Projects & Documents

Starting fresh: click Projects on the home screen, then create a new project and give it a name. Writing Desk sets up a folder for it on your Mac. Bringing in a manuscript you've already started: open the .docx or .md in Writing Desk, click the project control at the bottom of the sidebar, choose Convert to Writing Desk project, then Set up project. Your original file stays where it is, unchanged. Turn a document into a project.

Project types are labels only. They help you organise and identify your work, but they don't change how the app behaves, whatever type you choose, you get the same full set of features.

A document is an ordinary markdown (.md) or Word (.docx) file, ideal for essays, posts and notes. A project is the full workspace for long-form writing, with chapters, The Pad, Story Plotter, comments and version history. A Writing Desk document (.wddoc) is the format a project's manuscript is saved in, and it can also stand on its own, outside a project. Which should I use?.

It turns your document into a Writing Desk document (.wddoc) on its own, with comments, chapters and version history, without setting up a project folder. You can make it a full project at any time with the Set up project badge beside its title.

It's copied, never moved or changed, so you'll find it exactly where it was. The one exception is a Writing Desk document that's already on its own: setting it up as a project moves it into the new project as its manuscript.

Yes. A project can hold more than one file, which suits a short story or poetry collection. To add a document you're working on, click the project control at the bottom of its sidebar and choose Add to project. The file stays where it is and is linked into the project.

On your Mac. A project's manuscript is saved as a Writing Desk document (.wddoc), which Finder shows as a single file with the Kind "Writing Desk Document". It holds your text, chapters, variants and comments. Documents are ordinary .md or .docx files. New documents from the Documents tab are saved in your Writing Desk Documents folder.

Your home for shorter writing, in the Projects window. Favourites lists the documents you've opened recently or marked as favourites. Below it, Documents shows your Writing Desk Documents folder: Add folder and Add file create new folders and documents there, and you can drag them to reorganise. Write your first essay or blog post.

Yes. New documents are markdown files (.md), and Writing Desk opens any markdown file on your Mac. You write with the usual toolbar and shortcuts, and Writing Desk saves your formatting as markdown, so the file opens cleanly in any other app.

Yes. Images already in a markdown file show in the editor, found relative to the file's folder or by their full path. Images with a website path, such as /assets/cover.png, show as a placeholder. Adding new images from inside Writing Desk is on the roadmap.

It's kept exactly as written. Writing Desk shows it as its own block at the top of the document and saves it back unchanged, so posts for blogging platforms keep their title, date and tags.

Moving your files out of their original folder breaks the link the app uses to find them. If that happens, just click Open Existing File and select your manuscript from its new location to reconnect it.

A single folder for all your story-related notes, screenshots, images and PDFs. Link it from the Resource section of a project and you'll have quick access to everything in it as you write. In a document, the References section at the bottom of the sidebar does the same job: pin any files, folders or links you're drawing on.

A collapsible notes panel that sits alongside your manuscript, scoped to the chapter you're working on. You can import your Story Plotter notes for the current chapter into it with one click, and use it for quick ideas or chapter thoughts as you write.

Import runs one way, from Story Plotter into The Pad, and it's manual rather than automatic. This keeps your content from duplicating across the two.

A place to build out characters, locations, and other worldbuilding material, with support for images and galleries on character and location entries.

Only fields you've explicitly marked as shareable with AI are ever included in an AI request. Anything marked private is never transmitted, no matter which AI feature you use.

Yes. Open the .docx in Writing Desk and you can edit and save it as a Word file straight away. From Google Docs, choose File, Download, Microsoft Word (.docx) first. To use chapters, Story Plotter and the other project tools, convert it into a project from the project control at the bottom of the sidebar. Your original file stays unchanged. Bring in writing you've already started.

Writing Desk recognises headings by Word's Heading 1, 2 and 3 styles. Headings made by enlarging or bolding ordinary text, and headings below level 3, arrive as body text. To fix them, put the cursor in each heading and press ⌥⌘1, ⌥⌘2 or ⌥⌘3. In a project, Heading 2 marks the start of each chapter.