Feature Ideas

We can create drafts of the main work, but there's no option to split a single, larger work into chapters (that we can then make drafts of) so that we can work and edit chapter-by-chapter.

Allow writers to manage custom dictionaries to include / exclude specific words from spell check.

I would love to have the concept of pages in Ellipsus. When editing a big work, I want to refer to its page number—it makes it easier to find a passage and pick up where you left off. When exporting into PDF and printing my work, I want to adjust the margins and preview it before exporting—this saves me time and gives me control over the layout (we love aesthetics, right?).

An option to share a document with another user with strictly commenting permissions rather than commenting and editing permissions would be awesome.

I (and many writers I know) appreciate having a native PC app. For me, it allows me to work without having reliable internet and push/share changes once I am back online. It also is beneficial to have an app that lives in my toolbar that I can open that doesn't have the option for me to get sidetracked by search windows I'd forgotten about, impulsive whims, etc. It creates a more seamless work experience all around.

I primarily write in the Google Docs App on mobile/tablet, so that’s the kind of experience I’d be looking for in a substitute.I write almost every day and collaborate frequently with an editor and would really like to find an alternative to google.I was hoping this would be it, but without a robust mobile option, I just don’t know if this will be the best fit.

✅ Support writing offline 🚧 Support offline navigation 🚧 Support offline merging 🚧 Support offline version history 🚧 Support offline doc / draft creation

A highlighter, both for general highlighting, and a way to share the highlighted text in chat so that collaborators can discuss about said highlighted text.

A timeline creation tool to help organize key plot events, worldbuilding, and planning.

This is useful for longer docs, especially on mobile, but I would love to not have to scroll from the very beginning every time I open up a document, but instead have a button to scroll to the bottom, or just automatically be where I last left off. It's kind of annoying to have to go back to where I was if I change apps or close the screen for a bit.

Okay, so I know this might sound a little silly, but with everyone jumping ship on the "official" NaNoWriMo people and the website potentially not long for this world, having some place to have some sort of goal setter (where it keeps track of word counts, tallies per day progress, etc etc) would be really amazing. I know it's not like a priority or anything, I just feel like it's something that really helps me stay motivated to continue writing at more regular rates as a visual person being able to see how much I've done. Edit : Mainly thought of this now as I basically stress test the nano system to see all the bugs in it that annoy me, please make sure that we can log negative numbers for days when we edit? Because as far as I can tell, Nano doesn't actually let you subtract from your total, only add.

An interactive board for story plotting. Writers could map out plot threads, characters, worldbuilding details etc. in a visual "whiteboard" tailored specifically for storytelling.

In my writing, I use a lot of in-universe letters, historical documents, and a ton of other things. It helps my brain a lot to have them in a separate font than the character's thoughts, as well as a separate paragraph. However, I haven't been able to use more than one font in a document. Whenever I try to change just one paragraph, the whole thing changes. It would be great if, like changes in color or italics, font was based on the character and not the document.

While looking for a Google alternative, I signed up for Scrivener. One of the features on that program is the fact that the document itself can be a folder in the sense that you create a new page/section, write the chapter, and you can drag and drop it via the outline into different places of the story. So much easier for later draft editing, especially for pacing/story flow.

While having a document outline is great, I would like a way to collapse (and expand) the actual text in the document under the headers. I find this to be especially useful on long pieces, as this allows me to focus on the section that I am currently working on by hiding the other sections (but still keeping them readily available to cross-reference via search, as opposed to putting each section in its own document). Furthermore, when I am reviewing/proofreading, being able to break it up and keep track of where I am by collapsing/expanding each section as I review it makes the process much easier for me than scrolling through unending walls of text.