back to the device unchanged. The other way round, colors, highlights, underline and alignment have no Markdown form, so they are simplified on the device, the same as before. Studio's version history keeps a snapshot before every sync either way.

One file at a time

You don't have to flip the switch back and forth. Any text file can be set on its own: open its gear menu and choose On or Off under Markdown, or right-click it in the drawer for Treat as Markdown and Treat as plain text. A file you've set this way keeps its setting whatever the switch says. So a Markdown writer can keep one file of dash-led dialogue plain, and a writer who never uses Markdown can have the one file that does.

Studio notices, but never guesses

If a file that isn't set to Markdown opens with clear Markdown in it, or you paste some in, a small bar appears above the text: Render it turns the symbols into formatting in this file; Treat as Markdown does that and sets the file to Markdown from now on; Not Markdown keeps the file plain and stops asking. Close the bar and it stays away for the session. Studio never changes your text on its own, so a line of dialogue that starts with a dash is never turned into a list behind your back.

The same thing is in the palette as Render Markdown in this file, with an Undo on the message afterwards.

Typing shortcuts

Typing # and a space at the start of a line now makes a heading, with more hashes for smaller headings. This works in every text file, Markdown switch or not, alongside the shortcuts Studio already had: **bold**, *italic*, a dash and a space for a list, a > for a quote. The symbols disappear as you type; the formatting stays.

A hash with no space after it, as in #1, stays as it is. That's how Markdown works too, so hashtags and numbers are safe.

Seeing the symbols

Sometimes you want the Markdown itself: to check a nested list, to paste the file somewhere else, or because that's how you like to write. On any file set to Markdown, the </> button in the file header, next to the formatting toolbar button, switches to the source view: the same file as Markdown text, lightly highlighted, in the same reading width. Type there as you would anywhere; what you write is saved as usual. Press Esc or the button again to go back to the rendered view.

What you see in the source view is exactly what your BYOK receives. If you leave a file in source view, it opens that way next time; close it before you leave and it opens rendered. The palette has it too, as Toggle Markdown source view.

Import and export

• Import. The upload option now takes .md files as well as .txt and .docx. A Markdown file opens formatted and is set to Markdown.
• Export. Exporting a text file as Markdown gives you the same Markdown the device gets. Wiki exports and compiled manuscripts in Markdown now carry proper headings, lists, links and quotes; before, they kept only bold and italic.

Your existing files are safe. Files you synced before the update are left as they are, even after you turn the switch on. If one of them has Markdown in it, the bar above the text offers to render it, and Undo is there if you change your mind.

Connecting your BYOK

There are two ways, and Studio treats them the same:

• With the USB cable. Connect your BYOK to your computer and put it in disk mode, so it appears as a drive.
• With the microSD card. Take the card out of your BYOK and put it in your computer's card slot or a card reader.

Within a few seconds Studio recognizes the card by its folders and a BYOK connected panel opens. Close it and a small BYOK pill stays in the window; click it to bring the panel back.

What the panel shows

The panel lists the projects and files on the card next to your Studio library, so you can see what will happen before anything does:

• New on device: a file Studio doesn't have yet.
• Changed on device: you've written more in it on the BYOK.
• Changed on both: the file was edited on the BYOK and in Studio since the last time.
• Changed in Studio: only the Studio copy changed. It's left alone.
• Up to date: nothing to do. These are hidden until you ask to see them.

A project on the card that Studio doesn't have yet is marked new project and is created when you bring it in. A project with the same name as one in Studio is matched to it.

Bringing in changes

Click Bring in changes. New files are added, changed files are updated, and new projects are created. The button shows how many files will be touched, and a short message afterwards says what happened.

• Nothing is lost. Before Studio updates a file, it saves the current version in the file's version history.
• Edited in both places? The Studio file is never overwritten. The device's version comes in next to it as a copy, with "(from device)" after its name, so you can compare and keep what you want.
• Line breaks. Text from the device follows the Line breaks setting on the Devices page, the same as Wi-Fi sync.

Files you deleted on the BYOK

Studio never deletes anything on its own. If a file you brought in earlier has since been deleted on the device, the panel lists it as deleted on the device but still in Studio, and a Move to Studio's trash button takes care of it when you're ready.

Automatic and eject

• Turn on Bring in changes automatically when this BYOK connects and Studio does it as soon as that card appears, then shows a short message saying what came in. The setting is remembered per BYOK.
• Click Eject in the panel when you're done. When it says it's safe to unplug, take out the card or disconnect the cable.

The same panel has a Tools and fonts row that opens the BYOK Library. The next part covers it.

Opening the library

Plug in your BYOK, or put its card in a reader. The card panel appears as it always has, and it has a new row: Tools and fonts, with a count of what's already on the card. Click it. The library is also a palette command: press Cmd + K and type "tools".

The window has two tabs, Tools and Fonts, and a header that says which BYOK is connected, what firmware it runs, and how much room is left on the card. You can open the library with no BYOK connected to read about things; the Add buttons wait until one is.

Tools

The Tools tab is the Toolbox from the website. The same chips sort them, official or community, and the ones that run when you ask (Ctrl+T then a letter) from the ones you switch on and leave running while you type. Click a tool and the right-hand side shows everything its web page shows: what it does, how to run it, the guide, what's good to know, what it's allowed to touch, and which tools it shouldn't be on with.

Above all that sits a box called On this BYOK. It lists the tool's files, one row each, with what is on the card now and what will happen when you click the button: will be added, will be updated, or will be kept. Nothing is written until you click, and nothing is written that the box didn't say.

Click Add. Studio downloads the tool, checks it, and copies it into the Scripts folder on the card. Then eject the BYOK from the card panel and restart it. Tools are found when the BYOK starts, so the new one is in your Ctrl+T list after that.

Your saved notes, shortcuts and word lists

Some tools keep a second file next to themselves on the card: your notes, your shortcuts, your word list, your session count. The library knows about these and treats them with care.

• First time. Adding a tool that has a data file adds the data file too, so the tool has somewhere to save.
• Already using it. If the data file is already on the card, it is kept. Always. Updating a tool replaces the tool and leaves your data alone, and the box says so before you click.
• Starting fresh. If you really do want the stock data file back, its row has a separate Replace with a fresh copy… link. It asks first, tells you what you'd lose, and saves a copy of your current file on this computer before it writes. The message afterwards has a Show button that opens the folder it's in.
• Shared files. A data file that another tool on your card borrows is never replaced. The row tells you which tool is sharing it.

Updates

Official tools get small improvements now and then. When the library has a newer version of a tool that's on your card, the tool is marked Update available, the Tools tab shows a count, and the card panel's row does too. Click Update: the tool is replaced, your data file is kept, and the box said both before you clicked.

If you've edited a tool yourself, the library notices that too. It's marked On your BYOK (edited), and replacing it saves a copy of your edited version on this computer first, the same way a data file is saved.

Fonts

The Fonts tab is the Font Library. Search, sort by popularity, newest, name or height, and narrow by style and size. Every row shows the font's name drawn in the font itself, its size, and how many lines of it fit on the BYOK's screen.

Click a font and the right-hand side shows a few lines of text exactly as the BYOK's screen draws them. Type your own sample in the box and click Redraw to see your words in it. Below that are the facts: size, dimensions, how many lines on the BYOK, how many characters it covers, which languages, and how big the file is. Packs with more than one font let you switch between them.

Click Add and the font goes into the Fonts folder on the card. Eject, restart the BYOK, and pick it from the font list as usual.

Good to know

• The library needs the internet the first time it opens, to fetch the Toolbox and the Font Library, and again each time you click Add. Between those, what it fetched is kept on this computer, so you can browse offline.
• Tools need firmware 1.2 or later on the BYOK. The library shows your firmware in its header and says so if it's older. Fonts work on any firmware.
• Studio only ever writes inside the Scripts and Fonts folders on the card, and it never deletes anything there. Your writing, your sync files and everything else on the card are not touched.
• A tool or font you copied onto the card by hand still shows up. The library reads what's there, whether Studio put it there or you did.
• No account is needed. The library works the same whether or not you're signed in.

Your card is safe. Nothing on the card changes until you click Add, and even then only the one tool or font you asked for. Data files are kept unless you choose to replace one, and a copy is saved on this computer before that happens.

Choosing a font

In a text file, click the Aa button at the right end of the formatting toolbar. In a manuscript, the same button is in the header. A small panel opens with the fonts, line spacing and, for text files, the margins. Click a face and the text changes at once. The panel stays open so you can try a few, and the line you were on stays where it was on the screen, even in a long manuscript.

The same choice is in the settings menu, the gear at the top right, under Writing Font, with a line of sample text in each face. Or press Cmd + K and type "font", or just the name of the one you want.

The faces

Face	What it's like
Studio	The face Studio's own interface is set in, and what you had before. Clean and even; it gets out of the way.
System	The typeface your computer uses for its own apps: San Francisco on a Mac, Segoe UI on Windows.
Atkinson Hyperlegible	Made by the Braille Institute so that every letter is easy to tell from every other. Worth a try with High Contrast on.
Literata	A serif designed for reading on screens for hours, with real italics. A good first serif to try.
Crimson Pro	An old-style serif in the Garamond tradition. The one that makes a page look like a novel.
Lora	A warm, contemporary serif with a brushed italic.
Courier Prime	The screenwriter's Courier, redrawn for screens. The same face as the typewriter's Pica.
IBM Plex Mono	A clean monospace with a proper italic, for drafts that should look like drafts.

Every face has bold and italic. The sizes are matched, so switching from Studio to a serif doesn't look like zooming out; your zoom for each file is still your own.

Where it applies

The writing font is for the text you type: text files, manuscripts, wiki pages, cards, grid tiles, outline rows and Scratch Pad notes. Menus, the drawer, file headers and everything else in Studio stay in Studio's own face, so the app looks the same and only your words change. Two places keep their own type on purpose: the Markdown source view, which is monospace, and the typewriter, which has its three typefaces of its own.

Line spacing and margins

The Aa panel also holds line spacing, which used to be its own button, and in text files the margins, which used to be another. Nothing about them has changed except where they live, and one fix: the margins are now remembered. They used to go back to Default each time you opened Studio.

In your exports

When you export a manuscript to PDF or Word, or a wiki to Word, the export options now have a Font row. Same as editor uses your writing font. The other three, Times New Roman, Arial and Courier New, are the faces agents and competitions ask for by name.

• PDF. The font is built into the file, so the PDF looks like your screen on any computer.
• Word. The document names the font. If it isn't installed on the reader's computer, Word quietly substitutes one, which is how Word has always worked. For a submission, pick Times New Roman and it will open the same everywhere.
• Text files export in your writing font. Markdown and plain text have no font to carry.

Good to know

• The fonts are built into Studio. They work offline on the desktop app, and the web app no longer fetches its fonts from Google.
• The Fonts tab in the BYOK library (Part 4) is a different thing: those are fonts for the BYOK's own screen. The writing font is for Studio.
• The writing font doesn't change the size of your text. Zoom is still the way to do that, file by file.
• Opening the Aa panel, or the formatting toolbar, no longer takes the cursor out of your text.

Your files are safe. Changing the writing font changes nothing in a file. Switch back to Studio and everything is exactly as it was.

Opening the typewriter

Open a text file and click the small keyboard icon in the file header, next to the formatting toolbar button. Or press Cmd + K and type "typewriter" (or just tw). The window goes dark for a moment, then a typewriter sits on a desk with your document already typed on the sheet, and the carriage waiting at the end of the last line. Start typing.

Back to Studio, top left, returns you to the editor. Everything you typed is already in the file; there is nothing to save. Esc hides the controls so it's just you and the machine, and brings them back.

How a typewriter writes

A typewriter can only put a letter where the carriage is, and it can't push words along to make room. That is most of what makes it feel the way it does, so Studio keeps the rules, with a little help.

• Lines and paragraphs. A bell rings eight characters before the right margin, and at the first space after it the carriage returns on its own, so you never have to think about line ends. Enter returns the carriage. One Enter continues the paragraph on the next line; a blank line, Enter twice, starts a new paragraph. If you'd rather throw the carriage yourself the way a real machine makes you, Writing in the side panel has Bell & lock.
• Mistakes. Backspace goes back one space and lifts the letter off with correction tape, leaving a faint ghost on the paper. At the left margin it climbs to the end of the line above. Alt + Backspace lifts the last word and Cmd + Backspace the whole line. There's no cursor to put in the middle of a sentence: back up to the word you want to change and type on from there.
• Sheets. A sheet holds about five hundred words. When it's full, it rolls out and a fresh one rolls in; Cmd + Enter does that early. A long file arrives already typed across as many sheets as it needs, and you start on the last one. The Sheets panel shows them all; click one to read it, and Put back in the machine if you want to type on it again.
• Moving around. Scroll to look up the sheet and back down, Ctrl + scroll to zoom. The arrow keys move the carriage a space or roll the platen a line. Clicking the sheet moves the carriage there, clicking the lever returns it, and the keys can be clicked too.

Your words

The typewriter reads the text of your file and writes the text back, through the same saving as the ordinary editor, so a file open on another device catches up the same way it always has. Headings, bold, links and comments in paragraphs you leave alone are kept exactly as they were. A paragraph you change on the typewriter is saved as plain text, which is all a typewriter can write. Pictures stay where they were.

Making it yours

The round buttons on the right open the side panel. Everything you choose there is remembered on this computer, so the machine is the way you left it next time.

Panel	What's in it
Machine	Ten enamel colors, chrome or brass trim, three kinds of keys, six papers, five ribbons, how fresh the ink is, three typefaces, and morning, lamplight or midnight.
Sound	Volume, a light portable or a heavier desk machine, the bell, and rain, a fireplace, a mantel clock or a summer night to type under. Headphones are worth it.
Writing	Line spacing, auto return or bell & lock, correction tape or ink that's forever, the margins, and a close-up view of the sheet.
Sheets	Read any sheet, put one back in the machine, or roll in a fresh one.

Good to know

• The typewriter works offline on the desktop app, like the rest of Studio.
• It draws a 3D scene, so a laptop may run warmer than it does in the editor. Close it when you're done and the fan settles.
• It needs 3D graphics. On a computer without them, a short message says so, with a way back to the editor.
• It's for text files only. Manuscripts, outlines, cards, grids and the wiki don't have it.

Your existing files are safe. Opening a file on the typewriter changes nothing until you type. Paragraphs you don't touch keep their formatting, and the file saves exactly as it does from the editor.

Everywhere

Cmd + K	Command palette
Cmd + /	Shortcut cheat sheet
Cmd + O	Open a file in this project
Cmd + Shift + O	Switch project
Cmd + \	Open or close the file drawer
Cmd + Shift + 1 / 2	Move between two open files
Cmd + Shift + S	Swap the two open files
Cmd + Shift + Backspace	Close the file you're in
Cmd + F	Find
Cmd + Z / Cmd + Shift + Z	Undo / redo

Outline

Enter	New row below
Shift + Enter	Line break inside a row
Tab / Shift + Tab	Move a row in / out one level
Shift + Tab on a new row	Make it a header and fold the rows below under it
Alt + ↑ / Alt + ↓	Move a row up / down
Cmd + Enter	Open or close the row's notes
Cmd + Shift + K	Add a link to the row
Cmd + click a file chip	Open the file itself, even while its manuscript is open beside the outline
Backspace on an empty row	Delete the row
↑ ↓	Move between rows
Esc	Leave the row

Wiki

[[	Link to a wiki entry as you type (chapters and entries)
Cmd + Enter	New entry
Alt + ↑ / Alt + ↓	Previous / next item in the index
Cmd + D	Duplicate
Cmd + Backspace	Delete (asks first)
F2 in the index	Rename

Cards

Cmd + Enter	New card in this section
Cmd + D / Cmd + Backspace	Duplicate / delete the selected card
Alt + ↑ / Alt + ↓	Previous / next section

Text files

# + Space at the start of a line	Heading; more hashes for smaller headings
Esc in the source view	Back to the rendered view
Cmd + K, "source"	Toggle Markdown source view
Cmd + K, "render"	Render Markdown in this file

The typewriter

Cmd + K, "tw"	Open the typewriter, or leave it
Enter	Carriage return; twice for a new paragraph
Backspace	Back one space and lift the letter; at the margin, up to the line above
Alt + Backspace	Lift the last word
Cmd + Backspace	Lift the whole line
Cmd + Enter	Pull the sheet and roll in a fresh one
Cmd + R	Black or red half of a two-color ribbon
Esc	Hide the controls, or bring them back
Scroll / Ctrl + scroll	Look up the sheet / zoom

Tools and fonts on your BYOK

Cmd + K, "tools"	Open the library (a BYOK connected or not)
Esc	Close the library
Cmd + Enter in the sample box	Redraw the font preview

The project dashboard

Up / Down	Move through the file lists
Left / Right	Hop between two lists sitting side by side
Enter on a highlighted row	Open that file
Enter in a note or task field	Save it; Shift + Enter for a new line
Esc	Close Customize, or drop the highlight

The new grid

Double-click empty space	New tile
Cmd + scroll, or pinch	Zoom around the pointer
Space + drag	Pan the sheet (or drag with the middle button)
Shift + click	Add a tile to the selection, or take it out
Cmd + A	Select every tile
Cmd + C / X / V	Copy, cut, paste
Delete	Remove the selected tiles
Cmd + Z	Undo
Shift + Cmd + Z	Redo
Esc	Clear the selection
Cmd + K, "jump"	Jump to a tile by its text

Your writing font

Aa in the toolbar or manuscript header	Font, line spacing and margins in one panel
Cmd + K, "font"	Every writing font, pick one
Cmd + K, a face's name	Switch straight to it ("literata", "crimson", "mono"…)
Esc	Close the panel