Importing a manuscript

You can import a Word manuscript, a Markdown file or plain text into a book, and Story Builder splits it into chapters for you — after you have checked the split.

Can I import a Word manuscript? #

Yes. The import takes a single manuscript file in one of these formats:

The formatting a manuscript actually uses comes across: headings, bold and italic, block quotes and lists. Page layout does not, because chapters here are not paginated until you export them.

Starting an import #

1. Open the book's chapters list.
2. Press Import manuscript. On a smaller screen it is in the Chapter actions menu; in a book with no chapters yet, it sits beside the button for a new chapter.
3. Choose the file, or drop it on the box.

Nothing is created yet. The dialog reads the file and shows you the proposed split first.

How do I split a manuscript into chapters? #

Pick a rule under Split into chapters by. The import chooses one from the document's own structure, and you can change it if the preview looks wrong:

• Top headings — a new chapter at every main heading.
• All headings — a new chapter at every heading, whatever its level.
• Scene breaks — a new chapter at every break line such as ***.
• Text pattern — a new chapter at every paragraph that matches the Pattern you type. Plain text works, and so does a regular expression. Left empty, it matches lines that start with Chapter, Part or Book.
• One chapter — the whole file as a single chapter.

Chapter titles come from the headings or matching lines, with a leading "Chapter 3." taken off. A chapter with no title of its own is named after the document and numbered. With any rule but Scene breaks, a break line inside a chapter stays in it as a scene break.

Checking the preview #

The Preview lists every chapter the split would create: its number, title, word count and first lines. A chapter with nothing in it says No text in this chapter, which usually means the rule split in the wrong place. Adjust the rule until the preview looks right — fixing a wrong split here is much quicker than fixing forty chapters later.

Importing the chapters #

Press Import — the button shows how many chapters it will create. The new chapters go at the end of the book, numbered after the chapters it already has, and the dialog shows progress as they are created.

If some chapters fail, the dialog keeps only those listed and says how many worked. Import again to retry them; the chapters that already worked are not created twice.

After importing #

Imported chapters are ordinary chapters. You can reorder, retitle, edit and publish them like anything you wrote in the app.

The import brings in text only. It does not create characters, locations or dates from it — for that, use AI capture, a separate step you run on one passage at a time.

How do I undo an import? #

Delete the chapters it created. Deleted chapters stay in the archive for thirty days, so even that step can be reversed. Nothing about importing is one-way.

Tips #

• Tidy the headings first. If every chapter starts with the same heading style in Word, Top headings gives a clean split on the first try.
• Use a pattern for plain text. A manuscript without headings often still starts each chapter with "Chapter" — Text pattern finds those lines.
• Import one book at a time. The chapters land in the book you are in, so create the book first and import into it.
• Build plotlines afterwards. Once the chapters are in, plotlines can build their beats from the chapters a character appears in.

Related #

• Chapters — organise and edit the chapters you imported.
• Books — keep each book of a series separate.
• AI capture — turn passages into characters and other records.
• Manuscript — export the novel to DOCX or EPUB.