Writing Studio

For novelists: editor, AI Coach, version history, motivation system

First-time setup

• 01 First launch: sign in, consent, and landing on your bookshelf The first time you open Slima you see a start screen, not the editor. This covers the start screen, Google sign-in vs Start without account, consent, and where you land after signing in.
• 02 Pick your Studio: Writing / Script / AI Beta Reader Slima has three Studios: Writing, Script, and AI Beta Reader. This explains what each is for, how to switch any time from the top-left Slima logo, and what's shared vs Studio-specific.
• 03 Set up your writing habit: the 4-step wizard On the Writing Studio bookshelf, the motivation card's "Set Up My Writing Habit" button runs a 4-step wizard: pick a writer identity, commit to writing daily, set a habit cue, and plant your writing seed. Step by step.
• 04 Guided tours: auto-walkthroughs on first entry, replayable any time The first time you open each Slima screen, a step-by-step tour highlights its regions. Skip or replay any of them from the Tutorial Center at the bottom of Account → Preferences.

Book list

• 01 Book list overview: My Works / Archive / Trash The My Works page breakdown: most-recent book bar / motivation widget / My Works · Archive · Trash tabs / book cards / card vs list view toggle.
• 02 Studio Switcher: hop between Writing / Script / Beta Reader Click the top-left Slima logo to open the Studio Switcher popup with 3 options. Switching is instant, books stay in their Studio, you can keep multiple Studios open in separate tabs.
• 03 Motivation card: the dashboard at the top-right of your shelf The compact widget shows totals / streak / slime; click to open Your Writing Tree detail (tree stage + encouragement + quote + today's words/streak + Getting Started 6-step progress).
• 04 Daily quest + Getting Started (from the bookshelf) Approach the two quest types from the bookshelf motivation widget: daily quest (1 task, hit daily word goal) + Getting Started (6-step onboarding). Deep dive lives in the motivation series.
• 05 The shelf trial banner + mobile auto-resume A single multi-state trial banner at the top of the shelf: start a trial, trial countdown, or upgrade prompt after the trial ends. Mobile auto-resumes to your last chapter.
• 06 The Showcase tab: your book as a 3D object you can leaf through How the bookshelf's Showcase tab works: turn the rail, leaf through your real manuscript, jump to a chapter, and change the cover style, the gilt edges or upload your own cover.

Books

• 01 Create a book: every field in the wizard Two steps, no studio choice: three method cards, then one form where only the name is required. What every field does, and what exists the second you press Start Writing.
• 02 Seven genres and the folders each one builds Genre decides three things at creation: which folders you start with, which of them count toward the word count, and whether the first file is a .md chapter or a .script episode.
• 03 Edit Work: 5 fields + Complete / Restore (no editable phase field) The Edit Work modal has just 5 fields (Title / Genre / Description / Target Words / Target Date). No cover upload, no editable 4-stage phase field — completion is binary via the ⋯ menu.
• 04 Book lifecycle: Archive / Trash / Restore / Permanent delete (60 days) Four lifecycle states (My Works / Archive / Trash / Permanent). Archive keeps AI access but stops counting; Trash is recoverable within 60 days; export .slima before permanent delete.
• 05 Bulk-import multiple books from .slima backups Restore Backup is the 4th option in the + Create New Work dialog. Drop one .slima backup that holds multiple books to restore them all at once. Over-quota books land in Archive.
• 06 Sync status: connection dot by the title + book-card sync The connection icon by the book title has 3 states: connected (cloud+check) / offline (hollow circle) / local mode (filled circle) — no red error light. Book cards carry a synced / syncing / pending / error sync mark. With 4-layer storage, nothing is lost.

Editor overview

• 01 Editor layout tour The editor's areas, left to right: activity bar, left panel (File explorer), centre editor, right panel (AI chat / Notes / etc.). Status info (today's words / chapter words / sync) is spread across corners.
• 02 The Activity Bar The editor's Activity Bar is a vertical list of feature icons: the Slima logo opens Studio Switcher, middle icons toggle the left panel (file explorer / AI chat / outline / comments / notes / related entities / Beta Reader), and the bottom holds focus mode / upgrade / dark mode.
• 03 Panels and the editor tab strip Three-column editor: left / right panels are resizable and hideable; the centre tab strip holds multiple open files. Hide both + F11 = Zen-like focus.
• 04 Editor status info: word counts & sync The Slima editor has no single status bar: today's total words and ⚙️ sit at the bottom of the left panel, the current chapter count is at the editor top-right, and the sync icon is next to the book title.
• 05 Mobile editor layout (vs desktop) Mobile Slima redesigns the editor: side panels become bottom sheets, the format toolbar floats above the keyboard, and a bottom 5-button nav (Edit / Files / AI / Search / More) replaces side icons.

Writing tools

• 01 Markdown basics + Highlight + Preview mode + internal links Slima editor toolbar (Bold / Italic / Strike / H1-3 / lists / quote / table / highlight / image / undo redo), 6 highlight colours, Edit vs Preview mode, internal links via typed entity names (not wikilinks).
• 02 Split editor (side-by-side) + multi-tab Click the ⟨ ⟩ icon on the right of the tab strip to split the editor into two independent halves (own tabs / cursor / scroll). Multi-tab supports click-to-open, × to close, right-click for more.
• 03 Outline panel: heading-hierarchy navigation The Outline panel extracts H1-H3 headings from the current file into a clickable tree. Advanced features (drag-to-reorder / fold / cross-file) vary by version.
• 04 Quick Open (Cmd/Ctrl P): fuzzy file-jump Cmd/Ctrl P opens Quick Open's fuzzy search — type a few characters to jump to a file. Recents and exact-match rank first; CJK / Latin mixed input works.
• 05 Find and replace: scopes / regex / auto-version safety Cmd/Ctrl Shift F opens full-text search across all files in the current book; options: case / whole word / regex / replace. For one file, use your browser's native find (Cmd/Ctrl F). Replace All edits files directly — rely on the normal auto-version triggers.
• 06 Font size & theme Adjust font size in Account → Preferences → Display: a "Font size" slider that affects all text (including AI content). The 🌗 at the bottom of the activity bar toggles dark / light. No line-height / column-width / font-family options.
• 07 Autosave + dirty indicator + crash recovery Slima has no Save button — local IndexedDB saves continuously, then cloud sync, plus auto-versioning. Cmd/Ctrl S forces an immediate save (not a named version). Browser crashes don't lose content.
• 08 Voice input: dictate into the AI chat, punctuation included How the microphone in the AI chat input works: say "comma" or "period" to get the mark, install the offline speech model so audio never leaves your device, and set a dictation language independent of the interface.

Files & content

• 01 File tree: default folders + how to organize The left file tree shows every file in the current book. New books start with a Chapters folder plus genre-specific reference folders; add more. How to keep it organised.
• 02 Manuscript vs Reference: word count + AI reading Slima splits a book's files into Manuscript (primary, word-counted, AI reads as text) and Reference (notes, not counted, AI uses as context).
• 03 Writing Guidelines.md: persistent AI Coach context A file named Writing Guidelines.md gets auto-attached to every AI Coach conversation as context. Write rules there and the Coach honours them — e.g. "don't use 'she said', use 'she remarked'."
• 04 File tree operations The complete file tree manual: create, rename, delete, multi-select, cut & paste, drag to reorder.
• 05 Embedding images / PDFs / link previews Embed images, maps, character art, PDFs, external links. Slima supports drag-and-drop or Markdown syntax. How each media type renders.
• 06 Entity tracking: auto-detect + detail panel Type a character or place name in your text and Slima auto-detects it with a dotted underline; Ctrl/Cmd-click jumps to its file. The Related Entities panel shows this file's mentions / back-references / aliases / relationships.
• 07 Chapter progress and the manuscript table Set a word target on each chapter, mark chapters drafting or completed, and read your whole book's target, actual, progress and status off one table.

Writing experience

• 01 Zen Mode complete guide Zen Mode hides all UI, leaving a single centred column: typewriter scrolling, paragraph focus, floating reference window, floating AI, go-to-chapter. No text-width switch inside Zen.
• 02 Mobile immersive writing: bottom nav regions / immersive mode Mobile Slima: tap the bottom 5-button nav (Editor / Files / Chat / Search / More) to switch regions, adjust font with a slider, immersive mode leaves just text.
• 03 Resume: back to where you left off Slima silently records book / file / cursor on every editor exit; Continue Writing on next sign-in jumps right back. Your book content syncs across devices, while each device remembers its own last cursor position locally.
• 04 Guided Tour on demand (replay) Slima's guided tours can be replayed any time from the Tutorial Center at the bottom of Account → Preferences, grouped by studio. Tour content updates with each release.
• 05 Preview mode and read-aloud: proofread with your ears How to enter preview mode, what Reader and Read aloud each do, tapping a paragraph to start there, and giving every character in a screenplay its own voice.
• 06 Writing Sprint: a timer that doesn't interrupt you Pick 5 to 240 minutes, keep typing, and see the words and the pace at the end. Where the timer lives, what it counts, and where the runs are kept.

AI Coach

• 01 What the AI Coach is The AI Coach differs from a generic chat tool mainly because it has read your whole book. The concept, the contrast with generic chat tools, and why this matters for long-form.
• 02 Start and manage chats The right Coach panel can hold multiple chats and let you switch between past conversations. Chats are scoped to each book.
• 03 Add context: @file, @folder, selection, paste The Coach has read the whole book, but you can spotlight specific files. Four ways to add context.
• 04 AI tools: read / edit / create / delete / search + diff + accept / reject The Coach can act on your draft — read, edit, create, delete, search, list files. Every change passes through a diff for per-passage approval.
• 05 Web search: the AI looks things up Need facts or references? The Coach looks things up on the web automatically and cites its sources in the reply. There's no toggle to flip.
• 06 Quick actions on a selection Select text in the editor and a SelectionMenu pops up with four common AI actions: rewrite, polish, expand, shorten. One click.
• 07 AI panel tab bar: switch between chat and chapter analysis A thin tab bar at the top of the right AI panel: an AI Chat tab, four chapter-analysis buttons, and AI Memory. It appears only when the AI panel is open and a file is active.
• 08 Advanced chat: streaming cancel, long-chat compression, AI memory Subtle behaviours: cancel streaming mid-flight, long chats auto-compress old turns, and account-level AI memory.
• 09 AI cost & quota AI Coach / analysis / Beta Readers all consume credits. How to estimate, where to see balance, what AiGateModal asks when you're at zero. Numbers live at /plans.

AI chapter analysis

• 01 AI Insight overview: four kinds Slima AI Insight runs four chapter-level analyses: pacing, dialogue, repetition, consistency. When to use which + pre-op estimate + result panel.
• 02 Pacing Insight Chapter-internal pacing scan: AI flags passages that drag or rush and suggests rewrites.
• 03 Dialogue Insight Dialogue Insight: checks the balance and rhythm between dialogue and narration in a chapter, flagging passages that need more dialogue or have excessive dialogue.
• 04 Repetition Insight Scans the current chapter for repeated words, sentence patterns, rhetorical devices. Common issues: 'as if' five times per page, identical sentence structures.
• 05 Consistency Insight: people / places / time / logic Scan the open chapter for setup conflicts: a character's eye color is blue in one passage and green in another; a place is 30 min away in one scene and an hour in another.

Version history

• 01 Why versions matter: the 4 layers of protection Slima protects your draft in four independent layers: local IndexedDB, version history, cloud sync, export. The work is never lost.
• 02 Create a Manual Version and Name It Name a version at every revision pass — one click to come back to that exact point.
• 03 Auto-version rules Slima doesn't use a dumb timer — it ties versions to key moments: after you've been idle a while, before the AI writes, before syncing to cloud, before you leave the page.
• 04 Browse version history & diff Select any version in the panel, diff it against the previous one, plus a hide-auto-snapshots filter and single-file history to recover any past draft.
• 05 Restore the whole book or a single file Three levels of granularity — whole book, single file, single passage. Slima auto-backs up your current state before every restore, so it's always reversible.
• 06 Change Review: review AI edits Between 'AI rewrites a chapter' and your draft is one layer — Change Review. Diff per passage; keep original / accept suggestion. Slima auto-versions before the AI touches anything.

Goals & motivation

• 01 Set writing goals: per-book target words and date Goals attach to each book — set Target Words and Target Date in the Edit Work dialog. The bookshelf card shows a progress bar once saved; the Writing Stats page aggregates.
• 02 Word counts: manuscript / reference / total Slima tracks three word-count dimensions: Manuscript (counts toward goal), Reference (doesn't), Total. Today's count nets deletions and resets at local midnight.
• 03 Streak + Slime companion Streak counts consecutive writing days; the slime is a cosmetic companion. The writing tree is the real 8-stage visualization. Click the bookshelf widget to open Your Writing Tree.
• 04 Writing tree + Rest Protection The writing tree has 8 stages (seed/sprout/sapling/tree/bloom/ancient/fruiting/rest), driven by your streak. Hibernates but doesn't die. Rest Protection auto-preserves your streak.
• 05 Writing Stats: charts, milestones, forecast Writing Stats page covers: 16-week heatmap, Writing Rhythm, 30-day trend, This Week vs Last Week, Writing Milestones (5K-80K+), Book Progress Ranking, Estimated Completion forecast.
• 06 Daily quest + Getting Started exploration Slima offers two lightweight quest types: daily quest (hit your daily word goal) + Getting Started (one-shot 6-step exploration). Pure nudges — no penalty for missing.
• 07 The slime, the writing tree's ten stages, and milestones you claim yourself How the writing tree's ten stages grow, why the ten writing milestones (1,000 to 1,000,000 words) have to be claimed by hand, how the companion collection and evolution work, and the daily quote your slime hands you.

Toolbars & menus

• 01 AI Floating Toolbar + Selection Menu (toolbar overview) Slima has two AI action surfaces: the AI panel tab bar (a thin row of tabs atop the right AI panel) and the selection menu (appears on text selection). This is a toolbar-perspective overview; ai-coach series has details.
• 02 Activity Bar + StatusBar (toolbar overview) Toolbar-perspective overview of Activity Bar + StatusBar; per-icon and per-region details link to the editor series.
• 03 Context menus (observed list) Slima context menus across surfaces (book cards / files / text selection / tabs / version panel) — exact items vary by version; this lists commonly-observed options.
• 04 Desktop (Electron) native menus Desktop Slima adds an OS-level native menu bar (File / Edit / View / Navigate / Window / Help, plus an app menu on macOS). Exact items / shortcuts vary by platform + version — read displayed keys from the menu itself.

Keyboard shortcuts

• 01 Full keyboard shortcuts list Every keyboard shortcut in Writing Studio. Mac vs Win/Linux mapping.
• 02 Mobile gestures How mobile works in Slima: tap the bottom nav bar to open panels as bottom sheets, and long-press a file in the file tree for its menu.

Sharing & comments

• 01 Public read-only share link Build / scope / expiry / revoke: full sharing flow. Recipients don't need a Slima account.
• 02 Reader View for recipients What recipients of a share link see: pure reading view, no Slima UI, dark / light toggle.
• 03 Inline comments Add inline comments in the Slima editor: select text, right-click, Add Comment. Each comment has an open / resolved / rejected status. Not plan-gated.
• 04 Comments on every file type: what each one anchors to How comments work on screenplays, beat boards, relationship maps, world maps, timelines and manuscripts: the gesture per type, where the marker sits, where clicking a comment takes you, and who can leave one.

Import & export

• 01 Drag-import into an existing book Got a book already, want to add chapters: drag files / folders onto the file tree. Supports md / txt / docx / pdf / epub / fountain, plus whole folders.
• 02 Create + import in one step Pick "Import Existing Content" in the new-book dialog to bring an outside manuscript straight into a fresh book. See also the create-a-book import path.
• 03 Comprehensive export guide Slima exports 6 formats: md / txt / zip / slima / docx / epub. Choose whole book, chapters or a folder.

Relationship map (.map)

• 01 Relationship Map: Draw Your Characters' Connections Common-in-fiction relationship maps: drop nodes for characters, draw edges, group families / factions by colour blocks. One glance, all relationships.
• 02 The Relationship Map Is Also a Whiteboard Use a .map as a whiteboard: marquee-select a whole faction, five-pixel alignment guides, fifty steps of undo, text and cards straight on the canvas, groups that fit themselves to their members, and full editing on a phone.
• 03 Export and Share a Relationship Map Get a relationship map out of Slima: double-resolution PNG, re-editable SVG, and the .map source you can drag back in — plus exactly what a reader can pan, zoom and not see on a public share link.

Beat board (.beats)

• 01 What a beat board is, and when to use one A beat board puts your plan and your pages on one board: acts as columns, beat cards as the plan, chapter files attached to beats, and a "Not written yet" mark on the beats you haven not reached. Plus how it differs from an outline document.
• 02 Create and arrange beats and acts Create a beat board from the file tree (More → New beat board), add acts and beats, drag them into order, attach chapter files to beats, and see exactly what each kind of remove or delete takes away.
• 03 Choosing one of the four structure templates The four built-in structures on an empty board — Three-Act, Taiwanese TV, Kishotenketsu and Freytag’s Pyramid — what each suits, what applying one actually does, and whether you can change your mind.

Timeline (.timeline)

• 01 What the timeline (.timeline) is for Story time is not chapter order. A timeline lays out when things actually happened, with events, lanes and a calendar you define — and the AI can edit it.
• 02 Create a timeline and decide about a calendar Right-click to add a timeline, make the one decision it asks on first open, pick a wizard starting point, and change or disable the calendar later.
• 03 Events, times and lanes Five ways to add an event, three ways to mark its time, how labels become lanes, dragging a file in, and exporting the .timeline file.

World map (.geomap)

• 01 What a world map file is (.geomap) A tour of the `.geomap` world map file: a whole generated world the moment you create one, the layers it is built from, the single parchment look, and how it divides the work with the relationship map and the timeline.
• 02 Paint terrain, place landmarks, draw rivers and borders How the world map's five brushes work, how to place and name its 37 landmark symbols, how to draw rivers and borders by hand, and why terrain can only be painted over.
• 03 Export the map, share it with readers, and what phones can do The difference between exporting a world map as PNG and as .geomap, what readers can see and do on a public share page, how version comparison and AI review work, and why phones are view-only.

Notes

• 01 The notes panel: what you keep beside the manuscript What the notes panel holds, how a note differs from a comment, book notes versus notes tied to a file, and how the four categories and four colours work.
• 02 Tracking foreshadowing with notes: setup to payoff How to pair a setup note with its payoff, when a setup deserves a note, what the lightbulb actually counts, and how to close a thread out once you have written it.
• 03 Which notes the AI sees, and which it can write Which notes are attached to every message you send, which the AI has to look up itself, and the rules on it creating and editing notes: no scope moves, no deletes, no review step.

AI structural editing

• 01 AI structural editing: why it edits by field The AI can now edit five structured files in place — screenplays, beat boards, relationship maps, world maps and timelines. What it can touch in each, why it works field by field instead of rewriting the file, and why a batch is all or nothing.
• 02 Reviewing the AI's structural changes in place Additions grow where they belong, changes and removals are marked on the card they already live on, and Accept and Skip sit right beside them. What the floating pill counts, why a change goes Outdated, and why the world map uses a banner instead.
• 03 When the AI can edit structure, and when it can't The tools for structured files are not in every conversation. Any one of three signals switches a set on: the book already has a file of that type, you have one open, or the AI just made one. Once on, it stays on for the rest of that chat.

Writing journey

Coming soon.