Applies to ScribeWright 1.1.117

Code Pane

The page you type on is the document, styled by your book’s own stylesheet, so what you see is what a reader gets. The Code pane is the optional view beside it for the times you want to see the markup itself.

The Code pane beside the page, both showing the same chapter.
The Code pane beside the page, both showing the same chapter.

The Code Pane (Ctrl+E)

View ▸ Code opens the chapter’s underlying XHTML beside the page. The two views stay in sync in both directions: type in the page and the code follows a moment later; edit the code and the page follows, holding its place at the block you were working on.

You never need the code pane; everything in ScribeWright can be done visually. It earns its keep when you want surgical control: fixing markup that came in from a paste, hand-placing a class, or checking exactly what the EPUB will contain. Spelling squiggles and Find work there too. Close it with the × in its title strip, Ctrl+E, or the ribbon toggle.

If you like to cite a spot in the chapter, Show line numbers in the visual editor (Preferences ▸ General ▸ Editor) numbers each paragraph in the page’s margin with the same number the Code pane shows for that line.

Code-First Editing

Some writers would rather see the markup than the page. Turn off View ▸ Show ▸ Visual Editor (or set Default editor to Code under Preferences ▸ General) and the Code pane fills the editor area:

  • The page is hidden; its ✕ leaves the Code pane’s title bar, because the last editor showing can never be closed. (While both are open, the page has a title strip of its own with a ✕, a second way in.) Ctrl+E in this mode brings the page back rather than leaving you with nothing.
  • Every chapter opens in the source with the caret at the top, and Find, Layout Review, Spelling and Markup Issues all land their Go To in the Code pane.
  • On the Home tab, Bold, Italic, Underline and Code wrap the selection in <strong>, <em>, <u> and <code>; the Class ▾ menu wraps it in a <span class="…">; Bullets and Numbering wrap the selected lines in <li> items inside a new list; Insert ▸ Scene Break puts an <hr/> at the caret; Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Code block an empty <pre><code>, Table a table skeleton, Callout ▾ a titled <aside>, Footnote the reference anchor at the caret plus the note’s <aside> at the end of the source, and Cross-reference the empty <a class="xref">. Clear, the paragraph styles and Quote need the page’s selection and are greyed out with a Visual editor only note.
  • The Notes pane still works beside the Code pane.

Turn the Visual Editor back on and the page reloads from the source you edited.

Seeing the Book as a Reader Will

The page already renders your stylesheet. To try it under an e-reader’s warm or dark setting, use the Reader ▾ dropdown on the View tab (or Preferences ▸ General ▸ Reader theme) and open View ▸ Style Editor…: its preview wears the tint.

A Useful Arrangement

Chapter panel collapsed (Ctrl+Shift+C), Notes open on a wide monitor: manuscript on the left, your working notes on the right. Or Code open while cleaning up an import, closed again with one Ctrl+E when the markup is settled.

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