ChapterMuse Guide

The Writing Canvas

A focused page where your words take centre stage — everything else steps back until you call for it.

Updated

Open a book and you arrive at the canvas: your chapter on a clean, page-like surface, floating above the workspace so your eye always knows where the story is. Each paragraph is its own block. Click anywhere and start typing — your work saves itself continuously.

✦Quick start
  1. 1Open a book from your Bookshelf.
  2. 2Click into the page and start writing.
  3. 3Press Enter to start a new paragraph — mid-sentence, it splits the paragraph at your cursor; Backspace at the start of one merges it into the paragraph above (or removes it if empty).
  4. 4Watch the saving indicator settle — that's your work safely stored.

Writing Paragraphs

  • Each paragraph is its own block — Enter starts a new one (or splits the current one at your cursor), placing it before any paragraph already below; Backspace at the start merges into the paragraph above
  • Arrow keys carry your cursor naturally from one paragraph to the next
  • On desktop, select text within a paragraph or drag across several paragraphs and press Backspace or Delete. The text on either side joins at the cursor. Ctrl Z restores the selection’s text and paragraph breaks in one step
  • Hover a paragraph for its block menu — insert above or below adds a blank paragraph at that spot and puts your cursor in it; you can also move, delete, or save the block as a snippet
  • Use Tab to focus the block menu and its commands, then Enter or Space to open the menu or run a command
  • Move a block by picking it up and dropping it into any gap in the chapter

Saving, Undo & Import

  • Continuous auto-save — a small indicator shows when a save is in progress, and a live word count sits in the toolbar
  • Closing the manuscript waits for every editor pane to save. If saving fails or takes too long, the window stays open and explains why — check disk space and try again before closing
  • Undo and redo work at the chapter level — Ctrl Z to undo, Ctrl Shift Z (or Ctrl Y) to redo — across typing and structure
  • Copy a whole chapter to the clipboard as formatted text for Word or Google Docs
  • Paste text in from elsewhere and ChapterMuse splits it into paragraphs for you. On desktop, text after the cursor follows the last pasted line, ready for you to keep typing at the end of the paste
  • Import a full DOCX, Markdown, plain-text, EPUB, RTF, or ODT manuscript from the book menu; its format and structure are detected and reviewed before it is added
✦

Your writing is auto-saved as you go. Once the saving indicator disappears you can safely switch chapters, close the window, or step away.