Your first project
Let's get you started 😈. We'll make a workspace and a project, then start with the concepts that will become the basis for the writing.
Choose a workspace
On first launch, you will be greeted with a setup screen. Choose "Get Started". Enter a workspace name and your author name, then continue and choose a workspace folder.
The workspace is the folder Writality uses to keep its local data. Remember, Writality is offline first. Your writing is saved on your machine. A project is a story inside that workspace. You can keep more than one project there; you don't need to set up the application again for each story.
Choose a location you can find again. Writality creates backups, in case something goes wrong, but these are also stored within your workspace. Keeping a folder in a cloud-sync service doesn't mean it's safe to open the same database on two computers at once.
Continue with the setup. On completion, a tutorial shows recorded demonstrations of the main workflow. Finish it to reach the project picker, then create your own project below. The demonstrations don't create concepts or writing in your workspace.
Create your first story
Choose "Create new project". You will be navigated to the "Study". Think of this as the hub for this story. Here you will find analytics about the story, your world graph, and other quick actions.
Click the "New Project" title at the top of the sidebar, or on the page and change it to Epitaph of the Undying. You can return to those settings later; so don't worry.
For this guide, we'll begin with Alasdair, a character, and The Crown, a city. They will each have a concept. Later we'll write what happens to Alasdair in the city as a segment, then bring the writing into a manuscript.
You don't need to create those entities yet. First, get to know where they belong in the workspace.
Important thing to understand
Writality saves edits automatically in your local workspace. There are only a few places where you need to manually save, but these will be made obvious for you. As a general rule, just remember everything saves automatically.
On the desktop, CtrlS or CmdS toggles the project sidebar; it isn't a manual save command. The Keyboard shortcuts page lists the defaults and explains how to change them.
Automatic saving and a backup do different things: Saving keeps your current work; a backup gives you a separate point to recover from. Writality has database backups and optional readable copies.
Tip ☝️🤓 You should always toggle readable backups as it allows you to access your work without needing Writality.
See: Backups and recovery.