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    Books and sections

    Verkilo organizes a project into books, and each book into sections. This two-level structure is enough to hold anything from a standalone novel to a long-running series.

    3 min read Updated Mac · Windows · Linux

    Adding a book#

    A project can contain multiple books — the volumes of your series — all sharing one Series Bible.

    1. Go to Books (⌘1 / Ctrl+1).
    2. Click New Book. It’s created and opened straight away.
    3. Click the Book settings button on the book’s card to set its title, author, ISBN, and the copyright details exports use.

    Switch between books from the same Books view at any time.

    The Books view: every book in the project with its cover and word count The Books view: every book in the project with its cover and word count

    Archiving and trashing a book#

    When a book is finished — or shelved — you have two different moves, both in the menu at the top of the book’s settings page:

    • Archive Book takes it off the working shelf. It’s still in the project, still exported with its bundle, and one click brings it back: filter the Books view by Archived and choose Unarchive.
    • Move to Trash removes the book and its sections from the project. Like trashed sections, it can be restored from the Trash until you empty it.

    Archive is for done; Trash is for gone.

    Adding a section#

    Sections are the scenes and chapters you write in.

    1. Open the book you’re working on.
    2. Right-click in the navigator and choose Add New Section. Right-clicking an existing section adds the new one after it; right-clicking empty space adds it at the end.
    3. Double-click the new section’s name, type the real title, and press Enter.

    To nest a scene under a chapter, right-click the parent section and choose Add Child Section. To pull a nested one back out, right-click it and choose Move to Top Level.

    Front, main, and back matter#

    The navigator groups every book into Front Matter, Main Matter, and Back Matter. New sections land in main matter — your actual story. Dedications and epigraphs belong in front matter, author notes and teasers in back.

    To move one: right-click the section, choose Move to, and pick the group.

    Reordering#

    Drag sections in the navigator to reorder them. Because your character and location links live on the sections themselves, moving a scene never loses its connections.

    You can also reorder from the corkboard or the outliner — all three views drive the same underlying order.

    Splitting and merging#

    When a section turns out to be two scenes:

    1. Click in the editor at the point where the second scene starts.
    2. Right-click and choose Split at Selection.

    If you’d rather name the new section from its own text, select the line you want as the title first and choose Split with Selection as Title.

    To go the other way, right-click a section and choose Merge with Next.

    Choosing what gets exported#

    Not every section belongs in every format. Right-click a section, choose Compile In, and pick one:

    • All Formats — the default. Included everywhere.
    • Ebook Only — in your EPUB, left out of PDF and DOCX.
    • Print Only — in your PDF and DOCX, left out of the EPUB.
    • None (Reference Only) — kept in the project, never exported. Use it for outlines and research you want beside the manuscript.

    Duplicating and deleting#

    Right-click a section for Duplicate, which copies its text and its links.

    Trash removes a section from the manuscript without destroying it — deleted sections sit in the trash at the foot of the navigator, where you can restore them or remove them for good.

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