What's new?

[peter88213]

In this thread I want to make you aware of new and special features of novelibre. To keep it clear, I have locked it for comments. If you want to make a comment on a feature, you can try to post a reply, or open a separate thread.

You can download the latest novelibre version from the project homepage. There you will also find the links to the plugins.
To learn about planned features and how development progresses, see the Features project Kanban board.

[peter88213]

Online help

I have moved the noveltree online help to a separate website and combined it with the help pages of the plugins. The help pages are not yet complete; I intend to finish them over time.

[peter88213]

See the ages of the characters related to a section

If a section is dated, you can call up the ages of the related characters who have birth dates (as of version 1.7).

[peter88213]

Version 1.8: Update of the plugins is recommended

Until version 1.7 there were homepages on GitHub Pages for noveltree and all its plugins. After I moved the online help pages to a separate website, I abandoned the individual homepages and now use the GitHub repositories as landing pages. This reduces the maintenance effort and makes updates available more quickly.

Since the old help page and homepage URLs are also in the program code of the plugins (e.g. as links for the plugin manager), there is now an update with revised URLs. It is recommended to update noveltree and all plugins used.

[peter88213]

Version 2.0: Preparations for renaming the application

Version 2.0 does not bring any new features. Nevertheless, I recommend installing it; this will make it much easier to switch to the renamed application at a later date (see below). "Under the hood", the plugin mechanism is now well prepared for the things to come.

The whole installation is moved from "~/.noveltree" to "~/.novx" automatically. This is why you may need to adjust your noveltree launcher on Linux, or your Windows desktop link if it doesn't work after the noveltree update. Also, Windows users should re-run the registry script add-noveltree.reg in the installation directory to keep noveltree working as the default application for .novx files. The icon for the desktop shortcut must be set again. All installed plugins must then be updated.

A new name for noveltree

When I was looking for a new name for novelyst v5, noveltree seemed like a good one, since the application provides a tree for structuring a novel. However, a web search for "noveltree" shows many hits that lead to businesses such as cannabis distribution. Also, a large software project on GitHub is already named noveltree. I would like to have a unique name for my program, so I will change it in the near future.

Some preparations are necessary for this. First, I renamed the help pages and the plugins so that "noveltree" no longer appears in their URLs. This is done with the API v1.8 and requires no further action from the user than updating noveltree and its plugins.

The next step is to change the installation directory. It should no longer be called "~/.noveltree", but have a neutral name. I am thinking of "~/.novx", which refers to the file format used and is suitable for all tools that process .novx files.

I suspect that the user base of my program is still very small at the moment, so I would like to take this step as soon as possible, because it requires Linux users to revise their program launcher, and Windows users to revise their shortcuts and file association. The actual relocation is to be automated with the v2.0 update.

You can have a look at the progress of the changes here: #6

[peter88213]

Version 2.1: The new name is novelibre

• After installation or update, please run the registry script "add_novelibre.reg" on Windows.
• Version 1.x plugins must be updated.

[peter88213]

Version 3.0: New features and file format upgrade

With version 3.0, arcs have been renamed plot lines. novelibre now povides a plot grid with plot line notes for each section. This allows you to see the big picture and keep track of multiple subplots. In order to outline a novel with a plot grid right from the start, novelibre now offers the option of creating up to 20 sections at once.

In return, the former section list is now only intended for export. As of version 3.3, it will contain a complete set of section metadata and thus support project export.

The file format has been extended and the version of the document type definition has been increased from 1.0 to 1.1. This means that .novx files written with a novelibre version 2.7 or higher are no longer read by older program versions.

The behavior when exporting documents can now be set via an options dialog. This allows you to skip confirmation requests and prevent automatic locking.

The online user guide has now been enhanced and covers all program features.

Version 1.x and 2.x plugins must be updated.

Note: Version 2.7 was an interim release with most of the version 3 features implemented. However, some version 2.x plugins may not work because of the file format upgrade, so it is highly recommended to update the application and all its plugins to version 3.

[peter88213]

Version 3.5: New features and file format upgrade

With version 3.5, you can store notes and links along with almost every element in novelibre.
To add this data to the .novx file, the file format has been upgraded to version 1.2. This means that .novx files written with a novelibre version 3.5 or higher are no longer read by older program versions.

If you link a file that is located in the novelibre project directory or below, the path is now saved relative to the project directory.
Thus, tis path will not break when moving the project folder with all its contents.

For novelibre version 3.5, the following plugins and tools must be updated to work with the version 1.2 file format:

• Timeline plugin
• Aeon Timeline 2 plugin
• XPress tagged text export

[peter88213]

Version 3.6: File format upgrade

As of version 3.6, novelibre stores links in a redundant way. This allows for auto-fixing broken links if files are moved on the disk.
To add the new data to the .novx file, the file format has been upgraded to version 1.3. This means that .novx files written with a novelibre version 3.6 or higher are no longer read by older program versions.

If you link a file, the path is now saved relative to the project directory, and additionally as an absolute path.
Thus, the link will not necessarily break when moving the project to another folder. If one of the two stored link paths keeps working, the other one will automatically be fixed after successfully opening this link.

For novelibre version 3.6, the following plugins and tools must be updated to work with the version 1.3 file format:

• Timeline plugin
• Aeon Timeline 2 plugin
• XPress tagged text export

[peter88213]

Bugfixes

Currently, I 'm working on a new novel, plotting it with novelibre from scratch. Most of the functions are used here, and bugs are fixed as they show up. This could lead to an increase in updates in the near future.

[peter88213]

Version 4: File format upgrade

The section "Action/Reaction/Custom" scheme is generalized and extended now, so that you can also specify non-staged sections and make customized annotations. See:
https://peter88213.github.io/nvhelp-en/section_view.html#scene
For this, the file format has been upgraded from DTD 1.3 to DTD 1.4.
This means, that novelibre versions before 4 cannot read novx files that are saved with novelibre version 4.

All plugins must be upgraded for version 4. The novelibre plugin API has been enhanced, and the plugins' file sizes may be significantly reduced.

[peter88213]

Copy and paste novelibre tree elements via the clipboard

The nv_clipboard plugin adds this feature to novelibre.
However, the current version 0.6.0 is still an "Alpha" release with more features to come.

[peter88213]

Note

As of version 5.5, this feature is included in novelibre, so this plugin has become obsolete.

[peter88213]

Moon phase display

What is the moon in the sky? Is it full tonight, even though the night was moonless yesterday?
As of novelibre version 4.4, you can call up the moon phase at the section's start date.

The moon phase information consists of:

• the phase day (0 to 29, where 0=new moon, 15=full etc.),
• the visible shape,
• the fraction illuminated.

The moon phase calculation is based on a ‘do it in your head’ algorithm by John Conway.
In its current form, it’s only valid for the 20th and 21st centuries.

[peter88213]

Self-installing distribution packages

From now on the releases of novelibre and all its plugins and tools will be provided as self-extracting Python archives.
This greatly simplifies installation.

Many web browsers recognize the download as an executable file and offer to open it immediately. This starts the installation.

However, depending on your security settings, your browser may initially refuse to download the executable file. In this case, your confirmation or an additional action is required. If this is not possible, you have the option of downloading the zip file.

[peter88213]

Modifying the look of your final document

If you prefer simple blank lines instead of section separators, you can achieve this using "Find and replace".

This is particularly convenient with a macro that comes with the new novelibre-tools extension for LibreOffice and OpenOffice.

[peter88213]

Preparing your work in progress for novelibre import

Before creating a novelibre project from an .odt "work in progress", you have to set up the text document as described here.
As of version 0.2, the novelibre-tools extension for LibreOffice and OpenOffice comes with a macro that inserts the right section divider on a blank line.

[peter88213]

nv_tlview version 5.6

The latest release of the novelibre timeline viewer plugin comes with a small-scale overview at the bottom of the window.

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.24: More information at a single glance.

Now displaying previews on collapsed property frames.

Book properties example:

Section properties example:

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.27: File format upgrade

So far, the section's viewpoint character was the first one in the character relationships list. If you assigned a viewpoint character to a section, novelibre made sure it was related to the section, and moved it to the first position, if needed. On the other hand, the first character you related to a section with no viewpoint, automatically became the viewpoint character.

As from version 5.27, the viewpoint is a separate section property that is not automatically a relationship. This allows a broader definition of “relationship”, e.g. "mention", "description" etc., without interfering with the meaning of "viewpoint character".

The viewpoint is now stored separately in the .novx project file. For this, the file format has been upgraded to version 1.7.

---

Important
.novx files created with novelibre version 5.27+ cannot be read with older novelibre versions, so better update novelibre on each of your computers.

For a smooth operation, please update also the following plugins and auxiliary scripts:

• nv_collection
• nv_editor
• nv_statistics
• nv_yw7
• novx_html
• novx_xtg
• scap_novx

---

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.29 and nv_snapshots: Storing zipped versions

The backup file format has been changed to .zip. If you are already using the backup feature, you may want to delete your .novx# files manually.

The new nv_snapshots plugin is a lightweight version control system:

Many plugins have been updated and now add their logo to the menu entries they insert:

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.31 with a new feature: Add multiple chapters

If you start your novel outlining the chapters, try the new Chapter > Add multiple chapters... command.

You can quickly create e.g. 20 chapters, export a "chapter description" document, and fill in the synopses.

---

Updated installation routine

In addition, the installation routine for novelibre and all its plugins has been improved: it now runs in the command line window and can output more information in case of errors.

The first time you install novelibre, a dialog will offer you to open the installation folder, so you easily can create the shortcut on your desktop. When just updating novelibre, there won't be any dialog, so just close the window after installation.

A side effect of this is that the download files no longer have the extension .pyzw, but .pyz.
If you prefer to download the zip file and perform the installation manually after unpacking, the script is now called setup.py instead of setup.pyw.

---

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.32: Changed the document wording

Several menu entries have been renamed:

• The exported ODS spreadsheet documents are now called tables instead of lists.
• The same applies to the HTML tables displayed in the web browser.

User guide updated

By the way, the Online help is being updated frequently, e.g. the chapters about plotting and metadata display. You may want to take a look at it from time to time in order to find out more about novelibre's features.

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.33: User interface update

This release does not have a major impact on existing projects. The changes are intended to make project setup a little easier and more straightforward.

• The character "Bio" field label is no longer customizable.
• The character "Goals" field is now named "Extra field".
• The data fields for other scenes and sections that aren't scenes
  are renamed to "Field 1", "Field 2", and "Field 3".
• In the Book properties view, "Renamings" has been changed to "Field names".
• The old default field names are now used as defaults in the entries.

---

The export placeholders also have been updated. It is therefore strongly recommended that you update the nv_custom_export and
nv_yw7 plugins as well as novx_html and novx_xtg, if used.

---

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.34: Half a step back

It soon became apparent that it was better to have all data fields for the characters freely configurable.
So the character "Bio" field label is now customizable again. This gives you two character data fields, named "Field 1" and "Field 2".

In the character properties view, the character's birth and death dates are separated from the data fields.

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.34.1 with changes in the Help menu

There is now a News about novelibre entry in the help menu. It brings you to this web page.

[peter88213]

nv_zim 5.7: The changes made in version 5.4 were reverted

Since it seems sensible to limit the Zim project wiki to worldbuilding by default, the nv_zim plugin no longer assigns wiki pages to the plot lines. So the Wiki page buttons have been removed from the plot line properties view.
If you already have assigned wiki pages to plot lines, you may want to add the corresponding .txt files to the regular links. Then remove the plot line's wiki links via the Tools > Zim Desktop Wiki > Remove wiki links command.

nv_zim 5.6: Removing Wiki page links is made easy

As of version 5.6, clicking on the Wiki page button while holding down the Alt key removes an existing wiki link after confirmation.

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.35.1 with better Linux support

When I decided to develop my own writing software, I had the end of Windows 10 and a switch to Linux in mind. So I installed Xubuntu in a virtual machine and made sure that novelibre also runs under Linux. To simplify development, I went to some effort to adapt Xubuntu so that handling *.pyz and .novx files, for example, is as similar as possible to Windows.
Then, in early 2024, my development PC broke down, and I had to buy a new one that came with Windows 11, so Linux became a low priority.

Now that the development phase of novelibre is finished, I want to make sure that the software runs just as smoothly under Linux as it does under Windows.

On my 11+ year-old laptop, I first installed OpenSUSE Leap 15.6, which is the current stable version. I was baffled to discover that novelibre could be installed but not started. Due to a curious entry in the error log, I found out that the distro comes with Python 3.6, but novelibre contains code that only runs on version 3.7 or higher. So it was my mistake, because I specified Python 3.6 as the minimum requirement. That had to be changed immediately. I also introduced a version check with novelibre 5.35, which leads to a meaningful error message in such cases.

Since I was unable to quickly upgrade OpenSUSE Linux to a new Python version as the default interpreter, or upgrade the distro to version 16.0, I decided to abandon it and installed Linux Mint, an older version of which I had lying around on a USB stick. Installing the required python3-tk package was a breeze with the Synaptic package manager.

Since .pyz files cannot be launched by double-clicking, as is the case with Windows, you should have a Python application launcher for convenient installation. Just in case, I'm providing one for download.

To get a novelibre application launcher, I improved the setup script in version 5.35.1, making desktop setup even easier on Linux than on Windows.

I haven't worked with it much yet, but I can say that novelibre looks quite nice on the Cinnamon desktop in Linux Mint.

However, if you don't like the design, you can change the theme via the nv_themes plugin. Here, for example, the arc theme, which is more like Windows 11:

---

Feel free to take a look at the new installation guide.

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.36 with improved support for dark mode

If you use dark mode, you may want to update to nv_dark version 0.5, of which the color palette is even better handled by the latest novelibre release. There's also an update for the nv_collection plugin with better support for dark mode.

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.37 with a new method of defining chapter epigraphs

In my current novel project, I now preface each chapter with a fictional news flash or social media post providing background information on the latest developments in the story. This is what the epigraph feature introduced with version 5.21 is for.
In practice, however, I found it cumbersome to use epigraphs as chapter properties, as they could neither be edited in the manuscript nor assigned to plot lines.

I have now remedied this with version 5.37. From now on, you can declare the first section of each part or chapter to be an epigraph, and it will be displayed in the manuscript document in the same way as the former epigraph, but it will be editable.
For this purpose, I have upgraded the .novx file format to version 1.8. When loading a version 1.7 .novx project file that includes epigraphs, novelibre automatically adjusts the chapter properties, and converts the epigraphs into sections.

There is a section on epigraphs in the online manual now.

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.38: Defining new sections while writing with Writer is now even more intuitive.

During extended writing sessions with Writer, you can now conveniently define new sections using third- or fourth-level subheadings. These will then appear immediately in the navigator. See the manual.

[peter88213]

novelibre 5.39 indicating comments

Sections that contain at least one comment are now marked with a “◳” symbol in the project tree.

[peter88213]

nv_matrix version 5.5 with hovertips

Some nv_matrix fields now display hovertips when you move the mouse cursor over them.

• Plot line heading: Plot line title.
• Plot line node: The section’s Plot line notes, if any.
• Character heading: Full name and aka, if any.