Help Center
Writing Studio
For novelists: editor, AI Coach, version history, motivation system
First-time setup
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First launch: Welcome, consent, Studio Picker, motivation onboarding
Slima's Welcome flow after sign-up: logo animation, one-line intro, Terms consent, Studio Picker, then the 4-step motivation wizard.
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Pick your Studio: Writing / Script / AI Beta Reader
Studio Picker has 3 options (Writing / Script / AI Beta Reader) each with a one-line description. Picking is never a commitment — flip via the Slima logo any time.
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Motivation onboarding: the 4-step habit wizard (not 5)
Slima's actual 'Set Up My Writing Habit' wizard is 4 steps (identity / one-sentence pledge / habit cue / seed). The original 5-step plan didn't fully ship.
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Per-Studio tour (replayable any time)
Each Studio shows a 'New here?' tour invitation on first entry — ~5 minutes, region by region. Writing / Script / Beta Reader each have one, all skip- and replay-able.
Book list
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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Top banners (trial / referral / upgrade / version) + mobile auto-resume
Four contextual banner types at the top of the shelf: trial countdown, referral campaign, upgrade prompt at limits, version notifications. Mobile auto-resumes to your last chapter.
Books
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Create a book: Use AI Coach vs Blank Workspace
Click + Create New Work to open the modal with 4 starting paths: Use AI Coach (guided + chapter outline + stub) / Blank Workspace (compact metadata) / Import Existing / Restore Backup.
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Six book types and folder templates
The book type you pick in Slima (Fiction / Biography / Business / Technical / Self-Help / General) seeds the folder skeleton + template files (Writing Spec.md / Writing Plan.md) every new book gets.
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Edit Work: 5 fields + Complete / Restore (no BookPhase)
The Edit Work modal has just 5 fields (Title / Genre / Description / Target Words / Target Date). No cover upload, no BookPhase 4 stages — completion is binary via the ⋯ menu.
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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.
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Bulk-import multiple books from .slima backups
Restore Backup is the 4th option in the + Create New Work dialog. Drop multiple .slima files at once; full version history is preserved. Over-quota books land in Archive.
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Sync status indicator: local / pending / synced / error
The editor's sync dot has 4 colours: grey (local) / yellow (pending) / green (synced) / red (error). Paired with Slima's 4-layer storage, your content is never lost.
Editor overview
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Editor layout: 5 regions + bottom strip
Slima Writing Studio editor in 5 regions (activity bar / left panel / centre editor / right panel / bottom strip) plus key shortcuts and links to per-region articles.
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The Activity Bar
The activity bar is a vertical icon list (not three side-by-side studio icons): the top Slima logo opens Studio Switcher; middle toggles left-panel content; bottom links to upgrade / help.
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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.
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Bottom status strip + sync indicator
The bottom strip shows today's total + ⚙️ preferences; the format toolbar's right edge shows current chapter word count; the book sub-header carries the sync status dot.
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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 4-button nav (Chapters / Edit / AI / More) replaces side icons.
Writing tools
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Markdown basics + Highlight + Preview mode + Wikilinks
Slima editor toolbar (Bold / Italic / Strike / H1-3 / lists / quote / link / table / highlight / image / undo redo), 4 highlight colours, Edit vs Preview mode, wikilinks auto-update on rename.
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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.
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Outline panel: heading-hierarchy navigation
The Outline panel extracts H1-H6 headings from the current file into a clickable tree. i18n key features.toggleOutline. Advanced features (drag-to-reorder / fold / cross-file) vary by version.
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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.
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Find and replace: scopes / regex / auto-version safety
Cmd/Ctrl Shift F opens global search; 4 scopes (file / book / folder / all books) + 4 options (case / whole word / regex / enable replace). Replace All auto-snapshots first.
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Font size / column width / typography preferences
Adjust typography in Account → Preferences → Display: font-size slider, possibly line-height / column-width / font family (depending on version). 🌗 at the bottom of the activity bar toggles dark / light.
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Autosave + dirty indicator + crash recovery
Slima has no Save button — local IndexedDB saves continuously, then cloud sync, plus auto-versioning. Cmd/Ctrl S means 'name a version checkpoint'. Browser crashes don't lose content.
Files & content
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File tree: Chapters / Notes + how to organize
The left file tree shows every file in the current book. Two default folders (Chapters, Notes); add more. How to keep it organised.
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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).
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Writing Spec.md: persistent AI Coach context
A file named writing-spec.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'."
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File tree operations
The complete file tree manual: create, rename, delete, multi-select, cut & paste, copy between books.
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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.
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Relationship Map: nodes / edges / groups
Common-in-fiction relationship maps: drop nodes for characters, draw edges, group families / factions by colour blocks. One glance, all relationships.
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Entity tracking: auto-detect + detail panel
Slima auto-scans your manuscript to detect recurring characters, places, objects, and lists them as Entities. Click one to jump to every occurrence + see an AI-summarised entry.
Writing experience
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Zen Mode complete guide
Zen Mode hides all UI, leaving a centred editor. Common adjustments: column width / sentence focus / typewriter mode / floating reference / floating AI Coach.
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Mobile immersive writing: swipe regions / immersive mode / Wake Lock
Mobile Slima: swipe between Files / Editor / AI Coach sheets, pinch font, portrait / landscape adaptive, keyboard toolbar, immersive mode + Wake Lock keep screen on.
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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. Cross-device, with latest-edit-wins when multiple devices are active.
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Guided Tour on demand (replay)
Slima's Guided Tour can be replayed any time via Account → Preferences, the command palette, or `?`. Tour content updates with each release.
AI Coach
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What the AI Coach is
The AI Coach differs from ChatGPT mainly because it has read your whole book. Concept, contrast with generic LLM tools, why this matters for long-form.
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Start and manage chats
The right Coach panel can hold multiple chats, switch between history, pin favourites. Chats are scoped to each book.
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Add context: @file, @folder, selection, paste
The Coach has read the whole book, but you can spotlight specific files. Four ways to add context.
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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.
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Web search: the AI looks things up
Default: the Coach doesn't browse. Need facts or references? Enable Web search and the AI looks things up — with source citations.
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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.
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AI floating toolbar
A floating AI toolbar drags around the editor — common AI actions are one click away without opening the chat panel.
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Advanced chat: streaming cancel, long-chat compression, book-vs-cross-book memory
Subtle behaviours: cancel streaming mid-flight, long chats auto-compress old turns, scoping memory to one book vs across books.
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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
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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.
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Pacing Insight
Chapter-internal pacing heatmap: per-passage score, see which passages drag.
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Dialogue Insight
Dialogue voice-consistency check: each character's speech style, sentence length, word choice vs their character file.
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Repetition Insight
Scans a chapter / book for repeated words, sentence patterns, rhetorical devices. Common issues: 'as if' five times per page, identical sentence structures.
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Consistency Insight: people / places / time / objects
Whole-book scan for setup conflicts: protagonist's eye color changes from blue (ch 2) to green (ch 8); a place is 30 min away in ch 3 and 1 hour in ch 9.
Version history
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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.
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Create a Manual Version and Name It
Name a version at every revision pass — one click to come back to that exact point.
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Auto-version rules
Slima doesn't use a dumb timer — it watches your writing rhythm. Pause to think, before the AI writes, after a bulk delete — those are the moments worth versioning.
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Browse version history & diff
Preview any version's content, diff against the previous one, diff against current — three paths plus filters to recover any past draft.
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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.
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Change Review: review AI edits
Between 'AI rewrites a chapter' and your draft is one layer — Change Review. Diff per passage; accept / reject / edit. Slima auto-versions before the AI touches anything.
Goals & motivation
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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.
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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.
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Streak + Slime companion
Streak counts consecutive writing days; the slime is a cosmetic companion. The tree (HabitPlant) is the real 8-stage visualization. Click the bookshelf widget to open Your Writing Tree.
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HabitPlant tree + Rest Protection
The HabitPlant 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.
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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.
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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.
Toolbars & menus
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AI Floating Toolbar + Selection Menu (toolbar overview)
Slima has two AI action surfaces outside the panel: floating toolbar (persistent icon) and selection menu (appears on text selection). This is a toolbar-perspective overview; ai-coach series has details.
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Activity Bar + StatusBar (toolbar overview)
Toolbar-perspective overview of Activity Bar + StatusBar; per-icon and per-region details link to the editor series.
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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.
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Desktop (Electron) native menus
Desktop Slima adds an OS-level native menu bar (File / Edit / View / Help). Exact items / shortcuts vary by platform + version — read displayed keys from the menu itself.
Keyboard shortcuts
Sharing & comments
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Public read-only share link
Build / scope / expiry / revoke: full sharing flow. Recipients don't need a Slima account.
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Reader View for recipients
What recipients of a share link see: pure reading view, no Slima UI, dark / light toggle, adjustable font size.
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Inline comments and threads
Pro+: with Read+comment permission, recipients can comment on any passage in Reader Mode, forming threads. Resolved / unresolved states.
Import & export
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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 / whole folder.
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Create + import in one step
Use 'Import existing' when creating a new book. The flow links to §3.3's create-a-book import path.
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Comprehensive export guide
Slima exports 5 formats: md / docx / pdf / epub / txt. Choose scope, cover, TOC. Export Toolbar shortcut.