Importing

Import reads Markdown, plain text, Word (.docx), OpenDocument (.odt), RTF, HTML, EPUB, JSON, YAML, CSV, PDF text and images.

Importing happens in two steps. First QuillArk looks at the files and says what it thinks each one is and where it would put it. Then you change anything you disagree with and confirm. Nothing moves until you do.

Bringing in everything at once

Drag files onto the QuillArk window and the Import Centre opens with them already read. You can also drop them onto the Import Centre while it is open, or press Add more files.

The list builds up rather than starting over, because the material around one book is rarely in one folder — the draft in one place, notes in another, a character sheet somewhere else. Collect all of it, look down the list, then import once. Each file is read as it arrives, so by the time you have finished collecting, QuillArk has already worked out what each one is.

Dropping the same file twice does not list it twice, and the × beside a file takes it back out of the list.

Splitting a manuscript

If a document looks like a whole manuscript, QuillArk finds the chapter breaks — from Markdown headings, or from lines like “Chapter Seven” — and offers to split it. You can see the chapters it found before agreeing.

Keeping the original

Conversion is never perfect, so QuillArk can keep a copy of the file exactly as it arrived, in Research → Imported Originals. Leave that on unless you have a reason not to.