Applies to ScribeWright 1.1.117
Writing & Formatting
The editor shows the chapter as the book will render it: same stylesheet, same fonts. Type, select, format; there is no separate "compile" step.
Character Formatting
Bold (Ctrl+B), italic (Ctrl+I), and underline (Ctrl+U) live in the Home tab’s Font group. Clear strips character formatting from the selection when pasted text brings baggage with it.
Paragraphs and Headings
The Paragraph group turns the current block into normal text, Heading 1 to 3, a bulleted or numbered list, or a block quote. Heading 1 is the chapter-title level; the EPUB’s table of contents is built from your chapter titles, so most chapters want exactly one.
How paragraphs actually look (first-line indent, spacing, justification, and what happens after a heading) is set book-wide in the Style Editor, not per paragraph. That keeps the whole book consistent and is the difference between a manuscript and a formatted mess.
Lists
Bullets and Numbering turn the paragraph into a list item. Inside an item, Tab nests it one level deeper (three levels at most) and Shift+Tab brings it back; Enter on an empty item ends the list. Bullets change shape by level and numbering runs 1., a., i. This holds in the book’s stylesheet, the PDF, and the Word file alike. Both buttons also work on the Code pane, where they wrap the selected lines in items.
Code
Home ▸ Code (the </> button beside Underline) sets the selection in
the book’s code font, for a command name or a field in running text; press
it again to undo. Whole blocks of code are their own thing: Non-fiction books ▸ Code blocks.
Tables and Callouts
In a non-fiction book the Insert tab’s Non-fiction group adds a Table (rows, columns, a header row, a caption that is numbered at export) and a Callout ▾ (a Note, Tip, Warning or Example in a box beside the text). Both are edited in place; the keys and the right-click menus are in Non-fiction Books.
Notes and Cross-References
Also in a non-fiction book: Footnote (Ctrl+Alt+F) puts a number at the caret and the note at the chapter end, and Cross-reference (Ctrl+Alt+R) inserts a reference to a chapter, heading, figure, table or note whose text follows its target. Both are described in Non-fiction Books.
Scene Breaks
Scene Break (on the Home tab’s Paragraph group, and again under Insert ▸ Breaks) drops a proper break between scenes. Its visual
glyph (* * *, ~, or whatever you choose) comes from Style Editor ▸
Typography ▸ Scene break, so every break in the book changes together.
Placeholder Text
Insert ▸ Text ▸ Placeholder Text drops three paragraphs of filler (the familiar lorem ipsum) after the paragraph you are in, so you can see how a chapter lays out before the words exist. Click again for more. Each filler paragraph is marked in the markup, so it can be found and replaced later; write over it or delete it like any other paragraph.
Custom Classes
For looks the standard styles don’t cover (a telegram, a text message, or a
handwritten note), define a custom class in Style Editor ▸ Custom
Classes (fonts, spacing, borders, color), then apply it from the Home
tab’s class dropdown. In the Code pane the same dropdown wraps the
selection in a <span class="…">.
Zoom
Ctrl + mouse wheel, or Ctrl+= / Ctrl+- / Ctrl+0 to step in, out, and back to 100%. Zoom is a comfort setting for your eyes only; it never changes the book.