Scribe is a webapp designed to assist in the writing process, modeled after the Scrivener tool available on Windows, Mac OS, and iOS. As a webapp, Scrivener is usable on other platforms, such as Chrome OS.

Scribe is currently deployed at https://scribe.lithl.info

Features

The primary element of a Scribe Project is the Manuscript. A Manuscript contains Chapters, which themselves contain Scenes. A Scene can be as short or as long as you like, and while working on your project you can move Scenes around relative to one another, even moving a Scene into a different Chapter entirely. Likewise, Chapters can be moved around relative to one another.

A Project can contain multiple Manuscripts, and Chapters can be moved between them (and Scenes can be moved to Chapters in another Manuscript, if you like). This might be useful if you have a series of connected stories you want to write, as keeping all of the work in one place can help you organize your ideas.

In addition to Manuscripts and their components, a Project can have:

• Ideas: Jot down ideas for things you want to do in your Manuscripts. You can store everything in a single Idea object, or create multiple and name them something useful to distinguish them from one another.
• Characters: Design the Characters involved in your story, so you never forget what you've said about someone! There is no mandatory structure to a Character, simply structure your thoughts in a fashion you find useful.
• Locations: Like Characters, remembering your Locations is important! What features does some palce have, who lives there, etc. A Location might be as small as a room or as big as a country, or even a world!
• Notes: Make Notes about what you're planning to do with your story and its elements.
• Research: Write down the Research you've done on different parts of your story, so you don't have to look it up again. What does an Air Force funeral look like? You don't want to write it twice!
• Templates: Create Templates of default text to use when creating elements in other categories. Is there a particular structure you want to use for writing your Character details? Create that structure here, and re-use it whenever you create a new Character.

Finally, sections of text can be commented on, much like in Google Docs.

Saving your Project

Your Scribe project will be automatically saved in the cloud periodically. You can either be an anonymous user, in which case your Project will be associated with your IP address so that you can come back later and resume your work, or you can log in using your Google account, in which case your Project will be associated with your Google account so that you can work from multiple devices on multiple networks if you need to.

In addition to the cloud saves, you can export your Project data to your Google Drive (if you are logged in with your Google account), or download your data as a file. In both cases, you can export the entire set of Project data, or just export the Manuscript(s).

Collaboration

If you sign in with a Google account, you can also specify other Google users permitted to collaborate on your Project. There are five permission levels:

1. View: the user can look at what you've written, and nothing more.
2. Comment: the user can create comments on sections of your text, but cannot make changes.
3. Suggest: the user can suggest changes, but you have to approve them, in addition to making comments.
4. Edit: the user can make edits directly without your permission, as well as making suggestions and comments.
5. Invite: the user can add or remove other users' permissions, in addition to the above.

The permissions can be granted to the project as a whole, or limited to just some categories (eg, you can let someone only see your Manuscript, not any of your other work). You can also give the same person different permissions to different parts of the Project (eg, they can Suggest on the Manuscript, but they can Edit your Locations).

A user with Invite permissions cannot affect your ability to use your Project, nor change their own permissions. If they only have Invite permission on some parts of your Project, they can only edit other users' permissions on those parts.

Deploying Scribe

If you want to use the code in this repository to deploy an instance of Scribe yourself, you'll need to do several things:

1. Install NPM dependencies with npm install
2. Compile the typescript files into javscript with something like npx tsc
3. Bundle the files with something like npx webpack
4. Run the server with something like node index (note: this will attempt to run on port 3002; if that port is in use, it will not work)

Steps 2 and 3 can be combined with the build script included in the package file. You can invoke it with a command like npm run build --silent.

TODO: Add instructions for setting up database once database communication is implemented in the repository.