Library and EPUB import

Library

The Library holds every book on this Mac. Books in a series sit on a shared shelf in order of their number; the rest are on the “Standalone Books” shelf. Covers are generated automatically for now.

Create a book

New Book at the top of the Library (or ⌘N, or the “New Book in Series” tile on a series shelf):

1. Title and author (the author is prefilled from your previous book).
2. Series — “No Series”, an existing one, or “New Series…”; the next number is filled in.
3. Starting structure: Chapters (three empty chapters), Three Parts (two chapters each) or Single Scene (for a short story or a draft).
4. Create Book — it opens right away in Writing.

You can also import a finished book from EPUB instead — see below.

Series

• New Series — the button at the top of the Library, or “New Series…” in the new book window. An empty series appears as a shelf you can add books to.
• Series actions — the ”…” menu next to the shelf name: new book in series, rename, delete.
• Delete a series — two options: “keep the books” (they become standalone) or “delete with books” (book files go to the macOS Trash).

Book actions

The ”…” menu on a book card, or right-click:

Action	What happens
Open	the book opens in Writing
Move to Series	to another series (with the next number) or “No Series”
Number in Series…	the book’s position on the shelf
Duplicate	a copy of the book with all settings; the copy’s version history starts fresh
Show in Finder	the book file
Move to Trash…	the book file goes to the macOS Trash and can be restored from there; its version history is kept

The title, author and series of the open book can also be changed in Publishing → Metadata.

Import EPUB

1. Click Import EPUB in the Library, choose ⌘O, or drag an .epub file onto the window.
2. Wait for it to finish — usually a few seconds.
3. Review the report: how many parts, chapters, scenes and words, and what was not carried over.
4. Click Start Working — the book opens in Writing.

The original file is not modified: Norwid creates its own copy of the book.

How the book is split into structure

In the EPUB	In Norwid
Table of contents and chapter headings	Chapters named after the table of contents
Several chapters in one file	Split by headings
“Part One”, “Book II” and similar	Parts
Separators * * *, ⁂, a rule	Separate scenes within a chapter
Cover, title page, contents, copyright	Kept with the “Excluded” status — no text is lost
Italic, bold, quotes, lists	Markdown in the text
Title, author, language, description, ISBN, series	Book metadata (Publishing → Metadata)

If the split is not quite right, fix the structure in Writing: merge, split, rename chapters or change their type. See Add, split, merge, delete.

What is not carried over

Images (a ![…](…) link remains in the text), footnotes as a separate structure (the link text remains), and CSS styling. DRM-protected books cannot be imported — Norwid will tell you.