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.

As a writer of fiction, something that has become an invaluable tool for me using other writing programs is a "word frequency" counter which allows me to quickly see if I've overused an uncommon word. This helps immensely during the editing process, and is something I definitely feel is missing from Ellipsus right now. A perfect version of this tool would include these features: a list of all words appearing more than once in the document, along with the number of times that word has appeared. an option to include or exclude universally common words such as conjunctions, pronouns, articles, etc. from the count as neededan option to exclude other specific words as needed (useful for ignoring character names or locations in the count)an indicator that shows when a word has been used multiple times within a set number of pages (for example, if I've used the word "shuffled" three times over two pages, an asterisk could appear next to that word in the frequency list to direct my attention; but if I've used it three times over 100 pages, it would just appear in the list as normal.)

Support offline document / draft creation, offline navigation, and offline writing (with graceful syncing that works well when collaborating).

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.

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

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

Google Docs look to be restricting what content can be added or shared from its platform. An author (see link below) had her account locked (and is under review about whether she will get it back) because her writing contained sexually explicit content. A written guarantee in the T&Cs that writers will not be penalised due to their writing containing explicit themes (sex, trauama, abuse, violence etc) would make writers feel a lot safer about using an online tool like this. https://www.instagram.com/sloan_spencer_author/p/C48JN_TrvxO/?img_index=1

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.

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?).

The reason I looked for any alternative at all is because it's becoming abundantly clear Google has no qualms about scraping Google Docs, even if it's "anonymized" or whatever else. It seems pretty clear from Ellipsus TOS that data submitted by the user belongs to the user and won't be used by anybody else, but I think it should be made abundantly clear in marketing, in the website itself, etc. If there's a reason people will leave the incredibly comfortable (and free) Google Docs, this is it - knowing their data is not going to be used for marketing, AI training, etc.

I saw this in another program (stash in butterdocs) and it was really nice because it saved me having to copy-paste things that I need to remove but want to keep for later into an external notepad/gdoc. With that stash feature, you just sent it there and could bring it back to the draft anytime. I'm not looking for the exact same feature per se, but even just a little notes section that's quickly accessible via the draft would help!

I think an option to split screen in the window between two drafts would be really helpful. I love the UI and all the interface we have so far, but as someone who sometimes starts clean for drafts, it would be really helpful to be able to have two documents/drafts open at a time and type in those drafts so that I can look between them and find what I want to change more easily.

Here's a wild idea, what if there's a way to create a timeline builder feature for the behind-the-scenes aspects of plotting? Could be fun to help with the grander aspects of worldbuilding. Obviously, it's kind of out there, but it could be really fun to explore playing with, IMO.

I would love the ability to change the page colour to something other than light mode or dark mode - softer, mid-range colours (like a pastel pink, green, or yellow) are much easier on my eyes, so the bold white or black backgrounds are a little distracting.

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.