Applies to ScribeWright 1.1.117

Non-fiction Books

A non-fiction book has structure a novel does not: parts that group chapters, a table of contents, sections inside chapters, notes, an index, and a bibliography. ScribeWright keeps that structure as plain markup in your chapters plus a few book-wide settings, so a book you export today reads the same when you open it next year.

Everything on this page appears for a book on the non-fiction profile (Book Setup ▸ This is a non-fiction book). A novel never sees it.

What You Get

• Parts. A part is a divider chapter: its title groups the chapters that follow it until the next part. It gets its own page in every export and nests its chapters in the table of contents.
• A Contents chapter that is filled in for you at export (below).
• Block paragraphs: space between paragraphs instead of a first-line indent, the usual look for non-fiction. Style Editor ▸ Typography ▸ Paragraphs; Book Setup offers the switch when you tick non-fiction.
• Headings inside chapters (h2, h3) that the table of contents can nest and that later features can link to.
• Lists that nest, code blocks, numbered figures and tables, and callouts (below), and a Word import that keeps them.
• Footnotes that number themselves and cross-references whose text follows their target (below).
• An index built from markers you place, and citations with a Bibliography chapter that export fills in (below).
• Formatting checks in the Non-fiction structure group of Layout Review: heading levels, ids and duplicate headings, list nesting, code-block languages and line length, figure captions, ids and image sizes, table header rows, captions and ragged rows, callout kinds, a note without its reference, a reference to nothing, index markers and their See references, and citations of sources the book does not have. See Formatting Rules.

Parts

Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Part inserts a part divider after the current chapter, titled Part I, Part II … and opened for renaming. In the chapter list a part reads in bold with a rule beneath it, and the chapters under it indent one step. Right-click any chapter and choose Kind to make it a part, a chapter, front matter or back matter.

Chapter numbering skips parts, front matter and back matter, so a new chapter after Part II is still Chapter 7 if six chapters came before.

The Contents Chapter

Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Table of Contents adds a Contents chapter after your opening front matter. It is a generated chapter: what you see in the editor is a preview of what export will produce, and it is read-only under a banner that says so. Move a chapter, add a part or rename a heading and the preview follows the next time you open it.

The saved chapter holds only its heading (the Code pane shows exactly that) because the contents are computed at export from the book as it is then. Nothing computed is ever written into your chapters.

• EPUB: the reader’s own navigation nests parts and headings, and the Contents chapter links to every entry.
• PDF: a real contents page with page numbers and clickable entries.
• Word: a table-of-contents field. Word asks to update fields when the file opens; say Yes and the page numbers fill in.

How deep the contents goes (chapters only, or h2 and h3 headings under them), and whether parts are listed, is set in Book Setup ▸ Non-fiction; the default nests h2 headings.

Headings and IDs

The table of contents links to a heading by a stable id such as sw-h-posting-groups, assigned once and kept when chapters move. Export assigns any that are missing without touching your chapters; Layout Review’s Every heading has an id check offers to write them into the chapter for you (Fix All), which you will want before adding cross-references later.

Lists

Lists nest. In a list item, Tab moves it a level deeper (three levels at most) and Shift+Tab brings it back; bullets change shape by level and numbering runs 1., a., i. Layout Review’s Non-fiction structure group checks that a nested list sits inside the item it continues (an imported Word list often does not; the fix moves it) and points out a list with a single item. Whether the text of an item sits in a paragraph is a book-wide setting; imported lists are normalised to it.

Code Blocks

Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Code block ▾ inserts an empty block after the paragraph you are in, tagged with the language you pick (AL, C#, JavaScript, JSON, PowerShell, SQL, Swift, VB, XML, or plain text); Ctrl+Alt+C inserts a plain-text block. Inside the block Enter is a new line and Tab two spaces; paste keeps the lines as they were; Ctrl+Enter leaves the block into a new paragraph after it. The block keeps its spacing exactly, in every export: the EPUB and the PDF show it in the code font from Style Editor ▸ Blocks, in a shaded box; the Word file uses a Code style, one line per paragraph. Long lines wrap in the EPUB unless you turn wrapping off for the book, in which case Layout Review warns about lines over 80 characters, because readers clip them. For a word or two of code inside a sentence, use Home ▸ Code.

Figures

An image with a caption is a figure. Give an image a caption from its toolbar (Caption…) and it becomes one; Width sets it to the full text width, 75 % or 50 %. Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Figure opens the Images gallery, the same as Insert ▸ Image.

Figures are numbered when you export: Figure 2.1: is added in front of the caption, counting within each chapter (a chapter without a number, a prologue or an appendix, counts from Figure 1), or straight through the book if the book is set to number that way. The editor shows the same number as a preview; the caption you typed holds none and the Code pane shows none, so nothing computed is ever written into your chapters. Every figure also gets a stable id (fig-3) at export, the way headings do, so later cross-references can point at it. The PDF places the picture at its width with the caption beneath; the Word file uses Word’s own Caption style, so References ▸ Insert Table of Figures lists them.

Layout Review points out a figure without a caption (it is not numbered) and an image far larger than a reader can use.

Tables

Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Table (Ctrl+Alt+T) asks for rows, columns, whether the first row is a header, and a caption, and puts the table after the paragraph you are in. Tab moves to the next cell (from the last cell it adds a row), Shift+Tab to the previous one; Ctrl+Enter leaves the table into a new paragraph. Right-click in a cell for Table ▸ Insert Row Above / Below, Insert Column Left / Right, Delete Row / Column, Header Row (on or off), Caption… and Delete Table. Every change goes through Undo like any other edit.

A captioned table is numbered when you export: Table 2.1: is added in front of the caption, counting within each chapter (or through the book, the same choice figures use), and the editor shows the number as a preview; the caption you typed holds none. The caption sits above the table in the EPUB, the PDF and the Word file. Every table also gets a stable id (tbl-2) at export. The table’s look is a book-wide choice in Style Editor ▸ Blocks: Lines (a rule under the header, light rules between rows), Grid or Plain. The PDF repeats the header row when a table runs over a page; the Word file uses Word’s Table Grid style with a repeating header, and the caption is a Word caption, so References ▸ Insert Table of Figures with the Table label lists them.

Layout Review points out a table without a header row (with a fix that makes the first row the header), a table without a caption (it is not numbered), and rows that do not all have the same number of cells.

Callouts

A callout is a boxed aside beside the text: a Note, Tip, Warning or Example. Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Callout ▾ puts one after the paragraph you are in, with its title (which you can change) and an empty paragraph for the body. Enter adds a paragraph inside; Ctrl+Enter, or Enter on an empty last paragraph, leaves the callout. Right-click inside it for Callout ▸ Kind (the colour changes, and so does the title if it still reads the old kind) and Remove Callout, which keeps the paragraphs and drops the box.

The EPUB shows a left rule in the kind’s colour and a light tint (or the rule alone: Style Editor ▸ Blocks ▸ Callout style), and stays readable in a dark-mode reader; the PDF draws the same box; the Word file uses a shaded one-cell table, the one thing Word renders reliably. Layout Review points out a callout whose kind it does not know and a callout inside a callout.

Importing a Word Outline

File ▸ Import Word Document… now brings the structure across as well as the text: Word’s lists become lists that nest, its tables become tables with their header rows, a paragraph in Word’s Caption style becomes the caption of the table or picture beside it (Word’s own "Table 3:" is dropped, since the number is added at export), pictures land in the Images gallery, footnotes and endnotes go to the end of their chapters as notes, and paragraphs in a Code style or a monospace font become code blocks. Word’s own table of contents is left out; Insert ▸ Table of Contents makes one that follows the book. See Importing.

Footnotes

Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Footnote (Ctrl+Alt+F) puts a small number at the caret and the note itself at the end of the chapter, with the caret in it; type the note and press Esc to return to where you were. Click a number in the text to go to its note, and the note’s number to go back. Delete a number and ScribeWright asks whether the note goes too (Undo brings both back). Add a note before another and both renumber at once. The numbers are a preview: the chapter you save holds no number and the Code pane shows none, so nothing computed is ever written into your chapters.

Where the notes end up is a book-wide choice in Book Setup ▸ Non-fiction: at the end of each chapter under a Notes line (the default), in a Notes chapter at the end of the book (Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Notes adds one; export adds one for you when the book has notes and no such chapter), or pop-up readers only, which hides the notes for readers that cannot show them. In the EPUB, Apple Books, Kindle and Thorium show a note as a pop-up over the text; other readers jump to it and back. The PDF lists the chapter’s notes at its end, numbered and linked from the text. The Word file has real Word footnotes at the foot of the page, or real endnotes when the book collects notes at the end.

Layout Review points out a number whose note is missing, and a note that nothing refers to.

Cross-References

Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Cross-reference (Ctrl+Alt+R) opens a picker: the book’s chapters and, under each, its headings, figures, tables and notes, with a box to filter them. Pick one and the reference appears in the text reading as export will write it: Chapter 4, “Posting Groups”, Figure 2.1, Table 3.2, note 3. The text cannot be edited in place, because it follows the target: rename the heading, move the chapter or renumber the figures and the reference reads right the next time you open the chapter and when you export. Double-click a reference (or right-click ▸ Change Reference…) to point it somewhere else.

The picker first gives every heading, figure and table that lacks one a stable id, the same id export would give it, so a reference has something to hold on to; the status line says how many chapters that touched. Whether a heading reference reads as its title alone or as Chapter 4, “Posting Groups” is a Book Setup ▸ Non-fiction choice. The EPUB links to the target, even in another chapter; the PDF links too and adds on page 57 when Book Setup asks for page numbers; the Word file uses a REF field, which Word refreshes with the rest of its fields.

Layout Review reports a reference whose target no longer exists as an error, because a broken link fails EPUBCheck.

Index

An index is built from markers you place in the text. Each marker names the term the Index lists (the main entry) and, when you want one, a sub-entry filed under it. Export collects the markers, sorts the terms, and writes the Index chapter for you.

To mark an entry:

1. Select the word or phrase the entry is about.
2. Choose Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Index Entry, or press Ctrl+Alt+X.
3. Check the Main Entry, which starts as the selected text, and add a Sub-Entry when the term belongs under a broader one.
4. Click Mark.

As you type, both boxes offer the terms the book already has, so one term is not marked under three spellings. See sends the reader to another entry instead of a page (G/L accounts, see General ledger); See Also adds one after the page numbers. Separate several entries with a semicolon.

In the editor a marker shows as a small ix tag in front of the text; rest the pointer on it to see its term. The tag is there for you and never appears in an export. Double-click a tag (or right-click it ▸ Edit Index Entry…) to change the entry, and right-click ▸ Remove Index Entry to delete it. Backspace or Delete beside a tag removes it whole, and Undo brings it back.

Index Terms

Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Index Terms… opens a window that lists every term in the book in Index order, its sub-entries indented under it, with the number of markers, the chapters they sit in, and any See or See Also. Type in Find to narrow the list. The window stays open while you write and follows the book as it changes.

• Go To (or Enter, or a double-click) selects the term’s next marker in the editor; press it again for the one after, across chapters.
• Rename rewrites every marker of the term, and every See or See Also that names it, across the book. Renaming a term to one the index already has merges the two after asking.
• Merge… folds one term into another: a main entry into another main entry (its sub-entries come along), or a sub-entry into another sub-entry or into a main entry.
• Undo Change takes the last Rename or Merge back. Ctrl+Z in the editor covers only the chapter you are typing in, so use Undo Change for these book-wide changes.

The Index Chapter

Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Index adds an Index chapter after the other back matter and before a Bibliography. Like the Contents chapter it is generated: the editor shows a read-only preview, and export fills it from the markers as the book stands then. Terms are sorted without regard to case, accents, or a leading The, A, or An, under letter headings from A to Z after a first group for symbols and numbers. Sub-entries are indented under their term, and See and See Also lines follow in italics.

• EPUB: every entry links to the text. By default the links are the numbers of the chapters the term appears in, each going to the first marker in that chapter; Book Setup ▸ Non-fiction can make them one link per marker instead, numbered 1, 2, 3.
• PDF: real page numbers, each a link, with consecutive pages joined into one range. Finding the pages takes a second layout pass, so a book with an index takes a little longer to export.
• Word: Word’s own index entries and an index field. The file opens with chapter numbers in place of pages; when Word asks to update fields, say Yes (or press Ctrl+A and then F9) and the real page numbers fill in.

Layout Review points out a marker with no main entry, a See or See Also that names no entry in the index, and one term marked with different capital letters, with a fix that uses the spelling marked most often.

Citations and Bibliography

ScribeWright keeps the book’s sources in one list, inserts citations that name a source by its key, and builds the Bibliography chapter when you export. You never type a citation’s text: it follows the book’s citation style and changes when the source or the style does.

Sources

The book’s sources live in Book Setup ▸ Sources: add them one at a time, or import a BibTeX or CSL-JSON file from Zotero, Mendeley, or another reference manager. Each source has a key (your short name for it, such as rhue2026), a type (book, article, web page, document, or standard), its authors, and the details its type needs.

Inserting a Citation

1. Put the caret where the citation belongs, usually before the period that ends the sentence.
2. Choose Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Citation, or press Ctrl+Alt+S.
3. Pick the source; type in Find to narrow a long list.
4. Type a Locator when you cite part of the source, as it should print: p. 12, pp. 45-60, chap. 3.
5. Click Insert.

Reads As shows the text before you insert it. New Source… adds a source to the book without leaving the picker and selects it.

On the page a citation reads as export will write it, with a dotted underline. Double-click it (or right-click ▸ Change Citation…) to point it at another source or change the locator, and right-click ▸ Remove Citation to delete it. The Code pane shows the citation’s markup without the text, because the text is worked out from the source.

The citation style is a book-wide choice in Book Setup ▸ Non-fiction:

• Chicago author-date (the default): (Microsoft 2026), (Rhue and Smith 2025, 12), (Rhue et al. 2025). A source without a year reads n.d., and two sources that would read alike get 2026a and 2026b.
• Numbered: [7] or [7, p. 12], numbered in the order the sources are first cited, so a later citation of the same source repeats its number. A new citation early in the book renumbers the later ones at once.

The Bibliography Chapter

Insert ▸ Non-fiction ▸ Bibliography adds the chapter at the end of the book. It is generated, like the Index: the editor shows a read-only preview, and export lists the sources sorted by author and year (Chicago author-date) or by number (numbered). It is titled Bibliography, or References in the numbered style; switching the style renames it in the chapter list too, unless you gave it a name of your own. It lists the sources the book cites, or every source when Book Setup ▸ Non-fiction says so.

Every citation links to its entry: a link in the EPUB and the PDF, and a hyperlink to a bookmark on the entry in the Word file. Web addresses and DOIs in the entries are live links.

Layout Review reports a citation whose key is not among the sources as an error, because it would export as a broken link. It also suggests citing or removing a source nothing cites, and adding the date you read a web page.

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