Novelty Writer

Focus mode

Focus mode is a distraction-free workspace designed to keep you immersed in drafting your prose. The three-panel workshop chrome fades completely away, leaving only your serif manuscript column centered on screen, with scrollbars entirely hidden to reduce visual noise.

Even in this minimalist layout, you can navigate your project effortlessly:

  • Hover Zone: Move your mouse cursor to the left of the actual text area. A faded hover-navigation panel will smoothly slide into view. It shows your active document’s path hierarchy and a list of sibling documents in the same folder, letting you switch files without opening the full sidebar.
  • Keyboard Shortcuts: You can transition between chapters using quick sibling navigation hotkeys. Press ⌥[ to open the previous sibling document or ⌥] to open the next sibling document instantly (or use their alternate hotkeys ⌘⌥↑ and ⌘⌥↓ respectively).

Sibling Creation

To keep your hands on the keyboard, you can spawn new files in place:

  • Press ⌘N to create sibling document inline. A prompt will appear in a clean overlay asking for the filename. Enter it, press Enter, and a new markdown file will be created in your current directory and opened for you instantly.

The AI Companion

Focus mode includes an embedded, minimalist companion:

  • Floating Input: Press ⌘I to focus the AI companion input area centered at the bottom of the screen. Type your editing instructions or drafting prompt and press Enter.
  • Response Panel: The AI’s streamed responses will render in a dedicated panel on the right. Toggle the AI response sidebar with ⌥I (or ⌘⌥I) to show or hide the responses dynamically, keeping your prose space completely sacred.

Alternate Navigation & Commands

You can still launch all your favorite global tools using alternate bindings:

  • Open the Command Palette with ⌘K or the Quick Open dialog with ⌘P.
  • Quickly trigger search tools or toggle preferences.
  • Access the documentation panel with ⌘⇧/ to read full guide sections, or use the alternate preferences shortcut ⌘⇧P when needed.
  • If you make a mistake while writing, you can always undo with ⌘Z or trigger a redo pass with ⌘⇧Z.